When the Spinach (and Weather) Doesn't Cooperate

Last week I promised NOW BC, a Vancouver co-operative buying club, that we would have spinach available for them this week. This morning, when we should be harvesting to fill their order, there is no spinach.

Our first major planting of spinach started to size up last week. I was sure we would have enough for harvesting this week. But the spinach had already been in the ground a long time through the cold, wet spring. Then, with a blast of hot weather last week, it didn't look like the spinach would hold for long. We had to harvest what we could for weekend markets. The rest of the planting hasn't sized up. Moreover, after seeding the current planting we had to wait almost three weeks before seeding our next planting due to intense rain in the past months.

All of this means that the spinach people are expecting to receive tomorrow won't arrive. NOW BC can't secure spinach at the price we offered (spinach is wholesaling for the price NOW BC would have retailed ours for).

In some ways, this is the price one might pay for trying to work with a small farm: small crops and inconsistent supply. At the same time, the larger farms around us have no crop at the moment. When we can't get into the field to use our human-powered seeding equipment, other farms certainly can't get their tractors in to do larger seedings.

What this more accurately highlights is the difficulty of predicting crops while avoiding waste. Knowing whether the spinach will hold in the field (or size up adequately) in order to include on a price list is a gamble more than an art or science at many times. Often we avoid listing products with NOW BC simply because it's easier to guess that we won't have the supply than to try and promise that we will. If a planting is too large, it can go to waste if not enough marketing outlets exist to take it; too small, and someone gets shorted on their order.

This makes it even more challenging for home delivery services. To get a commitment from a farmer (or even wholesaler) that a product will be available can be tricky. When products don't show up, it leaves the delivery service with disappointed (and sometimes angry) customers and a precarious business model.

I offer this overview not to provide excuses, but in order to give some insight into why the world of food production and sales (particularly of fresh produce) is tricky. To provide abundance, there is always waste when extra produce isn't sold; just-in-time delivery often results in short orders -- whether working with small farms or the world's largest produce companies.

This spring has been particularly difficult for many farmers in the Lower Mainland and we're only just beginning to get a full perspective of the impacts. Our spinach is one small example. Such an explanation doesn't help consumers find a replacement. Hopefully it does help to build some understanding of the pressures we're all under.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Here we are in mid-June and some days it's hard to know if summer is going to arrive. The season has been off to a crazy start as far as weather is concerned, and weather pretty much determines everything else around here. Many farmers I've spoken to have been having a rough time these past few weeks. Some new farmers have mentioned that if they were farming for the first time this season they might already be thinking of quiting.

Our farm hasn't been an exception. We've already marked the end of our rhubarb crop, which was only a fraction of what it has been in past years. Everything else has been slow growing. We've lost some crops to pests or inability to properly weed amidst the wet, much soil. After doing farmers markets since the beginning of May, we're only barely starting to break even at each of them.

Last week ended up being particularly bad in my books. While cultivating in the field I lost a tractor part in the bed. In fact, the part fell off and then got cultivated into the bed. I had to track down a metal detector (luckily a friend working on the farm brought one the next day) and eventually found the part. The following day the chain broke on our compost spreader. It was an easy fix, but took time nonetheless. All this after not having had any break downs yet this year.

The weather, of course, puts everyone in a sour mood. Day after day of cold and rain makes it hard to keep spirits up. Even though it's allowed us to get particularly organized in the office and the barn, it's still been a bit much for everyone. We'd all rather be in the fields every day at this point and providing a full-to-the-brim market stand to our customers.

By the end of last week I was making plans for how we might adjust our crop plans in the event that things didn't get better. What could we do for winter crops that might help to mitigate the losses from the summer? What are sure-fire crops that we could still get into the ground and have in storage?

Even now that it has dried up we're learning the impact of the past months' weather. Some potatoes have blight. Some crops are getting lost amidst the weeds because we haven't been able to get into certain beds to hoe with the moisture.

Amidst all of this there are still a number of things that are going well. Some of the strawberries have managed to hang on through the moisture and we had a good pick on Saturday for our Sunday markets. The spinach has been loving the cool and rainy weather, providing a bumper crop that we haven't had in years. The kale and cabbages are doing very well and we have many, many heads of lettuce maturing.

It has been an excellent year for cover cropping. With the moisture, we've been able to get cover crops seeded in many parts of the fields. Some have already been turned in and re-seeded, others will go in over the next few days. This goes a long way toward maintaining and enhancing the soil.

When we have had a nice day here or there the results are dramatic. The following morning plants have visibly changed overnight -- they're taller, greener and fuller. That's always an incredible sight to see.

The first CSA boxes of the season are packed in the cooler and ready to go into Vancouver tomorrow morning. along with a shipment of lettuce to a local distributor. Hopefully Solstice brings a change in the weather next week.

And we still have fun at the markets, whether we're losing money or not. Last week at the Langley market the children from Glorious Organics made sun placards and marched through the market calling for some rays. It worked.

It's amazing what a little sun can do.