dance, and you shall receive

First... Our most sincere thanks and appreciation to all who did a rain dance.
It started yesterday. Just a little during distribution. Then nothing for the rest of the night.
By late morning we received about a quarter of an inch which is great, but still not as much as we desired. Then??? After a cloudy work day that was flirting with moderate to heavy rain, we got what we were waiting for... and are still getting what we were waiting for. Actually we're under a Flood Warning. Good news is that were not in a low lying area. We should be fine. Our crops are already much, much happier. Again... Thank you!!

Our focus today was a result of the expected (and then present) rain.

E seeded our weekly succession of lettuce. (nts: 5 - 128flats/wk HERE. probably 2 flats/wk there).
Meanwhile, I began the long process of pulling down and trimming all the garlic that still hangs in the back barn. We're going to send them home with members to be peeled. Easy process (and certainly not as monotonous when performed with battery-powered radio headphones. thanks d):

Pull down 10 - 10pc bundles of garlic at a time.
Place them, bulb down, in a harvest bin.
Use pruning shears to cut off the bulbs about 1 inch up the stem.
Discard stems/leaves for compost.
With sheet metal grade scissors, cut off roots at base of bulb.
Repeat til done w/ 100.
Place in a mesh bag and hang from rafter for further drying.

The members/we will clean them throughout subsequent weeks for distribution.

E and I made it through about 1100 (of approx 5000) by lunch.

Post lunch had us heading straight to the newest round of Carrots in D for finger-weeding. E direct seeded them only a week ago and they've germinated already. Pretty impressive as the average carrot takes 2-3wks to germinate.
Anyhoo, on hands and knees we brushed aside tiny, tiny "weedlings" from the tiny, tiny carrot sprouts. It struck me how extremely important this early cultivation is (regardless of how painstaking is). By getting the weeds out at such an early stage we have eliminated 80% of the weed pressure that the carrots would have experienced otherwise, allowing them to get a great foothold in the soil and grow much more readily, aaaand saved ourselves (and Peter, our master weeder) hours and hours of pulling larger weeds. Must remember to keep early weeding in high priority next year.

That finished, we harvested beans for the remainder of the workday. E won (the unspoken competition). 21 lbs in about 1 hr. Impressive.

Of note post-work was my daily pilgrimage to the 3 Sisters field. WOW!! 8ft+ corn stalks!! Red silking already. Beautiful amaranth and sunflowers. Beans spiraling up the stalks. Squash plants spanning a few feet. WOW!! I didn't get pictures as it was raining, but rest assured I will have some tomorrow.
Also of note is field F. We have given it less attention than every other field so far and it's ROCKIN on its own. The squash and cucumber plants look amazing and the weed pressure is minimal. Go F!!
This actually makes me that much more excited at next year's prospects as we will be planting into newly turned ground. Yay organic matter and lack of weed seed!!

A great day all around. Good workin. Good rainin. Good eatin. Good thinkin. Good plannin.

Good gravy, it's about time to hit the bed.

Dig.