The history of our farm so far has been one of expansion. Each season, we’ve brought new pieces of land into cultivation and tested the muscles of our two-person crew. But the field pictured above represents the end of the line for us. Once we begin farming this field next season, we will have brought into cultivation all the land easily cultivated and can really focus on developing a good rotation and refining our systems.
This final field also provides us with enough land to farm 3 acres every season and keep one field fallow. The impetus in market farming is to push your cultivated space to the max, to get as much out of every bed foot as possible, but our soil wants us to resist that urge. So, each season one of our 5 fields gets to take the summer off and hang out with a lovely, nitrogen-rich cover crop. I gotta say, as a farmer, I’m a little jealous.
Late Blight Spotted on Tomatoes: It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of late blight on our tomato crop. It’s the nastiest of all tomato diseases, so nasty that some sources liken it to the bubonic plague of delicious summer things. It’s wiped out most of our second planting and is creeping into our first. Our third planting hasn’t shown any signs yet, but the cool temperatures in the forecast may hasten its spread.
Three things you should know: 1.) our tomato haul will be limited this year, but we will continue to have some quantities of Mountain Magic tomatoes (the little red guys) and any sungolds/heirlooms produced by our third planting, 2.) we’re spraying a copper fungicide to protect the remaining healthy plants–the spray is approved for organic use, but we try to use it sparingly, and 3.) we’re really sorry. If you have any questions about our management of the disease, please don’t hesitate to shoot us an email or chat with us at market.