Happy August!

Typically July is the hardest month for a farmer, since it's the month of picking overlapping with planting, the satisfaction of summer crops competing with concerns about fall crops yet to be grown. The main focus becomes simply getting the food out of the fields, with our schedules now determined by the plants rather than our own desires. In past weeks I could decide in advance what was going into the shares and knew that vegetable quantities were going to add up after we completed the picking. But now that we're picking squash every day, cucumbers four times a week, tomatoes twice a week, only after the harvest comes back can we determine how much exists and figure out how to divvy it up for the CSA. This is the first week that has felt for me like the vegetables are fully in control.

And during all this, of course, we've still got to get the fall crops like cabbage, carrots, and spinach in the ground! Being fall crops, they really aren't a fan of hot dry weather, so it's a matter of keeping a close eye on the forecast and making best guesses on when is likely to be the best opportunity to put out the plants--and being ready to go when that moment arises, since this moment is invariably on a Monday or Thursday during the big CSA prep day.

Last Thursday it was likely to rain two inches or more beginning late afternoon, and I had a decision to make. Do I seed carrots before the big rain, and risk them getting compacted into the ground by driving rain, struggling to break the surface four days later? Or does the big rain mean great germination, with more rain possible in four days to soften the ground and allow them poke up above the surface? Or do we wait out the big Thursday rain because it might be dry enough to plant over the weekend, and avoid the downsides of the drenching rain? But--what if it ISN'T dry enough, or even worse, what if a storm happens to come through on the weekend and keeps things wet--and then it rains Monday and Tuesday, and suddenly things are very delayed. The deciding factor, for me, was knowing that if the carrots didn't come up, there would still be time to re-plant and try again next week. If I waited until after the rain, it would be too late to make a second attempt if the first seeding didn't work out. And hey, if it WAS the perfect window of opportunity--well, I wouldn't want to miss it!

So in a flurry of Thursday afternoon activity, in the midst of CSA picking and prepping, we got the beds ready, seeded the carrots, and covered them with fabric rowcover to protect the soil from from driving rain and lock in moisture to keep those finicky carrot seeds happy. And... wouldn't you know, although the sky looked consistently ominous, the rain came hours later than expected, and so we just kept going, seizing the window of opportunity to get even more fall bed prep done. I ended the day picking squash by headlamp--but tradeoffs must be made. And instead of two inches of rain, we hardly got half an inch that night. The perfect amount--enough to keep it moist, but not enough to firm up the ground! Today, four days later, the seeds have grown little root "tails" and are ready to send up their shoot just as tomorrow's probable deluge will liquefy the soil surface and make it so so easy for the little carrots to emerge. At least, that's the hope. I feel very lucky so far, but we'll find out what happens!

As luck would have it, today is a repeat of Thursday; again it's a CSA prep day and again it's forecast to rain two inches. With four days of cool rainy weather on the way, is this the window to plant spinach? Encouraged by the (presumptive) success of the the pre-deluge carrot seeding, I decided to chance it and seeded all six spinach beds. So this afternoon, once it clouded over and got cool and before the rain began, we got the spinach done. And then I picked squash not in the dark, but in the rain. Because again, tradeoffs must be made. In this season of hot weather, the windows of opportunity are brief and not to be missed.

And so, with the last seeds planted, it's on to August and its relentless vegetables to pick and pack, but with the fall crops safe in the ground, gambles made, to hopefully bear fruit in a few months.