2021 CSA Farm Update: Week 10

Welcome everyone to week 10 of the Katchkie Farm CSA. Tomato season is heavily upon as at the farm while we pick, pack, sort, and weigh boxes upon boxes of the tomatoes. Not to mention the eggplants and did I mention sweet and hot peppers just around the corner. We truly enjoying the bounties of summer!

Sometimes the question comes up as to what is the most important tool that a farmer has. Is it the tractor, a piece of equipment, or maybe computer software? All in all, these boil down to solving questions that come up on the farm. Sometimes the question might be how do we get the farm truck out to the field with a tire that has unseated from the rim? Sometimes the question might be how can we keep the weeds out of the fields? Some of the solutions are instant (in the case of the tire) and some might take several years (of not allowing weeds to go to seed). Oftentimes, we have the implementation to the solution right under our nose, sometimes we have to purchase something facilitate the implementation to the solution.

The one thing that ties all these solutions together is the creativity we utilize in coming up with those answers. Creativity can be found all over the farm. The seed that has been planted goes through processes that we can only imagine in our dreams. If we plant seeds that still have not had variability bred out of them, we can see this. Last year at Katchkie we planted a land race chili pepper. We put in about 30 plants in the garden as we had about 15 different outcomes of peppers. Some small and red, some red, long and slender, some were even yellow. We saved some from the plants we liked the looks of and peppers that seemed to do well and planted them out again this year. Some of which will make it into your CSA bags in the coming weeks. We still have a good amount of variability in our plants and peppers, and they are all doing well. If we were selling to a market that needed defined standards, this kind of variability would not be ideal. Selling to a market that appreciates flavor and sees the beauty in a wide range of shapes and sizes of their produce, this is how we connect the farm to the locavore.

One prime example of human creativity was shown to me by my two sons this past weekend. They had they idea to build a racecar! They got together wood, screws, nails, hammers, drills, saws wheels and bolts, then went to work. Day by day, they sawed, hammered, nailed and started taking things apart to get more pieces. Before I knew it, they had put together a pretty convincing looking race car. I did take them to the store to buy wheels that were not their bike tires (sometimes creativity does not have foresight). To know that this “tool” is innate in all of us, brings a lot of hope in the future. How fast did their racecar go? A picture is worth a thousand words!


Until next time,
Farmer Jon