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Reflecting on the 2024 Katchkie Farm Season

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When I look back over the 2024 season here on the farm, there are many things that stand out. I generally categorize those things in terms of crops, weather, people, and “other”. Somehow all these categories come together on this 60-acre parcel of land to make a wealth of memories, learning opportunities, and tasty, wholesome food.

In most years, the “other” category is quite minimal. The majority of the time spent on the farm is on crops, weather, or people with the occasional week when all the machines seem to need attention. This year we added a building project to the mix. After many years of barely finding seasonal housing, we decided to add on-farm accommodation for some of the farm employees.

I have to say that when starting a completely new project, ignorance is bliss. Little did I know back in January that it would take over 8 months of paperwork, inspections, engineering plans, a new septic system, and several hundred yards of soil to make on-farm housing a reality. Now that everything is in place, it seems like it has been there forever. As available housing remains an issue for the agricultural workforce, it is such an asset to be able to have this as a resource.

For me, the most dynamic part of the farm is the crops. It is this intersection where weather, people, and soil meet to create something unique. Luckily, the people aspect of the farm has been very steady. For as long as I have been at Katchkie, the core group of workers has remained the same. The farm crew is always ready to do what is needed and that is indispensable!

The weather, however, is not so steady. This year’s spring and part of the summer seemed a bit rainy, but then we had the driest fall that I can remember. The dry weather generally helps us to get our work done, but the only reason we have work to be done is because we have had rain beforehand. We have an amazing irrigation source on the farm that we can lean into during the dry weather. There are also enough rainy times throughout the year when the local water table as well as our irrigation source are replenished. Were this farm in a more brittle environment, a dry stretch would put us in a very different situation.

The dry weather taught me a great deal about fertility management on the farm. For many years I thought of plant nutrition in terms of the root hairs exchanging ions from soil particles. I also still had the idea that nitrogen was the main driver in terms of plant growth. At some point this year I discovered Dr. James White’s work on endophytes and microbial digestion in plants. Plants engulf and digest microbes in order to obtain the minerals they need. The more diverse the microbial population is that lives in the soil, the more there is for the plant and in turn the plant will give even more back to the soil. It is quite a picture both in terms of living nutrition as well as the fact that we do not have to view plants in a parasitic way if we understand how to create healthy growing conditions.

I also became aware of how excess nitrogen (N), even in the form of compost or even cover crops can be detrimental for plant health. Firstly, too much N will cause an imbalance in the auxin and cytokinin hormonal balance in plants which disproportionately sends available photosynthetic sugars to the growing tips and the fruit at the expense of the roots. This will produce a weak, leggy plant. Excess N also creates higher metabolic demands on the plant which in turn will cause an increased need for water. Moving our fertility system away from N dominance and into a more balanced system really shined with healthy fall crops this year that needed much less water. There were many crops that had a completely different expression in their growth. One great example was our fall purple broccoli. We usually have to wait until we cut off the first head for the side shoots to start to grow.

Using a more balanced fertility with minimal N created a plant that was more reproductively dominant which gave abundant side shoots right from the first cutting. As a farmer, the implications of minimizing N usage, focusing plant nutrition in a balanced way through the use of diverse cover crops, and soil stimulating minerals has so much potential. I have to say that as the days were waning this year and the season was slowing down, I was a bit saddened that the season was coming to an end. There was so much more food that I wanted to grow!

For that, I will have a few more months to wait. For the time being I will enjoy searching the seed catalogues and talking to fellow growers for ever more interesting and tasty varieties that will bring new color or depth to the CSA for 2025. I am very much looking forward to the next growing season and hope you will join us!

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