It rained steadily, on and off, all day yesterday, through the night and still today, with the temperature a couple of degrees above zero. In other words, cold, gray, wet, miserable, and also perfect for removing vast quantities of snow. The 2-3′ of coverage in the field is gone. It’s still cold, though, and back to sub-zero tomorrow, so no giant warm blast of spring just yet, only an easy way to the greenhouse to clean stuff out. Great timing!
rain
A little winter rain…
Just when all the cold was getting a bit monotonous, we get some crazy weather changes to keep things interesting. By late morning, the packed snow on paths had turned to ice and puddles. Today was the first of two days forecast to be “unseasonaby warm,” with rain and 50°F+ (10°C+) daytime temperatures. By tomorrow, most of the snow will be gone… The day after, it’s back to double-digit subzero and…more snow! Meanwhile, this morning I was happily sliding around outside in a T-shirt and shirt…!
Fall harvest…
We’re definitely into fall weather now: the thermometer may still read “warm” but there’s always a cool edge in the air. This is the best field-working weather, you can go on for hours. Today was a bit damp, and the abundant root crops were muddy from the overnight rain (they get rinsed, with a spray of the hose on Jet for the roots, then a dunk in the laundry sink to rinse off the leaves). Carrots were in 2 lb (900g) bundles, by the trusty kitchen scale we’re still using…
We bundled the beets in the field—these are the red standbys of the season, Scarlet Supreme. Always reliable, they’re in great shape and flavor, and the greens are particularly substantial…
The tomato harvest was fairly slim and motley, maybe 120 lbs (54kg), enough for CSA shares only. We’re picking them even partially ripe—frost may come at any time, no sense in waiting. The toms may not be too pretty, but they’ve somehow become real tasty in the last couple of weeks, steadily developing from the milder flavors of the first pickings, to really quite fine! Was it the recent sunshine? Whatever the reason, it’s a pleasant surprise!
Harvesting around the rain
Have I mentioned that it’s been RAINING a lot all summer, like, a few times a day? We’ve taken to planning the Friday harvest to fit the slots between downpours, using…weather radar on the web! It works pretty well, checking the national and local maps, you can see precipitation quite accurately up to 3-4 hours out (it’s a little…high tech, but so is this crazy weather!). To avoid a late morning downpour, we started picking beans—finally, our first snap bean harvest of the year!—first thing in the morning (Maria, Lynn and that’s my bin at the top left of the pic below), so that we wouldn’t be messing with wet bean plants (they really don’t like being touched when wet, they get…diseased). That was pretty satisfying, picking about five bushels before the first shower, which arrived as foreseen. And so it went for the day. You can work between the daily rains, but mud avoidance is not an option—Michelle illustrates!
Buckets of rainbows
First title that came to mind for this post was: “Yet another rainbow…” That sounded a little…downbeat. After all, rainbows are one of Nature’s delightful wonders, a free, magical expression of light and simple beauty. If memory serves, we usually get one or two spectacular rainbows every year, maybe a couple more that get noticed. With this year’s rain upon rain, they’re kinda everywhere! Still…pretty! :)
Summer days
For a the better part of most days for the last couple of months, this, the return view from dropping off Monday CSA shares, has been the Weather. Cloud and rain. There are occasional sunny days. I haven’t been keeping accurate count, but that can’t be far off. We’ve several times enjoyed 2″ (5cm) of rain in a week. I haven’t thought about hoses in weeks, except when moving them out of the way to mow down prolifically multiplying weeds on the garden paths. On the way to the Saturday farmers’ market, I barely glance at the pond to check the level (the pond is out of the way down near the highway, most easily seen when driving by). This summer, water has not been a problem!