Farmer’s Field Notes: Heat, Dust, Rain… and a White Barn? (June 13, 2026)
You know that feeling when you’ve got a long list of things that need to get done, the season is officially underway, and Mother Nature decides she’s going to make you work around her schedule instead of yours?
That’s pretty much been the story of the past week on the farm.
We kicked off the week with temperatures in the upper 90s and enough humidity to make everything feel sticky. It got so hot that we sent the crew home after lunch on a few days rather than ask them to work through the worst of it.
Even so, we managed to get quite a bit planted before the weather shifted. Over the course of the week we transplanted leeks, cabbages, beets, peppers, and additional lettuce plantings. The challenge wasn’t getting the plants into the ground. It was keeping them alive afterward! The soil was incredibly dry and dusty. In fact, there seemed to be a layer of dust coating everything on the farm. At one point we actually paused transplanting for a day so we could focus on getting irrigation lines installed. (See picture below). Those young plants desperately needed water, and the irrigation gave them a fighting chance through the heat.
Then the rain finally came. We received about two inches, and thankfully our soil soaked it up beautifully. It was exactly what the crops needed.
The downside is that we’re a little behind where we’d hoped to be on our planting schedule. You may notice that the first couple weeks of CSA boxes have slightly fewer varieties than normal. We think we’ll catch up just fine, but the weather has definitely slowed us down a bit.
Speaking of changes…
Over the last week we’ve been preparing the farm facilities for CSA season. We emptied the pack shed, power washed everything, installed new shelving, and started reorganizing our packaging supplies. The walk-in coolers are getting cleaned out and reset as well. During the winter they tend to become storage units for all sorts of farm odds and ends, so this time of year we have to reclaim them for vegetables.
The crew has also been sanding, repairing, and repainting our harvest carts so everything is ready for another season.
Somewhere during all of this activity, the pack shed got repainted. (See left building below)
Corinna walked outside one day and discovered that our red pack shed was no longer red. It was white!
She maintains that a spouse should probably be informed before a barn changes color.
I maintain that it looks pretty good. And honestly, it solves a long-standing problem. We used to have two red barns. Now we have a red barn and a white barn, which makes directions much easier for everyone.
One of the highlights of the week was hosting seven farmers from Ukraine. They spent a couple of hours touring the farm as part of a larger visit to farms around Ohio. Many of their farms are actually much larger than ours, so it was interesting to see what caught their attention. They were fascinated by our sweet corn conveyor system, our plastic layer, our flat filler machine, and the reflective silver mulch we use to help disorient insect pests.
But more than anything, it was simply enjoyable to spend time with fellow farmers from another part of the world. With everything happening overseas, it was a reminder that farmers everywhere tend to speak the same language. We all watch the weather, worry about pests, celebrate a good harvest, and hope our hard work produces something. It was encouraging to connect with them and be reminded that we have more in common than we sometimes realize.
Our sweet potato slips arrived this week. For those who aren’t familiar, a sweet potato slip is a cutting from a sweet potato vine. Unlike regular potatoes, sweet potatoes aren’t planted from seed potatoes. They’re grown from these rooted cuttings. We’ve also been spending a lot of time harvesting gooseberries and red currants. They’re delicious, but they certainly aren’t quick crops to harvest.
Meanwhile, garlic scape season has officially arrived. The crew harvested nearly 8,000 garlic scapes in a single day. If you’ve never had garlic scapes before, they’re the curly flower stalk that grows from the garlic plant. Left alone, the stalk would eventually straighten and form a flower. We remove them while they’re still curled because it helps direct the plant’s energy back into growing larger garlic bulbs underground. The bonus is that garlic scapes are edible. You’ll be seeing them in your CSA boxes during the first few weeks of the season, and we’ll have some available in the online store as well.
One issue that has been keeping me awake lately is the Fruit Share.
As many of you have already heard, a late spring frost caused severe damage to peach and cherry crops across Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania. Those crops make up a large portion of the fruit options we typically rely on early in the season. When we started making calls to line up fruit deliveries, we quickly realized that sourcing local and regional fruit this year is going to be much more challenging than usual.
We’re actively reaching out to new growers, expanding our network, and exploring different options. At this point, we honestly don’t know exactly how everything will come together. Because of that uncertainty, we’ve made the decision to postpone the start of the Fruit Share until Week 3. That gives us a little breathing room to continue searching for solutions.
We’re hopeful we’ll be able to make it work. If circumstances change, we’ll communicate openly and promptly with Fruit Share members. For now, we’re asking for a little patience—and maybe a few prayers—as we navigate this challenge.
On the family front, it was a big week. Josiah turned 15 years old.
He’s become very interested in woodworking recently, so for his birthday we tracked down a table saw on Facebook Marketplace. Needless to say, he was pretty excited. It’s fun watching your kids discover something they love. He’s already made an end table for the living room in his Woodworking class at school. Corinna has now put in an order for a desk and a coffee table. LOL.
We also recently celebrated Jed’s high school graduation with a large party at the farm. Family and friends gathered for a pig roast and helped us celebrate this major milestone.
The next chapter begins on July 7 when Jed leaves for Air Force Basic Training in San Antonio. For those who don’t know, San Antonio happens to be where Corinna used to live, so we’ll be revisiting some old stomping grounds. We’ve been told by many military families that boot camp graduation is something parents absolutely should not miss, so we’re planning to take our family vacation during the week of August 23 – 29 to attend.
That means there will be a scheduled CSA break that week. Our crew will continue caring for the farm while we’re away, and we’ll return refreshed and ready for the second half of the season.
And finally, I want to invite all of our CSA members and online store customers to our Farm Open House on June 28 from 5:00–8:00 PM. We’ll provide hot dogs, chips, and watermelon. Feel free to bring a dish to share if you’d like. We’ll offer wagon tours throughout the evening, and you’re welcome to simply stroll the farm, enjoy the open space, and spend time with family and friends. One of my favorite things is seeing members experience the farm beyond the vegetables. It’s one thing to pick up a box each week. It’s another thing entirely to stand in the fields, watch the crops grow, and see where your food comes from. If you’d like to join us, please RSVP in the link in this week’s email, so we know how much food to prepare.
As we head into Week 1 of the CSA season, I’m feeling a mixture of excitement, gratitude, and a healthy amount of stress. There are still crops to plant, systems to finish, fruit sources to find, and a thousand little details to manage.
But after twenty seasons of farming, I’ve learned that things have a way of coming together.
Not always according to my schedule.
But according to God’s. (And that’s usually better.)
Until next week,
— Farmer Kurt