August Observations
Greetings!
The heatwave seems to have broken for the time being, which has our crew and our crops feeling much better. Farming in a seemingly endless heatwave is quite trying, and we have to take extra care not to harm ourselves or the crops. Elisa is away on vacation this week, so we’ve been doing our best to keep up without her. Many of our customers are on vacation as well, so it’s a relatively slow period for us. We’re planting out fall crops, clearing away early summer crops, and doing our best to keep everything in good shape.
As we chug along with the season, during these slower days I’m also trying to observe what’s working and what’s not working on the farm. I try to keep track of where we’re struggling with crops, what kinds of pest and disease pressure we’re facing, and how we can do things differently next year. Elisa and I meet every November and work through the list of every crop we grow, taking notes on successes and failures to inform our crop plant for the coming season. It’s helpful to keep notes while crops are still in the field so that it’s easy to refer back to come the end of the year.
Right now we’re struggling with a bad case of fusarium wilt in our lisianthus crop. We’ve always struggled with fusarium a bit; it’s a soil born disease that’s difficult to get rid of. I’m taking note of what varieties seem to be more resistant to the disease, and also trying to research ways to combat the disease. Though disease struggles can get us feeling dismayed, we’ve also got a lot of successes on the farm these days. Our buckwheat cover crops look great and were perfectly timed between crop successions, which is fantastic! Buckwheat grows extremely quickly and goes to seed quickly, so we wanted to get the timing just right, and I think we nailed it this time.
We also tried a few new plantings for late summer crops this year, and it’s been wonderful so see successes with those. There’s a bit of tweaking I’d like to do with planting timings, but we’re always learning and constantly developing our skills. Careful observation is critical to our success as farmers!
Chinese forget-me-not; one of our summer planting successes!
Spotlight: Elisa
Elisa is the founder and owner of Two Boots Farm. She and her husband Doron purchased the land in 2012, after living and farming in Baltimore City at Whitelock Community Farm.
When she started Two Boots, Elisa grew mostly vegetables, but over the years developed a passion for cut flower production. Elisa is a skilled farmer with a great eye for crop health and awareness of plant needs. She’s strong and speedy, always able to keep up with (our outpace) the crew in bed preparation and planting, even after returning periods when she’s had to focus on office work more than field work. Her creativity and problem solving skills are unmatched.
On top of being an excellent farmer, Elisa also has a great eye for design! Over the years, as the farm’s floral program has grown, Elisa’s designed for numerous weddings and events, creating uniquely beautiful arrangements every time. She’s done a wonderful job of passing her design skills on to those of us who work on the farm, encouraging us to think like florists as we create market bouquets and work on other floral projects.
When Elisa isn’t farming, she’s spending time with Doron, her son Finn, and their dog Harry. Elisa has enjoyed working on a personal landscaping project this year, and is excited to continue to work on landscaping the areas of the farm that aren’t strictly production spaces. She’s loved working on building out the barn over the past two winters, and has lots of big barn ideas. In addition to having lots of projects, Elisa enjoys journaling and meditating in her free time.
I feel incredibly lucky to have spent the past five years working and growing with Elisa, and look forward to our coming adventures! We’ve been through some truly wild times together but we’ve always been able to pull things together and make it work.
Elisa, showing off some late spring bouquets
Elisa, with Duchesse de Nemours peonies in 2021.
We ended up with an unexpectedly large harvest of sunflowers this week— expect to find many bunches at the market!
We’re back at the JFX market on Sunday from 7:00-12:00.
This week’s market stand will feature bouquets, bunches of dahlias, eucalyptus, lisianthus, millet, rudbeckia, snapdragons, ans sunflowers. The produce selection will feature edible flowers, spring mix, shishitos, and basil!
The flowers are stunning right now, and summer produce is rolling in! Stop by your local farmers market this week and pay a visit to your farmers.
Thanking for taking the time to read this and supporting our farm,
Amelia and the rest of the Two Boots crew
We’re avid observers of the milkweed plants scattered about the farm, always looking to see if new monarch caterpillars have appeared. This week we found some extremely tiny ones, too small to catch with the phone camera, and so cute!
We’ve been seeing lots of butterflies on the farm lately! One of the best parts of flower farming.
Jenna, bunching lisianthus for market.
Karen, bunching dahlias for market.