Things are going pretty good here at Lida Farm. We’ve had some nice rains lately and some great growing weather. 80 during the day, 60 at night. Sure, it’s a bit of a slog to go hand weed another row of peppers, but we’re making headway. The only frustrating thing lately has been this darn dog.

When a person gets a puppy, they think that they will quickly mold this new member of the family into being dutiful and productive. One doesn’t think that they are welcoming someone who is a deranged mix between a terrorist and a comedian into their household. I don’t know what’s in this dog’s mind, but he’s certainly too smart for his own good and he certainly likes to mess with me.

I’m out bunching beets yesterday. We need 54 bunches for the boxes this week, so I’m counting them as I pick them up. Hmm, three bunches short. Could it have been Miso who I’ve already seen pickup a bunch of beets and run off down the bed at breakneck speed? Suspect number one again. And for good reason. Walking back to the packing shed, Mar stumbles upon the evidence. Three beet bunches together in a pile and chewed on. Maybe those aren’t HIS teeth marks, but I don’t need forensics to solve this crime.

You get the picture. Cute? Yes. Fun at times? Sure. Driving me crazy? No doubt. I’m now estimating that this dog has made the farm about 5% less efficient. This balances out, however, as the farm is also at least 5% more interesting 🙂

• Green ‘Farao’ Cabbage
• Beet Bunch: See hummus recipe below
• Swiss Chard
• Cucumbers
• Little Parsley
• Little Basil
• Green Onions
• Lettuces

Beet Hummus – don’t knock it until you’ve tried it: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_hummus/

Well, wonders never cease. We actually had a nice constant rain this weekend. Not a deluge. Not a rain with a 70 mph wind. A constant rain that just fell from the sky – a true soaker. I’m very thankful and I’m sure you are as well. Throw in 80 degrees during the day and 60 at night and we’ve got some serious growing weather on our hands. I expect plants (including the weeds) to really go into light-speed growth stage.

Our history of rain so far this season hasn’t been the best, in keeping with the bad pattern of no precipitation followed by downpour for the last 5 years or so. Last year the rain gods were simply on strike with no rain at all. One big issue with rain and vegetable farming is the timing. A big downpour when corn is waist high is not nearly as big of a deal as those May and June rains we got when most plants were the size of my fingernail. The crops can’t deal with that much water at that stage – it’s like blasting a toddler with a firehose. If a crop is big when the rain comes, lots of water can be taken up into the roots and into the plants.

So, here we are in the first half of July and these beautiful rains couldn’t have come at better times. The beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes are flowering and corn and squash are getting into their big growth stage. These major crops are getting ready to produce and a well-timed rain together with pretty good control of weeds to date should make for some serious production. Stay tuned!

• Salad mix
• Romaine Lettuce
• Dino or Curley Kale
• Green Onions
• Kohlrabi
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers: A variety called Diva, which is an English type grown in the high tunnel. The recipe below uses the same variety for a simple cuke salad.
• Parsley

Very typical of this time of year, I was looking around at tasks piling up. Fall carrots – man, I’ve got to plant you. Tomato trellising – boy, you’re half-way done, but you need to be full done. Onions needing weeding, composting needing spreading…should I go on?

I’m at least smart enough to know when I see a trainwreck coming. I need some help! Call it the collective unconscious, manifesting energy, or the work of God, the universe does respond. In the past week, I have had a person looking for work just show up, and had many unexpected moments of people chipping in.

Olesya, her husband, and two young boys and her family fled Ukraine in March, certainly never thinking she’d be pulling weeds at Lida Farm. As a refugee in a kind of legal limbo with rent payments and bills looming, Olesya is grateful for the work and I’m grateful for the help. She’s lasted a solid two days so far and gotten a sunburn. Myself, I’m just grateful for google translate since my Ukrainian is non-existent.

Throw in Archer deciding to go to college in Canada, pushing the start of school off along with his departure from MN, along with a Ryan and his daughter Rinley pitching in for an hour on Saturday, and yes it’s one of those moments when I feel that we get what we seek.

In the box:

• Zucchini
• Green Curly Kale
• Garlic Scapes
• Radishes
• Salad Mix : The greens in the bag – these are all
• Greenleaf Lettuce
• Kohlrabi: Yes, people almost always peel and eat fresh, but I added the video below because he gives instruction on how to cook (with the greens)…I chose it in part because he got all Midwestern and threw shredded cheese on top. I haven’t tried this, but I might.
• Cucumber
• Fresh Basil

Have I reached the mid-life plateau? Evidence abounds. I find that I give myself pep talks to take on even the smallest of tasks. I am deeply drawn to afternoon naps. And no big job is conceivably possible without two cups of strong coffee.

When I reflect on this, I am at times bothered that I don’t have the juice I once did. My 30-year-old self slashed through projects and took on new ones without any thought or worry. I was abusing coffee at that time too, but the energy and determination I had was remarkable. In hindsight, I must also acknowledge that my younger self was a madman. At times a bit too determined, pushing through projects at midnight and ignoring some of the goodness of life with a myopic focus on the work.

Lately I’ve been trying to appreciate the energy others can and have brought to the farm. My daughter I once held in the crook of my left arm now pushes through a full day of work in 90-degree heat. Archer the apprentice speedily packs produce or muscles through pounding stakes for trellis. In times like these, I ease back in the realization that this big rock that needs pushing is not 100% on me. Instead, I have a role to encourage and coach those around me and that seems right for my age. However, I’m not ready to fully recline back and direct the farm from a lawn chair. With the proper dosage of caffeine, I still find it exhilarating to go in the fields and totally crush it! I think that I’ve finally grown wise enough to know when to stop.

In the box:

• Basil
• Greenleaf lettuce: Standard lettuce…not much to say here.
• Bag of Spinach: Use fresh in a salad or cook in a recipe. Me, I make a green smoothie with spinach.
• Radishes
• Garlic Scapes: These are the sprouts that come off the tops of maturing hardneck garlic. Yes, kind of funny looking, but they have a nice mild garlic flavor and you can use wherever you use a green onion as a switch-up. I often sautee a couple before I put into eggs in the morning. You can use in replacement of garlic in the recipe below.
• Swiss Chard: Pardon the look of some of these leaves – we got some tearing in that 70 mph wind last week. See recipe below.

Cucumbers mostly dead. Carrot seed buried. Potatoes finally popping in June? Come on!

If you have had a pulse this spring, I think you’d agree that it has not been the best growing season so far. Snow. Downpours. Cold. More downpours. Return of snow? Anything is possible.

The rain last week could be better described as a open-air waterfall than a rain. Once I finally was brave enough to step into the field and see the effects, I felt like an etch-a-sketch detective, trying to piece together where which seeds floated to where. Oh, hello little cilantro, why are you 30 feet away from your friends? Aren’t your supposed to be in that row over there?

Farming is certainly a mind game and all I can ever do is remind myself of the sun shining the last two days and be thankful for those plants and seeds holding on with me. I’m proud of those radishes in the back field – good work guys! Still, I have been calling this season a failure to launch so far even though things are now getting going. May 21 was certainly my latest potato planting to date and June 3th is certainly the latest I’ve ever had potatoes emerge, which gives some indication just how cold the soils have been.

So please hang with me CSA members…I guessing that I will have to push back our start date. But there’s a lot of June left and maybe me and these plants were get it together in the meantime, who knows what’s in store!