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May Farm Tour Photos / Farm Work Day Info

August 29, 2007

The Chard Challenge

I am still receiving requests about crops to grow for the fall and winter. It is great to get input from our customers about what to grow. This connection between the end user (all of you) and the grower (us) is a relationship that does not exist in the mainstream way of growing and distributing produce. If you have suggestions on things to grow please email them to me at Thaddeus@FarmFreshtoYou.com. I am putting together a plan of things to grow based on your requests but it is not yet finished. When it is done I will email it to everyone who responded as well as put it into the farm news.

Currently on the farm I am attempting to position our chard planting for success. There are two obvious threats to the plants that I am aware of based on my field selection for the plants. First, the field in which we seeded the chard has a nut grass problem. This is a weed that is pretty obnoxious and difficult to kill. Before seeding the chard we irrigated the field to grow the weed and then cultivated the field to kill the weeds. This helps but it never eliminates the problem.

The baby chard plants are just beginning to emerge from the ground and patches of the nut grass are also coming up. The challenge is to get the chard plants large enough so that they can withstand a crew of people who come through and remove the remaining nut grass by hand. I could see how you would think this could be done as soon as the chard plants are visible. However, the reality is that the chard plants need time to get their roots established into the soil. This is because when the crew comes through and pulls out the nut grass they will be disturbing the soil surface and often times the roots of the nut grass are intertwined with the chard roots. If the chard roots are to small the process of moving them around will kill the chard plants too – which is not what we are shooting for.

The second threat is the flock of wild turkeys that inhabit the area near this chard field. When the chard plants are small and tender they make delicious fresh little snacks for the turkeys. Keep in mind that the chard plant we deliver to you in the box is thousands of times larger than the size of that plant once it has just emerged from its seed. The little plants now are tiny and extremely vulnerable to pest pressure. The flock of turkeys could easily take out the entire field if they were left to do so.

A turkey’s routine is to roost in a tree at night then cruise around during the day light hours looking for bugs and tender little shoots to eat. So I currently have a person stationed in the chard field for all day light hours to run the turkeys off when they make their way into the field. They have two shifts, one guy is there a day break and stays until the early afternoon and the second comes in and stays until it gets dark. So far it has been working, Pedro reported to me that yesterday he ran them off three times. I will keep the turkey guards on duty until the chard plants are large enough to withstand the turkey pressure on their own.

Enjoy your boxes this week. Thaddeus

Watch for upcoming events !!

Farm Tour Sunday, June 30 at 11:00 AM
The Farm Tour Has Been Cancelled.

Bring a picnic, family and friends to come out and see
the farm. Call or email the office with questions, and
we cannot wait to see you in Capay!