Happy Friday! Not so happy rain, though. I think I’m pretty much over it. However I try not to complain too much because I feel like us farmers are constantly saying it’s too wet, or it’s too dry, or too hot! Most of the time these statements are completely accurate, but I’ll try not to go on about it too much here.
The rain turns our soil into my favorite shade of brown. Ideal for photographing, especially when you have a beautiful patch of cucurbits coming up. The second planting of pickling cucumbers (we just call them pickles) is pictured here, but they also are sharing the field with more zucchini plants. The rain may have created wonderful contrast for a great picture and eye candy, but it can also have many negative effects. Too much rain can obviously be a serious problem, but that’s not what I will discuss today. *Here comes my weekly weed spiel* Weeds are astounding. Again and again they surprise me, and it has yet to be a good surprise. When the rain saturates the ground, especially as of late, cultivation does not work nearly as well. Whether you are using a Farmall cultivator tractor, or a big drag, the weeds are dug up with a tooth and relocated in the soil. Their roots are ripped and damaged, but most of the time are still present. So when the ground is nice and moist, the weeds are slightly displaced, but are planted back in wet, loose soil and sometimes continue to grow like crazy! This is why you shouldn’t plan on doing any cultivating or dragging in wet soil after a rain, it would be a complete waste of time!
The sun was hitting this pile of packed zucchini and I couldn’t help myself, I had to take a picture.
Zucchini is one of our biggest early crops. Pictured are boxes that have been packed to be sent off to Wegmans. For those of you that didn’t know, we sell a considerable amount of fresh produce to Wegmans. If you keep your eye out in the produce section for our sign, you can probably see my dad holding a crate of sugar snap peas (which is our second biggest early crop). Throughout the year we make it to almost every single Wegmans in the Rochester area. They do a good job supporting the local agriculture. Delivering to them is definitely one of my favorite jobs. I love seeing our beautiful produce getting settled into it’s new home.
I think I will conclude this week with some pictures of this delicious, violet colored blossom called Borage. The first wave of clusters has started blooming. I think these might be my favorite edible flowers so far. When you bite into them, it is the softest crunch you have ever bitten. The taste is very subtle at first, but quickly develops into a cucumber flavored, big, juicy mouthful that you were not expecting. I think these would be great on certain desserts, maybe with cream cheese, and also as a garnish on cocktails. Or even just floating in a simple glass of ice water.
Thanks for reading everyone, it’s time for me to get farming. Have a great week and see you next Friday!