This week’s newsletter comes to you from 5th season Fort Hill Farm veteran, Lauren Henderson. Lauren is doing a great job as the field manager, running the day-to-day tasks and making sure we actually get everything done. Her enthusiasm for organic vegetables shows in her writing: August is one of my favorite times on the farm,…
Last week we got another one of those “hail Mary” rains that gives you a break from irrigating but moves through quickly enough not to bring on lots of foliar diseases in the crops. This gave us some time to put down the pipe and catch up on some weeding. With so many planting and harvesting tasks…
So far the growing season can be summed up as 3 months of flood followed by 2 months of drought. Even with the big swings in weather, crops continue to look good. We are at “peak tomato,” as the crew brought in a huge harvest of heirloom tomatoes and sungold cherry tomatoes today. We will be able…
Lots of heat with the occasional rain is a good recipe for lots of sweet corn, juicy tomatoes, crispy cukes, versatile eggplant, and some big sweet Ailsa Craig onions. Throw in some timely irrigation, and the lettuce, salad mix, and chard will join the party as well. Time for some pickin’ and grinning on the farm! The…
Last week the main driver on the farm was HEAT. Since working in the field in the afternoon felt like wearing 20 pound weights on your legs, we got going an hour earlier to make full use of the cooler morning air, and carried on. We start harvest with lettuce, chard, kale, and herbs, since they are…
Sometimes the Farm News breaks down into a “there’s so much rain we can’t get in the fields and all our crops are rotting” or “it hasn’t rained, and we are irrigating like crazy” dichotomy. Not to be a broken record, but we are definitely in the latter camp. The very wet April, May, and June are…
Summer paid us a visit last week, bringing some warm temperatures and ground dry enough to cultivate and hoe. Fairly quickly, we were back in irrigation mode. Our sandy soil has a short memory, and once we go 4 days without a soaking rain, we need to add the water ourselves. The farm is almost at cruising…
What a difference two weeks of hot temperatures can make. We’ve seen some big leaps in crop growth, with the summer squash and cucumbers leading the way. They have been trickling in over the last few weeks but really started pumping out fruit last week. We’ve put them on sale this week, and made some…
This is one of those weeks when I sit down to write the farm news and I have trouble remembering what happened during the blur of activity that was last week. I remember an unbroken string of rainy days, and I know we picked strawberries in that rain (and lots of people came to the farm…
One thing that’s crazy about this time of year is that even though we are at peak daylight hours (the summer solstice is Thursday!), there never seems to be enough time to get the work done. Planting season is still in full swing with winter squash, Brussels sprouts, more cukes and summer squash, fall cabbage and…
Farm News After a very soggy and cold start to the spring, last week’s bright sunshine and warm temperatures gave the plants a good shot of growth and even had us bringing out the irrigation pipes for the first time this year. Of course, the warmth and sunshine has also had the same effect on the…
Farm News Welcome back to Fort Hill Farm for our 17th season! I remember back when I started, I would ask older market farmers if growing fresh market veggies ever got easier, and most of the would respond with a resounding “no.” There is just so much that has to happen in the spring to get the…
Farm News It’s fitting that one of the craziest weather years we can remember was topped off by a 6-inch snowfall in the second week of November. The snow caught us off guard and has caused us to put off tasks like mulching the garlic and strawberries until the white blanket melts off. With frigid…
Farm News We’ve had several nights in the mid 20’s which has effectively ended the outdoor growing season. That’s not to say we still don’t have a whole lot of food out in the field. The crew has been busy covering some very nice lettuce, bok choy, spinach, and baby kale to get the crops through…
Farm News Given the string of showery weather we’ve had lately, I think we have a good idea what it’s like to live in Seattle. Luckily the clouds have been punctuated by a few of those brilliant, clear days that represent what we idealize as fall in New England. Whether it’s rain or shine, we’ve…