Farm Report: June 2005
by Erica Renaud

Compared to the Farm's last status report, we have shifted from the perils of snow during a time of expected spring sun and warmth to a June that feels like July. With 98°F days, the farm staff is moving along laboriously and the lettuce has jumped ahead of its expected cycle and developed a hint of bitter. This is rather disappointing to all of us because, as the farm staff contends, "this is the year of the lettuce." With over 130 varieties being evaluated for quality, flavor, uniformity and uniqueness, we are hurriedly taking data and tasting the diverse greens (and reds, and purples, and bronzes) as not to miss this opportunity. With over 90% of lettuce varieties lost between 1903 and 1983, we are trying to identify the best of what's left to preserve and bring to your garden and table. Favorites so far come with names like Merlot, Redina, and Outredgious; with their deep reds and purples in several unique leaf shapes and forms, they offer exciting color opportunities for salad mixes.

While we are scrambling to evaluate the lettuce trials in this heat, we are also praising our new irrigation system. The ability to preset duration and intervals has allowed us to automatically irrigate in the evening and early morning, making both our lives and the lives of the plants more enjoyable. Survival rates of our transplants have increased and better overall germination is apparent. Gone are the days of repriming the pump, manually filtering the water, staying late, and arriving before dawn.

While the first flush of the season's plantings are now almost all in the ground, and preparation for second plantings of some of our culinary herb favorites such as cilantro, dill, and basil are taking place, we have selected to hold back on some crops. Most significantly is our broad selection of beans. Through her manifestation of the Mexican bean beetle's lifecycle, Mother Nature has indicated to us that she is in charge of every pole, bush, fava, edamame, mung, and tepary bean that we seem to think would be great additions to our catalog. She has, however, allowed us a window of reprieve in which the bean beetle's lifecycle turns down. Thus, while most of you have planted your beans some time ago and are awaiting their sixty-five day harvest, we are only now preparing. With some added prevention of early plantings of cilantro, dill, and nasturtiums, which provide habitat for beneficial wasps that happen to also like the bean beetles, we are hoping to have a late, but successful bean harvest this year. Check our 2006 catalog for exciting new introductions of productive and tasty green, yellow and purple round-podded bush beans, and French Filets!

The great thing about planting over 1,000 varieties on a farm, is that while you are still in the throes of the excitement of an extended planting season, you are already enjoying the bounty from the early spring, cool crop plantings. Today marked our second week of mouth-watering pea evaluations. With over thirty snow, snap, and shelling peas to choose from, we are hoping to have several new introductions for you to crunch on in the near future. Emily Gatch, our resident pea aficionado, contends that her favorites, the indeterminate snap peas, produce a higher yield, taste great, and are easier to harvest while standing!

As you might have noticed, news is focused on what is being planted and evaluated. Well, what else do you do at this time of year? Oh yeah—weeding—but I didn't think you would want to hear about that!

Happy planting from the seeders and planters
(and weeders) at the Seeds of Change Research Farm

Erica Renaud
Research & Farm Manager

Photo captions: (1) Row Cover and Pollination Isolation tents are just two methods of controlling insect populations at the Research Farm (2) One of thirty peas that were trialed this year (3) Resident pea expert Emily Gatch discussing the finer points of the recent pea trials