Oak Slough Farm

5/18/2024

Kat arrives

The final member of our farm crew, Asa’s girlfriend, Kat, is arriving from Georgia tonight.  We are very excited to have her here, but not as excited as Asa.  They met at college, Warren Wilson, in North Carolina.  It is a work college, and this year Asa significantly improved his forestry skill, his banjo playing, and he learned how to cook.  He’s been killing the turnip greens, mixing them in with eggs, beans, and other things.  They’re like mustard greens, and they’re good sauteed in butter or oil with onions and garlic, and maybe a little Bragg’s amino soy sauce.  We’re looking forward to what Kat brings to the mix.

Turnip Greens

Only three people took us up on the free turnip greens.  Hopefully they enjoy them as much as I enjoy Asa’s.  We ordered thin-skinned creamy white Japanese type turnips, that are so delicious, you can eat them raw.  Unfortunately, they did not develop the thin-skinned creamy white bulbs.  I’m not sure why.  We planted several rows of them, at different times and under different conditions, but none of them formed bulbs – just lots of greens.

Cover and pollinator crops

In addition to the turnips, we also planted buckwheat as a cover crop and pollinator attractor crop around the edges of the garden and on empty rows.  Several of the plantings are flowering and look really nice.  The bees and other insects seem happy with it.

Loopers

Unfortunately, we have one caterpillar type visitor to the farm that prefers the kale to the buckwheat.  They are cabbage loopers and they are starting to eat holes in the kale leaves.  We are using Bt, which is short for Bacillus thuringiensis. It is an organic-approved bacteria that is toxic to the looper’s alkaline digestive system.  Since our digestive system is acidic, it poses no threat to people.  We are hoping it keeps the loopers in check, and that it does a better job than having Asa pick them off.

Summer’s coming

Next week may be the last week for lettuce, and we may offer a special to try and sell it before it wants to bolt.  The radishes will also be disappearing.  But we are excited for the warm season crops on the way.  We will have more zucchini and should have basil.  Tomatoes and Sadie’s flowers aren’t too far away either,

Golden State Pecan

You may have seen the option to buy Golden State pecans on our order form.  Our neighbor’s the Lawarence family have the farm next to us, and they are growing pecans.  While they are not organic, they do a great job of caring for their farm and the environment.  They have been applying tons of compost (35 tons this year), and have planted clover and other cover crops between rows.  They are also working on dialing in their water use to be as efficient as possible.  Six or seven years ago we helped plant some of the pecans.  In the fall we help harvest them.  We’ve lucky to have such good people for our neighbors.

Thank you for your support and stay well.

Josh