Full and By Farm: Oversaturation

Cupola atop barn at Full and By Farm in Essex, NY

The ground had been just keeping up with the past weeks of rain until we hit Thursday night. The last four and a quarter inches have had no soil to absorb into and no hot sun and wind to evaporate it. Cloudy sixty degree days don’t do a lot for drying the soil out or for making plants grow.

Everything remains a bit stunted out in the fields, everything other than the weeds of course. Those thrive in these conditions, and with wet soggy soil and standing water in the rows we haven’t been able to get into the fields to cultivate or weed. We’re just a bit behind on seeding and transplanting, but are doing our best during the brief spells to get what plants we can in.

New Irrigation System

The good news is that our irrigation system was just delivered this week! After years of dry, hot spells in the middle of summer we finally bit the bullet and designed a system with a nice, big 2″ delivery line to draw water straight from the pond allowing us to water all of our vegetables at one time, and without drawing from our spring. We’ll let you know when we test it out.

In the Farm Shares

In the veggie share: asparagus, spinach, chinese cabbage, rhubarb, loose-leaf lettuce, arugula, dry beans and cornmeal.

Coming up: garlic scapes, lettuce heads, napa cabbage, and radishes. The peas still love this weather and are growing like the weeds.

In the meat share: pork, beef, stew birds and fresh scrapple.

Scrapple is made by boiling beef bones until the meat falls. The bones, fat and meat are strained out, leaving a rich broth. Grains (including our own cornmeal this year) and seasonings are mixed into the broth and it is left to set-up (like meatloaf). Slice while it’s slightly frozen into slabs and fry it up on the stove-top until crispy. Traditionally it’s served for breakfast with maple syrup.

Broiler chickens next week.

Sara Kurak
Full and By Farm

Essex Farm Institute (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Lakeside School: Spring Newsletter (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Essex Farm: Alien Asparagus (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
La Mia Tote Giveaway (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Amazing Grace Vineyard & Winery (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)

About Sara Kurak

Sara Kurak is one of the owners and operators of Full and By Farm in Essex, NY. She shares updates from the farm with her CSA members and also contributes those letters to the Essex on Lake Champlain Blog to share the news with a wider audience. Learn about farm life week-to-week through her reports!