July 2, 2025
What a weekend! We're incredibly relieved to report that we weathered the recent storms with only minor damage. After all that rain, it's safe to say we're ready for a break from the precipitation.
While we've generally kept up with planting rotations despite significant rainfall this season, the ground is now completely saturated. We're battling mud, so it is impossible for tractors and machinery to get through the fields.
Standing water is also a concern, potentially leading to plant diseases and even crop loss if it doesn't dry out soon. It often feels like we swing from one extreme to another, but as always, we'll find a way forward.
Woodchucks, Deer, and Raccoons Oh My!
Mother Nature isn't our only challenge this summer; we're in a constant battle with local wildlife. While we face these challenges every year, we have a new foe this season: woodchucks feasting on our tomatoes like it's an endless buffet.
The deer are also enjoying a diet of strawberries, zucchini, and tomatillos. One night alone, we discovered 75 punctures in the drip tape in our zucchini field from their sharp hooves. Each one of those punctures must be repaired individually. That's a lot of repairs to keep our crops growing!
We're also starting to see raccoons visiting the sweet corn fields at night. There's only so much we can do to keep them out, but we're always looking into investing in more fencing to protect our valuable crops.
Heading into the Holiday
Despite the hurdles, there's so much to be excited about as we head into Fourth of July week!
We've officially started harvesting green beans! Last year's green bean harvest was incredibly challenging due to rain, so this year we moved more of our production to high tunnels. It's already paying off with an earlier harvest, and boy, do they look and taste amazing. They're a labor of love, all hand-harvested, but we know how much you enjoy them in season.
Warmer temperatures are helping all our crops progress nicely right now. Much to the delight of the woodchucks, our tomatoes have started coming on stronger this past week.
Having few consecutive warm, dry days this growing season has slowed things down, but we're hopeful that's turning around now. We're already getting requests for canning tomatoes, but please be patient. In about 2-3 weeks we expect to be into a strong enough harvest for them to be ready.
Homegrown sweet corn is close too! We're bringing in Indiana sweet corn to our vegetable stands this week, on Thursday. We hope to have some homegrown sweet corn at the Minneapolis Farmers Market and our pop-up Farmers' Markets just after the holiday weekend, depending on the weather. Our goal is to have homegrown sweet corn available at all our locations around July 12th. Fingers crossed!
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
Last but not least, we know many of you have been eagerly awaiting strawberries. We're currently lucky to be picking about 15 flats a day, if that. In a regular season, we'd be picking over 100 flats daily by now. We're unable to take special orders at the moment, because some days there simply aren't any berries in the field to be picked.
But please, be patient! Our day-neutral berries are getting closer to being ready. Once they are, we'll be able to take orders and ensure you have plenty for all the jam and goodies you've been hoping to make this summer.
We apologize for the winter loss we experienced with our strawberry crop this year. It was so much greater than anticipated. Not to worry, we've replanted what we lost, plus more, so we should be back to normal production next season.
Celebrate the 4th with Fresh Produce
As we head into the July 4th holiday weekend, make sure to stop by our roadside vegetable stands! We have a wonderful selection of fresh produce that won't leave you disappointed. It's not the 4th of July without fresh sweet corn and watermelon, is it?
We're at that point in the season where we're adding new items regularly, so it's important to stop by often and check out what we have to offer.
