A little bit of rain this week. Not enough to count as irrigation, but the plants are already jumping. Come on plants, we are rooting for you.
This year has felt really tough to be a farmer. Nothing tragic, like hail, to point to and say ‘this one catastrophic event ruined everything’, more like a thousand little pin pricks. Some within our control and some outside of our control. Cold spring, late frosts, new crew, increased payroll, so many insect issues, deer, ravens, new techniques that end up not working, broken equipment, late planting, poor germination, weed pressure, exhaustion, slow markets – I could go on. None of these things are new to us, but when each one feels a little harder than average the cumulative effect feels big. If we weren’t trying to make a living at this, I could easily shrug it off. I think I already labeled this the year of “everything being late” but it also feels like every crop is mediocre to poor – and that just isn’t the best combination.