“Let’s talk about the weather…”
Growth. Color. Abundance. Water. Sweetness. Pressure. Adapt. Work. Resiliency.
These are a few of the buzzwords that have come up a lot during the month of June at Fibonacci Farm.
As Spring was coming to a close, we could tell that our fields were about to EXPLODE. After planting the tomatoes and peppers out into the field, our prop house was nearly empty, and it was easy to see that almost all of our beds were planted in. We started brainstorming some clever ways to interplant in order to maximize in our small garden. One of our favorites so far is: carrots with kohlrabi! We planted the carrots first and got them well on their way before transplanting kohlrabi between the rows of carrots. So far, they are both doing pretty well :) We are really looking forward to seeing how our interplanting of pole beans and melons comes out! Now that June has come and gone, boy were we right… the field looks amazing. We have been harvesting the most delicious lettuces, radishes, turnips and beets that we have ever had. Yeah… maybe we are a little biased, but we find it healthy to be modestly proud of one’s work.
Remember those marmots that destroyed our brassicas a couple of months ago? Well, we are very happy to say that we don’t have to manage them any more this year, because they have gone into the deep sleep of hibernation. Lucky marmots; we could use a long nap right about now!
It wasn’t too long ago, when early in the season, our hurdles with water had to do with getting our drip irrigation system set up and running. Little did we know that because of a mild 2020/2021 winter and prevailing drought conditions so far this year, our water source would be cut down to 75% (while writing this, we received an email that our water is now cut down to 60%) flow rate as early as June. This may seem drastic to some of you not in the know, but compared to other irrigation districts around us, this is actually the least drastic of all cuts that’s happened recently. Some of our neighbors in communities as close as Tumalo are facing much more drastic cuts; 7 days on, 7 days off. In JUNE. I feel like although we knew about the importance of good clean fresh water in our lives before farming, we never fully understood the importance of water to human life and the interconnectedness between human life and animal life as it pertains to water. The levels of water in the Deschutes River have a direct impact on native people of Warm Springs Confederated Tribes for these people are reliant on the fish of the Deschutes River as hunter/gatherers. It is hard to think about water scarcity without thinking about draught and how climate change may contribute to all of these issues.
Droughts used to happen once every 10 years or so. These days, we would be lucky to go 5 years without a drought. Many would agree that this is a direct product of the effects of climate change. It makes us feel powerless sometimes because we and people who think like us still seem to be the minority in our society. Yes, we recycle, yes, we have a very fuel-efficient car that we use for most things not farming, yes, we turn the lights off when we aren’t using them. We do these things because in our day to day it is the least, we could do to try and minimize our contribution to the negative effects of climate change. Operating a no-till, no tractor farm, we feel, is the best thing that we can do to make a positive impact by sequestering carbon without the use of fossil fuels. We don’t say this to brag or because we think we are doing a better job than anyone else and that the whole world should follow in our footsteps, we say this because maybe it will help you think of new ways that you can do your part to save the planet. We gotta do this together. This week it was over 105 every day; not sure how many more weeks like that we can endure.
Enough. Enough. I know, no one really wants to think about this stuff, but we’ve been thinking about it so much lately we had to say SOMEthing. Let’s move on to sunnier pastures, so to speak. Our tomatoes are about 4 feet high, have some wonderful looking fruit and fruit-sets on them. BLT season is upon us!! Our peppers are looking super healthy too and we can’t wait snack on them all day. Never thought we would be so amped up about celery, but we are! The celery bed is one of our best-looking beds no doubt and we can’t wait to taste the fresh celery. Many of our flowers have begun flowering and the rest of them have buds so full of potential. This week we start our flower CSA and it is really exciting to think about all of the beautiful and delicious smelling flowers that will be gracing us in the coming weeks.
That is all for now, but stay tuned as we plan on updating our blog/newsletter several times throughout the season!
Your Farmers, Aaron + Lauren
