My Notebook – Walking the Land

On my field walks I never tire of digging, tasting, smelling, touching, and observing the constant changes taking place on the farm. Right now, as we approach the Summer Solstice, the farm is a continuously changing canvas of activity and fertile growth.

I try to walk the land we farm every day, otherwise it's easy to miss things. In the coming days, if temperatures do climb into the 90's as predicted, several crops will need to be watched carefully.

Daily field walks also help me identify and ward off damaging diseases or insects early on. Especially with flea or cucumber beetles, I like to cover young seedlings with row covers.

On my walks I always check the soil moisture in the fields. The easiest and quickest way is to use my hands, digging into the top 4-5 inches of soil and feeling the moisture by kneading and sifting the soil through my fingers.

During Saturday's community farm day, I spotted a few limp and wilted looking potato plants while digging for these underground treasures with the kids. I have seen this often enough to know that a gopher was at work.

The joy of walking the fields is that there are always new or unexpected things to discover, whether it's the tiny clusters of grapes hanging off the vines starting to swell in size, watching the red-tail hawks circling above the fields or simply enjoying the flavors of a fully ripened yellow raspberry.