Summer Creek Farm this week

Here's some snippets from Farmer Rick at Summer Creek Farm this week:

July is hectic since many of vegetable crops are coming in, especially tomatoes which are a major crop for us. Additionally we are harvesting our wheat. We plant about 20 ac of wheat at three separate locations. During wheat harvest this year my combine, which is the machine that harvests the wheat and separates the grain from the straw blew a tire. The cost of a tire for the combine was $1000.00 and $300.00 to have it installed. Since the machine was located in the field I have to call in a special truck that can lift the tire on the machine, as well as lift a 8 ton machine in the air. To say the least this was not a expense we had planned on. Once repaired wheat harvest proceeded and our crop is now in storage. It did get me thinking though with all the equipment on the farm we have over $10,000.00 invested in just tires!

We have also been very dry, our rainfall in May was perfect, over 4". In June and July our rainfall was 1.5" each month, well below needed. We have been working with irrigation to keep crops growing well.

Recent cold weather has slowed tomato ripening but is excellent for beans. You should see beans, tomatoes and peppers [this week].