Good or Bad, the Weather Affects our Farm

Farm Director Ben Penner sent us a note about weather this morning. Now that we’re experiencing a more “normal” weather pattern for Minnesota, he thought it would be a good time to reflect on how weather affects our work at the farm.

Vegetables need a lot of water to grow, he writes, but if that water comes at the wrong time or in too great an amount, as it did this spring, then it can cause problems. For example, Open Farms is still playing catch-up from the late spring, when we weren’t able to get all of our crops in the ground in a timely manner due to all the snow on the ground. Then, when it finally did warm up, it REALLY warmed up. Back in May, we had a single 100-degree day, and it caused some of our broccoli (a cool weather crop) to go to seed -- fortunately, not the whole crop, but we probably lost 1/3 – 1/4 of our plants just because of that one day.

If you’re interested in more weather news for Minnesota, a good link to follow is Mark Seeley’s “Weather Talk.” Mark is the State’s climatologist, and he has a good perspective on weather trends in Minnesota.

In the meantime, out on the farm, Ben could use some help plucking weeds and stopping the march of potato bugs across our tubers. We now offer shifts just about every day of the week, so if you have the time and want to get outdoors, please come down to the farm!