Can't Catch A Break

Cedarmore just can't seem to catch a break with the weather. It has been really hot and humid. Some of the plants love that kind of weather but the lettuce is taking a beating. Because of the hot weather some of the lettuce is bolting...

Why do plants bolt

Most plants bolt due to hot weather. When the ground temperature goes above a certain temperature, this flips a switch in the plant to produce flowers and seeds very rapidly and to abandon leaf growth almost completely.
Bolting is a survival mechanism in a plant. If the weather get to be above where the plant will survive, it will try to produce the next generation (seeds) as quickly as possible.



Andy figures they will lose some of the crop due to this. But for now the harvest seems to be going well. And because of the hot and humid weather they are having to run the irrigation pump quite frequently. As soon as they get some rain they won't have to run it as much and that would be a really good thing. There won't be a recipe to share this week because things were just to hectic on the farm.

two bunches of lettuce, more corn, beans, a tomato, a few carrots and some type of squash I think

red raspberry jam can't wait to have it on some toast.

I am learning so much about the mechanics of farming.  There is  a lot more to it that digging a hole in the dirt and throwing in a seed.  Andy explains that they have their land divided into three sections or areas.  They rotate their crops so they don't have the same crop in the same ground two years in a row.  He says that they always have a third of their land in cover crops.  When it is the year for a cover crop they might start by planting oats in early spring, plow it in mid June, plant some buckwheat, plow in down in the late summer and then plant rye which would be plowed down the following spring and then planted in some type of produce.  Sounds sort of confusing to me and also sounds like lots of work for man and beast.