Rainy Day

Ok well I'm still new to this blog thing but I am working on it. Anyway so Day 4 has nearly come and gone, the chicken is marinating for some stir fry as it is my week of cooking.  It was however the first day of rain, oh glorious rain.  I awoke about 7 am to pack up the truck for the Cumberland MD farmer's market.  It was not my market day so I stayed behind to do some rain work.  Wet soil compacts easily so no planting today even though another row of cucumbers are aching to for their soil.  To avoid the rain Mark and I cleaned out the hog and broiler pen.  I will tell you I have heard a rabbit cry, a fox cry both sound close to babies dying but I have never heard anything so blood curdling as a pig squeal.  As I picked one up to get it into its holding pen, with all its might the animal gave out the loudest yelp for entire breath after breath.  The volume was almost too much to bare.  Anyway after we just picked more salad for the CSA and Frostberg farmer's market to round out the day.

I had a very pleasent conversation with Dawn and Rob last night about organic pest control.  The main pests are beetles and flee beetles are decimating the kale crop in the west field.  Such a shame to see holes in the leaves of perfectly good kale making it unpassable at market.  They have some strays that are organic certified but they are not long lasting-a stipulation of organic sprays-and wash off with the rain.  Dawn mentioned that they had tried to harvest eggplant for years but were unable to keep the plants alive due to flee beetle infestation.  She went on to say that aromatic herbs are antipest in nature such as cilantro, dill, oregano and plants in the garlic family.  The first year they planted cilantro among the eggplant, the plants finally were able to bear fruit.  So if you are a home gardener or an aspiring farmer plant your aromatic herbs with your crops to reduce pests.  Also radishes attract flee beetles and can handle the stress as they replace leaves quickly, Rob uses this technique with his potatoes.    

Some other things I learned today; horseradish is a great and low maintenance perennial plant that are largely pest resistant much like ginger.  He has some wild ginger around but the regular variety is not hardy enough for this zone a 5 on the hardiness zone scale. As far as cash crops for a productive farm go berries are very profitable as well as asparagus of late.  Rob joked that anytime the media totes a vegetable as the new superfood demand goes way up and other varieties wane, oh how public opinion is so easily swayed despite actual nutritional value.