May Farm Tour Photos / Farm Work Day Info

The mornings have been cool enough for a light coat, but it already smells like summer. There is something about the smell of summer mornings on the farm that foreshadows the day's coming heat. I suppose it could be that each afternoon the baking sun brings smells from all the elements of the farm into the air where they mix and react with each other in a way that yields a unique morning scent.

I enjoy the cool mornings and secretly hope that this weather stays cool all day but I know that this wish coming true would put a huge dent in the production of our heat-loving summer crops. The tomatoes are the first of these crops that will have a chance to exponentially increase their size with the warm days. In the morning I walk through the tomato field looking for many things. The first of which is new growth, which appears neon green in contrast to the leaves that have fully developed to their dark green tomato color. All of the tomatoes have this new growth which indicates they have gotten over their "transplant shock" and are set to turn each day’s heat units into developing themselves as tomato plants.

The tomatoes are about six inches tall now. Their roots probably go into the soil a little deeper than that by now. The soil is clear of weeds from the last cultivation and hoeing job. The top layer of the soil is dry but it is easy to dig a hole into the loose soil with my hands – revealing the caché of water the soil is storing for the growing tomato plants. Everything appears good now but with the hot days the precious water will get used quickly. Ricardo and his crew are racing to get the drip irrigations system installed so that the hand move sprinklers can be relocated for use on other parts of the farm.

The 80-degree afternoons make me tired – I have never been much of a fan for the heat. I am humbled to realize that this is only a small taste of what the summer will bring. Every summer the farm yields at least one wave of 110-plus days and the thought of this happening makes me want to move to San Francisco. I am even more humbled to see the crew moving along with their jobs as if nothing has changed. Many of them have started wearing their hooded sweatshirts to work; which doesn’t make any sense to someone who has never worked full days in the fields behind the summer heat. The elements of the sun and heat are much more harsh on bare skin than garments and the crew prefers to let the long sleeves and hood of a sweatshirt be the first line of defense against the elements. Drinking water and sweating is what keeps you cool.

We harvested the first box of strawberries last week. The plants are packed with green berries and it will not be long until spring arrives in your box. Thaddeus