Mary Poppins. That's exactly what came to mind on Saturday afternoon after another heavy rain came through. Lucy hopped on her bike, grabbed her umbrella and rode in the dwindling drizzle. It brought relief from the heavy air and heat but doused any hope we might be back in the field soon. And then another rain on Sunday. And another this morning -Monday - the day we begin harvesting for week 3 of our Main Season CSA. We held off this morning until 9 a.m. as the last of the rain moved to the northeast. We didn't even try the root crops - just stuck to the greens. The radishes and turnips would have come up so heavy with mud it would have taken us twice as long to clean them.
The rain has really slowed our field work. We have our next planting of lettuces and greens that need to get in the ground, potatoes to hill, cultivating, tomato staking, WEEDING. It is all on hold until the ground dries out a bit. But a garden does better in a wet year than a dry one. Lack of rain hurts us more than too much. It may delay some things but the garden will still produce. In a dry year, things struggle, wilt, die. It seems no amount of irrigating will help - it's got to be the real thing - rain.
