Farmer Corinna’s Field Notes Week 2 (June 20, 2026)
Jenna is one of our store packers.
How was your first week’s box?… Our first week of CSA pickup went by without too many hiccups! (What a relief!) The CSA and store packing crews were excited for their first day back. It felt like a reunion here on the farm and at the pickup sites. Can you believe this is our 19th season as a CSA?
After the heat wave we endured a few weeks ago, this week’s weather felt downright luxurious. In fact, several of us commented that it felt more like camping weather than farming weather. The cooler temperatures arrived at just the right time because there was plenty to do.
This week we started staking tomatoes. This was phase 1, and it’s a shoulder-breaking task, as each stake is pounded in by hand. Normally it’s intensely hot when we do this, but not this year! Why do we do this?… Once these plants start growing, they quickly become a tangled jungle if you don’t give them some support. So every year, we spend long days driving stakes, running twine, and creating a system that will hold hundreds of pounds of tomatoes upright later in the season.
Before staking, we also installed drip irrigation beneath the tomato rows. The irrigation lines deliver water directly to the plant roots where it’s needed most, helping us conserve water while keeping the crop healthy during the hot summer months.
Meanwhile, the cultivators have been running. A lot. Kurt, Jed and Josiah spent time on the cultivator tractor, making pass after pass through the fields to stay ahead of the weeds. Cultivating may not be exciting to watch, but it sure feels good when you can look across a field and know you’re keeping the weed pressure under control. And so far, we’re winning.
Garlic will soon be harvested! We intentionally left some scapes behind in the field, and they’ve now straightened out. That’s one of the indicators we watch for when determining garlic maturity. Once those scapes stand upright, we know harvest isn’t far away. We’ll likely begin harvesting garlic within the next week or two.
Another crop that’s quietly changing right now is the asparagus patch. The tidy rows of asparagus spears have transformed into tall, feathery green plants. This stage is called “ferning out,” and it’s a critical part of the asparagus life cycle. Once we stop harvesting spears in early summer, we allow the plants to grow freely so they can photosynthesize and recharge their underground root systems for next year’s harvest. In other words, the asparagus is busy making next spring’s crop right now. Some of the plants are even beginning to form tiny green berries (see picture), which will eventually turn bright red later in the season. Those berries contain seeds and are part of the plant’s natural reproduction process. Most people never get to see this side of asparagus, but it’s a good reminder that even when we’re not harvesting a crop, it’s still hard at work.
We’re nearly finished with transplanting. The winter squash went into the ground recently, which always feels strange because we’re planting crops for the very last weeks of the CSA season while the first weeks are just beginning. If you’ve been following our Facebook and Instagram accounts, you’ve probably noticed a lot of photos and videos from the transplanter lately. That chapter of the season is finally winding down. Most of the transplants are now in the field, with only a few fall brassica plantings remaining.
The exception, of course, is lettuce. Lettuce is one of those crops we plant over and over again throughout the season through a process called succession planting. Instead of planting one giant block of lettuce all at once, we plant smaller amounts every week or two. That way everything doesn’t mature at the same time, and we can continue harvesting fresh lettuce for your CSA boxes all season long.
Kurt adds another shelf to the pack shed wall.
Last Monday was devoted almost entirely to preparing the pack shed and wash area for CSA season.
During the winter, our walk-in coolers become temporary storage spaces for all kinds of farm equipment, carts, totes, crates, and miscellaneous supplies. Before the first CSA harvest, everything had to come back out. The coolers were cleaned and sanitized. Equipment was reorganized. New shelving was created. Rust was removed from old carts. Several carts received fresh coats of paint. Black crates, CSA totes, and storage racks all needed new homes.
It felt a little like one giant game of farm Tetris.
Thankfully, all that work paid off. When the first CSA packing crew arrived, everything was ready to go. The crew absolutely crushed it, completing the first week’s packing in about three hours.
One of my favorite sights this week was seeing the black raspberries beginning to ripen near the front entrance of the farm.
Last year we planted those canes as a bit of an experiment. In fact, I was looking back through last year’s blog posts and found photos of the crew planting them. Now, just one year later, we’re harvesting fruit. The boys have already discovered them and have been conducting some “quality control testing” whenever they walk by. We’re hoping there will be enough left to offer some in the online store soon.
Of course, no farm week would be complete without a little equipment drama. Our box truck has been spending quality time with the mechanic. We brought it in for service, got a call saying it wouldn’t be ready in time for CSA deliveries, picked it back up, used it for deliveries, and then brought it back again afterward. Hopefully everyone involved is finished playing musical trucks and we’ll have it back before next week’s deliveries.
Kurt is also currently searching for a used root washer. We’ve got a large wholesale carrot order planned for later this season, and a root washer will make the job significantly easier. So if anyone knows of one sitting in a barn somewhere collecting dust, let us know.
One project coming up next week involves creating more shade between the wash station and pack shed. Right now harvested vegetables sometimes end up sitting in full sun while they wait to be washed or packed. Long term, we’d love to build a permanent roof connecting those spaces, but that isn’t in the budget just yet. So we’ll be trying a shade cloth system instead.
The first week of CSA simply felt… easier than usual — a little less stressful.
Last year we made a deliberate decision to scale the CSA back slightly because we felt like we were approaching the limits of what our systems could comfortably handle. We also chose not to replace Noah’s position on the production crew.
At the time, it felt like a risk. This week felt like confirmation that it may have been the right decision. The crew isn’t feeling overwhelmed. The systems are working. People aren’t running around putting out fires all day. We’re beginning to wonder if we’ve finally found the sweet spot.
Time will tell, of course. The busiest months are still ahead of us.
But for now, we’re grateful. Thank you for standing by us this season.
— Farmer Corinna
P.S. If you’re reading this before Father’s Day, please don’t tell Kurt that he’s getting a hammock. He’s been talking for years about wanting a place to sneak away for a quick afternoon nap between farm jobs. We finally decided it was time. I have a feeling it may become the most-used piece of equipment on the farm.