Farmer Kurt’s Field Notes Jyly 25, 2026 Midseason Is Here… and the Farm Is Humming
Woah. Somehow we’ve already reached the one-third mark of our CSA season. That’s hard for me to believe.
The farm is shifting into a different gear, as we start to pivot and move into “mid-summer” crops and say good-bye to some of our spring brassicas and greens.
The walk-in coolers are filling faster than we can empty them. Summer squash and cucumbers seem to multiply by the hour. Onion harvest is underway. Garlic is finally dry enough to clean and sort. Sweet corn has officially begun. And while we’re busy harvesting today’s crops, we’re already planting cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, cucumbers, and summer squash for harvests that won’t happen until weeks or even months from now.
We Passed Our Organic Inspection!
One of the biggest milestones of the year happened quietly last Saturday: our annual organic certification inspection. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to maintain an organic certification, it’s much more than simply avoiding synthetic pesticides. Every year we spend several hours walking fields, reviewing records, discussing fertility plans, seed sources, crop rotations, weed management, harvest procedures, storage practices, and food safety systems.
This year’s inspection happened during one of the smokiest days we’ve had all summer. Three hours later, we passed.
It’s always a tremendous relief and something our entire crew takes pride in. Maintaining that certification requires attention to thousands of little details throughout the season, and it’s rewarding to know all that work continues to meet the standard.
Jose shows off a crate of processed garlic. Each clove is cleaned up by hand.
More Rain.
Earlier this week we received about two inches of rain.
It came quickly, fast enough to leave standing water in a few places, but after weeks of smoky skies it felt like the whole farm could finally breathe again. The rain washed much of the haze from the air, settled the dust, and gave every field a deep drink. Sometimes the timing couldn’t be better if we planned it ourselves.
We used that “rainy day” to process some garlic.
Sweet Corn Season Has Officially Begun
Monday marked our very first sweet corn harvest of the year.
Around here, that’s a big event.
Many of you may not realize that our sweet corn actually comes from Bench Farms, my parents’ farm right next door. Sweet corn has been one of their signature crops for years, and “Big Dave Sweet Corn” has become something local families look forward to every summer.
We harvest sweet corn every morning at first light, while the ears are still cool from the night. Timing matters because the natural sugars in sweet corn begin converting to starch as soon as the day warms up. The sooner we harvest it, the sweeter it tastes.
The Veg-Veyer catches the corn as its tossed onto the conveyer.
Our harvest crew works entirely by hand. Three crew members walk down the rows picking ears while another drives a tractor pulling a wagon with four large produce bins. Between them is one of our favorite harvest tools: a Veg-veyor. It’s essentially a long conveyor belt that moves alongside the pickers. As each ear is picked, it’s tossed onto the moving belt, which carries it up an elevator and drops it neatly into the waiting bins on the wagon. It’s a surprisingly efficient system, and in about an hour we’ve harvested enough sweet corn for the entire farm.
A quick reminder for our newer CSA members:
Because the corn is grown conventionally (non-GMO but not certified organic), we keep it completely separate from the vegetables we grow organically. That’s why you’ll always receive your corn in its own bag at pickup rather than packed inside your CSA box.
It’s one of the ways we protect the integrity of our organic certification while still being able to share a little piece of the Bench family tradition with you each summer.
The crew is planting the next batch of lettuces for succession.
When the Cooler Gets Too Full…
One challenge of having an abundant season is simply finding room for everything. Walk into our cooler right now and you’ll see mountains of cucumbers and summer squash. Space is so tight right now. This week I made the difficult decision to compost the remainder of last winter’s Black Spanish radishes. They had served us well for months, but with sweet corn arriving and new harvests coming in daily, we needed every bit of cooler space we could reclaim.
Pedro transplants cauliflower
Planting for Fall
This week the crew transplanted cauliflower and other fall cole crops, seeded another succession of lettuce, and direct-seeded our next planting of cucumbers and summer squash. One thing that’s surprised us this season is how long our first cucumber and squash plantings have continued producing. Usually by now they’re beginning to fade, but not this year. Whether it’s the weather, healthier soil, or some combination of both, they’re still producing beautifully. Hopefully these new plantings will keep the harvest rolling well into late summer.
Fighting Purslane
Purslane has become one of our biggest weed challenges this season. Instead of allowing it to mature and spread thousands of new seeds, we’ve begun working ground immediately after harvest, letting the purslane come up — then quickly disking again to kill off the weed seed, then planting cover crops behind it.
The goal is simple: let the cover crop get established before the purslane has another chance to take over.
Rainy-Day Garlic Processing
Rain days rarely mean days off. When field work wasn’t possible, our crew spent the day inside processing garlic that had been curing in the greenhouse. Each bulb gets trimmed, cleaned, roots clipped, outer wrappers removed, sorted by size, and prepared for storage.
Dylan Clement surprises the crew with lunch.
A Surprise That Meant a Lot
One afternoon this week our crew received an unexpected surprise. CSA member Dylan Clement stopped by with lunch from Cocina de Carlos for everyone working that day. That simple act of generosity lifted everyone’s spirits. Dylan, thank you. Our crew felt appreciated, and that means more than you know. Dylan is also our financial advisor (with Arc Private Wealth), and if I can say so, he’s the best financial advisor we’ve ever had. We’re grateful to have him as both a customer and a friend!
We got a lot of Press this week!
Farmer’s Bag Toledo officially sold out. This is our 14 week Food Bag membership for local Toledo residents that we were piloting. We couldn’t believe the response! What we hoped might happen over a couple of weeks happened in just four days. We sold out of our 50 memberships.
We’re incredibly thankful to everyone who shared the project, told a friend, prayed for it, or helped spread the word. Between stories from The Blade, an interview on Fred LeFebvre’s iHeartRadio morning show, and a feature on 13 ABC, this story got out there and sparked a lot of interest! You can click on each of those links if you want to go listen to them.
Kurt and Corinna make it onto the Morning Show with Fred LeFevbre.
Now comes the fun part… We start delivering food for that program on August 7th. That will tie up our Friday afternoons, but I’m excited to be sharing our food with people in our Toledo community.
On the Homefront – We Heard from Jed!
Josiah has discovered a new love for woodworking and is currently building a coffee table in the barn. We even picked up a jointer this week so he can keep expanding his skills. He replaced the throttle cable in their dirt bike, too, and so he’s back to zooming around the farm every day.
Meanwhile, we’ve now received three handwritten letters from Jed at Air Force Basic Training. His latest report?
“Boot camp is about a 6 out of 10.”
Some days are exciting. Other days…not so much. He especially enjoys drill. He’s now made it through his second week and can finally begin seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
And finally… our stove died. Mr. Appliance came to the house to officially do the autopsy, and let’s just say the report wasn’t good. He advised us to just buy a new stove, because reviving this one wasn’t possible.
A brand-new stove arrives this weekend.
Corinna is already making plans to bake.