The stifling, sultry weather on Monday was too oppressively muggy and hazy to accomplish much outdoors.  It’s still bone dry, so keeping everything watered becomes the first priority as the sweat trickles into your eyes, down your back and clothing clings to your body like an uncomfortable second skin.  And the horse flies are ravenous and persistent.  Talk of improvising some sort of ‘swamp cooler’ to use when your shares are being put together at the farm sounds less far fetched.  And summer doesn’t officially begin until Thursday, June 21^st.   The bright yellow flowers of St. John’s Wort in bloom along the roadside go with the season.  If you crush the flower buds, they stain your fingers a purplish red, hinting at another common name for this wild herb, Heart of Jesus.  Native Americans used in as an antiseptic and healing salve for minor cuts.  In Europe, it is a standard remedy for mild depression.  Not that we’re depressed; just limp and sticky. You just drink lots of cool water, douse yourself with the hose occasionally and keep on going.  Of course, starting the work day earlier, before the temperature gets to be scorching hot, and laying low like Brier Rabbit in the shady briar patch until it cools off a bit in the evening makes good sense, but farm chores still need to be done, even after taking refuge indoors to handle some paper work.  More often than not, we’d rather be outdoors working on the land.  We tend to agree with one of the area’s earliest European visitors, Captain John Smith, who four hundred years ago pronounced this well-favored land “A place where heaven and earth never agreed better to frame man’s habitation” and North Neck native son, George Washington, called it simply “the Garden of Virginia”.

The dry heat continues. Last week the farms to our North received a good bit of rain that was well received by many of the crops, especially the berries, melons, corn and tomatoes. Olin-Fox Farms as well as other farms to our South only received a brief shower last weekend that amounted to less than 1/10 inch, so we are all watering around the clock to keep the produce growing.

Some of the crops such as basil and hot peppers are loving the current conditions. Hopefully the weather will break soon and we can all take a sigh of relief and a break from watering.

In other farm news, update on plans for our first annual garlic roast in August. We are planning to include live music, activities, and a number of vendors. Stay tuned for exact date and time.

Crop Report

We hope you all have been enjoying all the garden delights as we have. Many of the spring leafy greens are coming to the end of their growing cycle as summer approaches. Crops such as squash and cucumbers are really starting to produce well and will be followed by beans, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, and onions shortly. The corn is beginning to tassel and the tomatoes are starting to set fruit in great numbers, so please do your best rain dance for some much needed quenching of the earth.