Farm Report: August 2007
by Kelle Carter

Happy Harvest season! I hope this eNewsletter finds your gardens bountiful and your bellies full. Our farm staff is very busy these days, harvesting the fruits of summer's labor. The produce is beautiful and seed crops are maturing. This time of year always reminds me of why I put forth so much effort in the beginning of the season. It has been an interesting season for our farm. We had quite a setback in early June, when an intense hailstorm destroyed a good part of our crops. Over six inches of hail fell in less than one hour, leaving mass destruction in its wake. Roads washed out, fields flooded and cabbage was turned into slaw in a matter of minutes. Luckily, our tomatoes were safely under row cover, but other crops like peppers and potatoes were not protected. The damage was harsh, but it has been incredible to see how the crops have recovered.

One crop that did not recover was our winter squash. We recently had to sacrifice the crop due to the generations of squash bugs that were inhibiting its growth. Squash bugs are one of the most serious pests on our farm, and typically we cover the plants with row cover until the beginning of August, when the bugs' life cycle is coming to an end. This year we had to uncover the plants mid-June, due to the hailstorm. It only took four days for the pests to find our squash plants, and within a few weeks the crops started to show signs of their demise. This was just another reminder that we cannot fully manage nature, just try to work in sync with it.

This season we have made an exciting new partnership with a couple that have a business called Zia Queen Bee. They live close by and needed a place to store their bees. We were more than happy to have the visiting pollinators, as well as a local source of honey. Zia Queen Bee was started by Melanie Kirby and Mark Spitzig with the mission to breed hardy queen bees for northern New Mexico. They have been great teachers for us, showing us how to harvest honey and explaining all the details involved in beekeeping.

We are always working to improve the sustainability of our farming operation. One way that we have been very successful this season has been in the implementation of a no-till farming practice for our fallow, cover-cropped fields. This involves cutting the green material and leaving the clippings in the field as a mulch. The mulch holds the moisture in the soil and helps keep the weeds down. Instead of tilling the material into the soil, we have found that we can establish another rotation of cover crops on top of the old one, by seeding into the mulched soil. We use a grain drill to plant the seeds without disturbing the fragile layers of soil.

The farm is really beautiful these days—flowers are blooming in every color of the spectrum and all the fruits and veggies are keeping everyone happy. We are currently working hard to prepare our farm facility for our second farm tour. Our first tour was held on Sunday, August 26 and we welcomed around 75 visitors. Our second tour will be held on Sunday, September 16 and is open to public. We welcome one and all. It will be a fun time to learn and connect with other farmers over a pot-luck lunch. To sign up for a tour, please go to our Contact Us page and select "Farm Tour Inquiry" as your inquiry type. Be sure to put "Farm Tour 2007" in the Subject of your message, and then please tell us how many people are in your group, as space is limited. We'll sign you up and send you an e-mail with directions.

Have a great harvest season!
Kelle Carter
Field Manager

Photo Captions: (1) Cabbage damaged by the hail storm (2) Bees from Zia Queen Bee (3) No-till farming practice