Perfecting the art of irrigation

Most farmers who grow produce in Ohio irrigate at some point during the year. This year we have run irrigation almost every day since mid-July. Because we are growing more crops and because it has been so consistently dry this is the first year that we have run this much irrigation and it is tiring. But on the other hand we get to harvest sweet corn in the middle of September!


Plus since we've kept them on water the ears are a good size. Now we just have to work on controlling the corn earworms.


We are still putting crops in the ground. Most of these seedlings will be planted tomorrow.


These seedlings won't be planted tomorrow because they were eaten by one of our chickens. They occasionally get out and on Sunday evening I found a chicken walking around contentedly. Fortunately, the chicken did not venture onto the table to eat the all of the other seedlings that were waiting to be planted.

Elsewhere on the farm it always feels a bit more like fall once we've got butternut squash curing in the barn.


Plus these turnips are growing nicely and just beginning to size up.


Finally we've got sunchokes blooming on the farm. We planted these tubers for the first time this year. They are a starchy vegetable (you eat the tubers) that is native to most of North America. We did little more than throw these in the ground and they have taken off. They are a perennial and we are using them as windbreaks in our fields. The sunflower-like flowers are an added bonus.