Farmer Kurt’s Field Notes (June 28, 2025)

Last week’s CSA vegetable share.

Farmer Kurt’s Diary
June 28, 2025 – Week 2

Well, it’s hot. Really hot. This week I’ve spent managing around the heat wave. My crew has been working fewer hours — about 2/3 of the time they usually do, because it’s just too dang hot out. A few times this week, we had them come out extra early just so they wouldn’t be harvesting product in the hottest part of the day. Then I sent them home for “siesta” only to have them come back out in the evening. Sometimes, that’s how you gotta roll. I’m learning not to let it stress me out. God always provides. Last week when I was exhausted and stressed out, it rained hard and long. It was a sign to me that I was supposed to just go inside and rest, because I couldn’t do any of the things on my to-do list since it rained. Funny how that works out.

I helped the crew transplant last week.

With the weather, I’m behind on my planting schedule. (There’s no use in putting stuff out in the fields, only to watch it die). That just means things are going to be a little bit later than usual. Luckily because of all that rain we got early on, the ground is still full of moisture — a God-send with all this heat.  

I did lose a planting of brassicas to the heat. We seeded some more in the greenhouse so we can start over in a couple weeks. Swiss chard looks good. Sweet potatoes are setting. Green beans look good. Peas have been strong. The broccoli is starting to “bolt” (or go to seed, becomes bitter). I’m trying to keep my lettuces from bolting too. There should be some rain coming early next week to help cool things off.

Our CSA packing crews and store crews started for the first time last week. We are trying a new system of packing where we use “roller tables.” I purchased more of these off Facebook Marketplace, and I like how it takes up less space in the packing shed. The crew tested it out for the first time. I’ll be curious to see how they adjust it to fit their workflow, but I think it worked better and made things easier and faster.

Jose (crew leader) is in charge of washing carrots and bunching.

Black raspberry canes were planted up front this spring, and they’re now starting to leaf out really well. We’ve been having trouble in the last two years sourcing fruit for our fruit share on the front end of the season, when there just isn’t a lot of options. So I’m trying to provide them now myself. These berries will be a nice addition to the early weeks of fruit in years to come (if it all works out). The crew spent an afternoon weeding them with hoes.

Noah picking white currants for this week’s online store.

Harvested currants and gooseberries this week! Gooseberry bushes have thorns on them — did you know? It’s a tedious process. They took a bit of a hit this year. The yield isn’t as high as in years past. But we’ll put them in the online store for you. Load up now. Not sure I’ll have another picking.

Asuncion ties tomato twine around the newly staked tomatoes to keep them from falling down.

This was also the week we staked the tomatoes. It never fails: this job falls on the hottest week of the year. But my guys are troopers. I split the job up into two days because of the heat. This is a pretty exhausting upper body workout that makes you sweat like nothing else. Using a stake-pounder that slides over the top of the stake, you pound the stake about 3 times into the earth. After the stakes were set, my crew then tied the first layer of “tomato twine,” wrapping the tomato vines between them. This acts as a support system or trellis for my vines to grow upwards. It makes harvesting so much easier, and it keep the vines free of disease (since they aren’t touching the ground). We’ll be glad we did this later.

My crew is planting more melons today. We pick the flowers off the plants before they go into the field, to make sure the plants are big enough before they start to form fruit.

Crew plants melons today.

Garlic scapes have been harvested. I leave a few out by accident every year, and I’m always glad I do, because they have started to straighten up. Soon they will flower. This is the signal that the garlic is almost ready to pull. We’ll harvest those in a week or two, then let them cure through July. Have you been enjoying some of the other share types? I really liked the street cheddar cheese, didn’t you? Corinna has done a great job this year, setting up all the arrangements for the different vendors and online store offerings. We’re making room for about 30 CSA Sampler memberships this year, to give more people a chance to “try out” the CSA for a short period of time. This seems to be a less risky way for people to test out whether our farm’s CSA would work for them. So if you find yourself wanting to tell your friends about our CSA, please let them know they can get a small taste of the experience by buying a sampler. Here’s the link to sign up for that.

Aaron Buskirk. This is one of our flower farmers.

Jed and Josiah were my machine operators this week. They’ve been busy working ground, cultivating peppers, laying poly on the melon beds, and laying “drip tape” under the tomato plants (before we staked them). You might be wondering why we don’t lay that drip tape when we plant them. Well… if I did, I wouldn’t be able to cultivate those tomatoes with a tractor in the early stages (cuz I’d rip them out). Those tomato plants were getting pretty big there last week! They really needed staking, but it had just rained, and before I could stake, I needed to get that drip tape in!

Brian Anderson waits for Perrysburg customers to pass out his chicken.

Did you enjoy your first chicken share this week? You might be surprised to know that we actually ran out of freezer space! The original plan was for Brian to bring ALL the birds to our farm and store them in his freezers (which are in our new reefer unit). But he called me up last week and said, “Uh… these birds are bigger than I expected and we don’t have enough freezers on your farm….” Well, his solution was a good one. We’ve decided that for the rest of the season, he will always be at the pickup sites in Sylvania and Perrysburg to pass out the birds himself. Let us know what you think of that product! We’re thinking about expanding to pork or beef next year.

Josiah and Jed show off their flying wing at Flite Fest in Canton, OH.

The family went to Flite Fest last weekend. This is the largest electric RC airplane festival in the country, and it happens in Canton, OH. The boys and Corinna camped in a tent for 2 nights. I was only able to get away for a day, and we were all tired when we got back. We’re hoping to take the boys camping at Oshkosh Air Show in July. Well… at least Corinna will. Our usual pattern of summer vacation this year may be a bit different due to our late start. We’ll see how it goes. Enjoy the Fourth of July this weekend!