A Season of Extremes
First off THANK YOU for supporting the farm this past season. It has been a true honour to grow for your family and share the fruits of our labour with you.
We sat down with Farmer Jim, who has been next to impossible to book a few minutes of his time with these past months, to get his take on how the season progressed. The first thing that came to his mind was the extreme weather patterns. The season started out hot and dry then wet and cool.
When crops experience too much moisture they become home to increased disease pressure resulting in funguses that had to be monitored on all the crops.
These extreme conditions had both benefits and drawbacks which we have outlined below.
Spring
The early heat brought on the strawberry plants fast and furious. The picking was great but the berry patch did not last long due to the heat.
This early heat also gave everything a jolt. Anything that was planted early in the season did well, including the lettuce; which we know you enjoyed quite a bit of.
Summer
Following the extreme heat early in the growing season, we were all desperate for some relief when the rains started. They were much needed for the crops already planted but resulted in a challenge for us to get into the fields to plant more crops.
The heat and the rain resulted in a decent tomato crop that started a few weeks earlier than it typically does.
We had a great year with our Raspberries and Farmer Jim is anticipating a great crop again 2019 as they are a Bi-annual fruit bearing plant.
The sweet corn loved 2018 and we all enjoyed a delicious corn. Regrettably the later crop planted to be ready for Thanksgiving did not do as well and we were unable to supply corn in the Thanksgiving shares.
Late Season/Fall
Up until the frost of October 18th the fields continued to provide for us with beans, swiss chard and tomatoes and an abundance of large sweet green peppers, lettuces and spinach. The sensitive plants died off with the frost with the exception of the spinach.