hello friends,
We are really swamped on the farm (see below for a more detailed explanation) and we are asking for extra help this next week to see if we can get to a more stable, sane state.
We are still behind on planting, very behind on weeding, and incredibly low on soil moisture. If you would like to help us, we are looking for extra help weeding or watering monday (tomorrow, and a holiday, 8am-noon) , tuesday(7-10am) , wednesday ( 8am-noon), and friday(7-10am) of this week. You don't have to stay for the whole shift - any amount of time would be helpful. Please bring a bandana, and long sleeve options for if the flies are bad.
If you are planning to come, please text or call alice's new phone: 978-471-8414.
Thanks everyone for all the amazing help already, for praying for rain, and for making our potluck such a great success this week!

season update:
Why is our season so crazy? I think it's climate change.
This year, spring was really long and cold, due to melting ice in the arctic, and we were not able to plant our spring crops until 3 or 4 weeks after our normal schedule because of soil temperatures. We've been planting like crazy trying to get back on schedule, but we are still about 1-2 weeks behind. Because of those unusual soil temperatures, the first flush of weeds came up after we planted, so we have a ton more weeds and we are about 3 weeks behind on weeding. Once it did warm up enough to plant, it stopped raining, and got really sunny, windy, dry, and often HOT. It's expected to reach 97 deg today. Normal May in Iowa weather is cooler, with an avg of an inch a rain a week - just what fruit and vegetable crops need. Instead, we received a total of .3inches of rain for the whole month of may. It's been raining a lot nearby in Iowa, and some spots have had 8 inches in may, but the weather systems keep parting to go around this 20-40 mile radius area, centered on our farm. Young plants don't have deep root systems yet, and germinating seeds need moisture, so instead of spending our time planting and weeding - we've been spending a LOT of our time watering. Lately I've spent time researching, ordering, and now installing a more comprehensive irrigation system. i hope it will make a difference. Just for fun, last week our area was invaded with a black file infestation, which makes life less pleasant and has been killing lots of chickens in the area, and some on our farm. Hopefully, we are past the worst of the flies, but they are still pesky.
Besides all that - we've had a wonderful week of beginnings. We successfully made it through our first week of full harvests and deliveries, first farmer's market, first potluck and roundtable discussion, and 2 wonderful new interns moving to the farm. And while .3" of rain is not much, it was lovely to experience rain after such a long dry spell, and there also was a rainbow.

thanks all for caring,
alice mcgary
978-471-8414