Farmer Kurt’s Field Notes Aug 15, 2026: Melons, Rain, Weeds, Documentaries
When Corinna asked me what we did this week — I had to think. It feels like our week was consumed with long days harvesting. The rainy, wet conditions make this tougher to do. It was muggy and wet and muddy — everywhere. I was often “pre-harvesting” during the dry windows, so we wouldn’t get stuck picking in the rain. I’m so sick of squeegie-ing hte wash bay! The cooler roof has sprung a leak, too, which I can’t fix until it dries out. Please tell the rain to stop!
In between harvests, the crew has been working their way through the onions that have been curing on tables in the greenhouse. They’re cutting off the dried tops, cleaning up the outer layers, and getting them ready for storage. And GARLIC PROCESSING IS DONE! That’s a big win.
If you’ve never seen garlic straight out of the field, there’s quite a transformation between harvest and the beautiful, clean bulbs you eventually see in your CSA box. After curing, every bulb needs to have its roots and stem trimmed and those dirty outer layers cleaned away. It’s one of those jobs that seems to go on forever, so seeing the last crate finished feels like a pretty big win.
We’ve also started harvesting watermelons! The cantaloupes are still coming in, too, so there are a LOT of melons moving through the farm right now. That’s why you got so many last week at CSA pickup. We’re hoping the watermelons will begin making their way into Fruit Shares next week.
Friday turned into quite the media day around here. We started the morning with a camera crew at the farm filming for a documentary connected to the Steiner Project, an initiative we participated in last fall that brought farmers and local food advocates together to help build awareness around stronger regional food systems. We spent a couple of hours sharing our story and talking about the role farms like ours can play in building a more resilient local food network. Later that day, WTOL came out to the Farmer’s Bag Toledo pickup to film Kurt for another television story. I didn’t even check the news to see if it ran! LOL.
And Now… Could It PLEASE Stop Raining?
This is the part of the update that’s a little harder.
We’ve had so much rain that we simply can’t get into the fields to cultivate. Cultivation has to happen when the soil is dry enough to work. Take equipment into wet soil and you can compact it, make a mess, and do more harm than good.
Unfortunately, the weeds don’t wait. They’re starting to get ahead of us, and the constant moisture is also creating disease pressure in some of our crops. We’re seeing yellowing along the edges of cabbage leaves and entire sections of peppers beginning to wilt. (see below).
It’s amazing how quickly a field can change. Two weeks ago, everything looked absolutely beautiful. Now we’re looking at some of our fall crops and getting nervous about whether we’ll be able to keep them healthy enough to carry us through the rest of the CSA season.
So we’d appreciate your prayers for a stretch of sunshine and dry weather. We need enough time for these fields to dry out so we can get back in there, cultivate, and give these crops a chance to recover.
There was some encouraging news this week, too. We’ve been talking with the food service coordinator at Oregon City Schools about potentially supplying some vegetables to their school system this fall. We’re really hopeful that relationship comes together. After losing our wholesale carrot crop earlier this season, we’ve been looking for ways to replace some of that lost revenue. Supplying fresh vegetables to a local school system would be a pretty meaningful way to do it.
Fingers crossed on that one.
Meanwhile… No Water at the Guys’ House
Because apparently we needed one more problem to solve this weekend, the well pump at the guys’ house quit working, which means… no water. We didn’t even find out until this morning because they didn’t want to bother us. They went without showers last night and apparently just decided to roll with it. So our weekend project is figuring out how to keep everyone supplied with water until we can get somebody here to look at the well on Monday.
Farm morale took a small hit on that one.
Asuncion sorts peppers harvested under gray skies. We are dealing with a lot of water and weeds.
We also want to make sure you know about our Field-to-Table Dinner on September 12. We’ve hosted these dinners for years, and they’ve traditionally looked pretty much the same: one long table, everyone seated together, and Chef Joseph serving course after course. But this year, Chef Joseph and Katie from Cork & Knife Provisions came to us and said, “Let’s try something different.” Their idea is more of a traveling dinner around the farm. Instead of staying in one seat all evening, you’ll use a Harvest Passport to move through different stations and seating areas, enjoying the five-course meal in different locations along the way. There will be live cooking, opportunities to interact with us at curated tasting stations, and time built in to wander and explore some stations on your own. To be perfectly honest, we’re not entirely sure how it’s all going to go down — but we see the vision, we’re game to try it, and we think it could be a really memorable night!
CSA members get first dibs. Cork & Knife is opening just 50 tickets, and from August 15 through August 22 at noon, they’re available exclusively to our CSA members at a special presale price. You’ll need the secret CSA passcode found in this week’s email to access the ticket page. At noon on August 22, any remaining tickets will open to the rest of our email list AND Cork & Knife’s list—and the ticket price goes up. So if this sounds like something you’d enjoy, this is the week to grab your tickets.
And Finally… One More Week for Jed at BMT (Basic Military Training)!
We got another phone call from Jed at Air Force Basic Training in San Antonio, and he sounded GREAT. He’s officially made it through Week 5, including the gas chamber test and his CADM weapons training, and now he has just one major week left: Pacer Forge.
From what we understand, Pacer Forge is basically “Survivor” meets “The Hunger Games,” Air Force edition. For several days, his group will be given missions that require them to pull together all the skills they’ve learned during Basic Training. It’s supposed to be challenging, but also one of the most memorable parts of the whole experience.
And after that? We get to go see him graduate. I want to remind you that after this coming week, we will be taking a PAUSE in the CSA for one week, so that we can go on a week vacation to Texas to see Jed graduate. There will be no pickup on Aug 25 or 27. Corinna has been busy educating all of us on what happens at Graduation Week — things like “tapping out” your Airman (which is apparently very emotional and something we should think about how we will do), getting T-shirts so we match Jed at the Airman’s Run, figuring out what to do with him on his 2 “Base Lib” days that fall within the allowed radius, and even making a special banner so he can see us in the crowds. Jed has been chosen to carry the flags in the parade at graduation — which is something we’re very proud of. Bottom line?… I just can’t wait to see him. When asked how he wanted to spend his time with us he replied:
- I want to take a long hot shower BY MYSELF
- I want to go somewhere and just hang out with you to talk and play board games
- I want to go out to eat at a nice place — but not too long, because I want to just go hang out and play games and relax, not waste time in a restaurant
- I want to see the Alamo
- I want to show Grandpa the planes at the Base — especially the SR-71 Blackbird
So despite the weeds, the rain, the crop disease, the broken well pump, and a harvest schedule that doesn’t seem to quit, there’s plenty we’re grateful for this week. The garlic is finished. The melons are coming. Farmer’s Bag Toledo is growing. New opportunities are opening. Jed is almost at the finish line. God is good.
Now we just need a little sunshine. See you next week!
– Farmer Kurt