Growing Local

Well now look what we have here, my god man, is that the sun? We actually broke a sweat yesterday. Hallelujah! Everything in the field is loving it. Yesterday we noticed the first baby summer squash's on the plant. It wont be long for zucchini! Strawberries will be on next week they are loaded. Some tomatoes on the vine but mostly flowers. Corn and beans are growing fast and everything is looking good. I can honestly say our quality this year is about as good as I've ever seen. Feeling very proud of what we are taking to market. Despite being slighty off schedule from the weather we ar having a great year.

It's funny how one year can vary from another. Each year seems to have it's challanges and pay offs. One big change this year is that we are seeing a substantial increase in our commercial accounts. More restaraunts and our current accounts are ordering more produce. I think its safe to say it's a pretty clear indication of the economy which from my view does appear to be improving slightly. Traffic on the island appears to be brisk. Ironically, our market sales are down. Go fiqure. It's hard to tell what's happening for sure. Is it that we don't have strawberries and some of our higher volume crops on yet? Are people tiring of the market? It's hard to say. It feels like to me, we have less traffic coming through. I hope this is just a glitch. There are great deals at the market and a vibrant, fun atmosphere. Come on down!

With the sun comes respnsibility. Watering is a big issue and takes up alot of our time. We use mostly drip irrigation. Works great and uses less water. The benefits of being able to turn on a valve and water your beds far outways the hassle of laying drip tapes. It can take several hours to set up a field but this is generally a one time deal per crop issue. We do overhead water some things but then you become a slave to moving the hose. We're on the go most of the time and this becomes a more difficult issue. Easy is good. We like easy.

speaking of which, take er easy.

farmer John