Author: Bryan Housel

Hello Folks! I guess that you do not need to hear it from me, but it was a rainy week – almost five inches here on the farm. Most of it – four inches – fell Sunday afternoon and evening. Fortunately, there were a few dry days in between that allowed me to get some seed planting done. Some of what we grow is transplanted, but a lot of crops – spinach, cilantro, arugula, beans, and all the root crops – are direct seeded. We use mechanical seeders that are mounted to a small tractor, the Allis-Chalmers G. (more…)

Hi all, Happy Independence Day! I hope you have enjoyed the extra-long weekend. We continue to be inundated with heavy rains and apparently at least one overnight hailstorm, judging by the ripped spinach and chard leaves. New Jersey averages about 45 “of precipitation per year, which comes out to a little less than an inch per week, which would be perfect. Six weeks of drought followed by 7” of rain in two weeks is less than ideal. We are struggling to keep up with the weeds and I am falling behind on my planting schedule, but at least we are not constantly moving the sprinklers around! (more…)

Hi Folks! So, now after a dry spring, it’s looking like it’s going to rain every day for the rest of the summer! Don’t get me wrong – we still need some precipitation to replenish the soil moisture and the first few storm brought us only about an inch and a quarter, which only wet the top 4 inches of the soil. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing though, and these types of storms often come with damaging winds and hail (a four-letter word here on the farm). The rain gauge is marking 2” currently – today’s total thus far, from a storm that began 3 hours ago and is predicted to continue for three more. It’s going to be a muddy mess out in the fields as we try to harvest this week! (more…)

Hello Folks!  So, we received about 1.2 inches of rain from three separate storms over the past week. Not as much as we would have liked, but enough that we could take a break from moving the sprinklers around constantly and prepare some more ground for planting. We are heading into scattered thunderstorm territory, hopefully some of these will scatter some precipitation on us. (more…)