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May Farm Tour Photos / Farm Work Day Info

May 2 , 2007

What a Busy Week-Thaddeus

What a Busy Week

The beginning of summer has officially engulfed the farm. Pedro and Jose are busy playing musical chairs with aluminum sprinkler pipe; they water a crop with it for half a day then move it to water another crop with it. As soon as everything has been watered it is time to start over.

The stone fruit orchard looks very good. The Pluots seem to have all of the size that they are going to get, now we wait for the sugar content to increase and for the color to develop. I am trying to sneak in one more set of water before we harvest them but the timing is getting too close. If these trees get a flush of water once their fruit’s skin has passed its elastic phase then the addition of water may crack the fruit. This is a problem in many varieties of stone fruit as well as tomatoes.

Ricardo and I figured out the vacuum seeder we purchased last fall from a retiring tomato farmer. The machine was not easy to figure out, in fact, after we had all the parts in place, the correct seed plate selected for the melons we were seeding, the land prepared and the seeds on site it still took us half of the day to get the thing to work correctly. This was half a day in the sun, in the middle of the field, making an adjustment and then trying it to find that that wasn’t the right thing to do.

There were times I was pretty frustrated and the thought crossed my mind to call it quits and not grow any melons this year because the seeder wasn’t working. I didn’t have to think long about the response I would get from my brothers when melon season finally rolled around and they had no melons to sell. The funny thing is that they wouldn’t know until then, but they would figure it out – I can already hear the conversation: “Thad, when are our melons going to be ready? All the other farms already have their melons.” How would I have replied? “Yeah, about that. Ricardo and I spent a day trying to figure the seeder out and we couldn’t – it was pretty frustrating…” In farming there are some things that just have to happen and getting the seed in the ground on time is one of them.

The summer squash we seeded last week is up. Their big leaves are distinguished amongst the slew of broad-leaved weeds that are also up. That field is a little weedy, but the nice thing about summer squash is once it gets going it will cover the entire ground shading out any potential competitors for its sun and water. Our job is to keep the weeds back until the squash gets established enough to take over.

Enjoy your boxes this week and think about the sweet smells and tastes of summer produce that is just around the corner. -Thaddeus

Watch for upcoming events !!

FARM TOUR SATURDAY April 21st

We want to invite you, your friends and your family to
join us in our spring farm tour. Bring a picnic and
enjoy the garden. The farm tour will start around
10:30AM. The farm is located at 23800 State Hwy 16,
about 90 minutes from the Bay Bridge and 45 minutes
from downtown Sacramento. Visit contact us on the web
for directions and RSVP to
contactus@farmfreshtoyou.com or call 800.796.6009.

Thanks, and we look forward to meeting you!