Hi Folks,

Week VIII.

HOT,  DRY and WINDY!  Dust flying in the wind!  Our soil!!!!  So far in July we have only had a ½” of rain.  Yikes!  We are dry!  Getting to be the time when the rain dances need to happen.  Some plants are very unhappy even though they are being watered and fertilized to help with stress.  The winter squash is being really beaten up.  Their huge leaves tossed back and forth bending and twisting; they are breaking and the plants look upset.  Carrot seeds are sitting in the ground waiting for water to germinate.  

The Onion harvest was ten person harvest crew bent over at the hips for 7 hours.  That's 70 man hours.  It was 92º, luckily we had a cool breeze.  Breaks to chug water and to stretch your hips were necessary.  The crew was soaked in sweat.  We had a good harvest.  The onions are smaller than last year because it’s been so dry.  But, the dry weather is definitely an advantage to a good harvest.  We were able to pull the onions and have them sit and dry in the sun for a day right on the ground where they were growing and then the next day we went through and trimmed their greens.  We leave about 5” of leaves on the top, then they get placed into 1 ton totes.  These totes have been taken to be stacked in our old greenhouse.  Here the onions will cure.  Their outer paper will dry and seal off moisture from the inner layer escaping! Here is where and when they create their own glossy and crackly shell.  When they are harvested they are just layers of solid juice.  This curing process takes about 2-3 weeks. 

Your Farmers, 

Chris, Aeros & The Who Crew