EGG-OP
We are just shy of 4,000 eggs. All chickens accounted for. Truvy is still MIA. Henry now believes she was killed by the Raccoons. I concur with his assessment.
We have 2 ½ bags of feed left from the last re-up from 7/11/11. So, with that good news, it must be time for another re-up. Yeeeehhh!
I know, the re-ups suck. Please have $25 to me by Monday September 29.
GRO-OP
Most average garden ever. It gets a solid ‘C+’ if I were rating it. Way worse than last year, better than the year before (that year we got zero tomatoes, a handful of peas and beans, and a couple of hot and bell peppers).
At least we’re not the only ones. Lafave can chime in at any point here since his garden is in Hooterville (Hudsonville), but it sounds like every garden is a C+ this year. Good thing for Dejong’s corn garden.
From what I’ve been hearing, and from what I know of gardening (which is not much) most of the issues have to do with the 10+ days of extremely hot temps in July along with the 4 huge rainfall amounts (4+ inches, with one at 7 inches). The plants like about an inch of water a week. Too much water is as bad as too much anything.
On top of the weather, the weeds got out of control early on us. This was partially to blame on the weather and partially on our lack of diligence. Next year, we have to decide as a group if we want a smaller garden, or if you are willing to extend your ‘person’ hours for the month to keep up with the weeds - if they get out of control on us like they did this year.
I don’t know how to say this other than to be blunt. I want this garden co-op to be fun and have people to have fun doing it, but there have been some shares that have not quite pulled their weight this year in the weeding department, while others have gone out there and just tore it up. I have tried to compensate for this by correlating the hours spent and the actual amount of weeding that has been done, with the amount of produce in your bags. That may not be fair, but it’s the only way I know how to try to keep it fair for all the shares.
Normally, I would have suspended the weeding by now, and we would only be harvesting. As there are still weeds out there, I have not stopped the weeding weeks. Even though the produce is slowing down, if we let the weeds go to seed, we will even have worse problems next year.
So unless you have a different idea on how to do this, please let me know sometime if you are willing to put the extra effort in next year for the same sized garden, or if you would like to do a smaller garden that can be controlled better with the same, or shorter, amount of ‘person’ hours/effort spent up in the H.C.
Some of you may not have received produce at all this week/week and a half. This is because some of the shares are way ahead and some are way behind (due to vacations, when I see you, what is ready, etc). I’d like to tell you in advance when you are getting stuff, but this average garden this year has made it next to impossible to do.
Last year, everyone had tons of stuff for canning and salsa. This is not going to be the case this year. Our tomatoes are very low in number and our bell peppers are non-existent. If you want to do salsa, you’ll have to go out and buy the stuff, if you can find it. We went to Nelson’s Farm Market in Grant this weekend – there was a couple small ½ bu baskets for sale. The few that are out there are getting bought quick, so if you see them someplace and want to do salsa, I’d buy them.
The corn on the other hand, is going great. You should expect a lot more corn, even from our ‘sacrificial deer’ row we planted this year - the same row that the deer decided not to eat. Yet.
Okay, that’s all I have. I’m done being the mean guy – for now. If you have any questions on any of this, let me know.
Later all,
Haus
