Subject: Asian pears in this week's CSA [plus, the gophers got the taters] 08/31/2007 08:47:28 AM PST Dear subscribers: This week's share will feature Asian Pears, as well as snap beans, salad mix, summer squash, and cukes. The pears are from Noe, a Vietnamese neighbor to the Cora Garden (see http://trashfactory.net/sunrootgardens/html/cora.html), who generously shared his (non-sprayed) pears with me last year, too. Potato update: Went out to Try/On Life Community Farm last Sunday and checked on the potatoes. About two months ago their foliage had stopped growing. I wasn't super worried about that since weather- (or whatever-) related pauses in vegetable growth happen sometimes, but I became concerned when -- a couple-three weeks later -- the leaves began showing holes (from black spider mites? grasshoppers?) and then turn yellow-ish. Tater foliage turns yellowish when the roots are ready, but this seemed premature. Every week I checked them. Then they went from stalled-out to declining in the 10 days previous to last Sunday. So we dug 6 of the 10 rows up, which left 3. One row had already been unearthed for the CSA Dinner Party and was definitely a lower-than-expected harvest, but I didn't know whether that was just that particular variety. (I planted seven different varieties altogether.) The rows were 45-50 feet long each. One could reasonably expect 50-75 pounds of potatoes from each row, even with little-to-no artificial irrigation. (Taters have been dry-farmed since time-out-of-mind in low-rainfall areas in 'the U.S.', to say nothing of their region of origin in the arid Andes Mountains.) However, what we got was 2-5 pounds per row. Yes, you read that right: 2-5 pounds per row. That's what I would term a "spectacular crop failure" (as in, it's a spectacle what a failure it is). So what happened? When we dug up the rows, I got down on my hands and knees to check it out thoroughly. Everywhere I found holes and tunnels and little piles of dug-earth. What's that mean? GOPHERS! Yup, the gophers got our potatoes. Just about all of them. The remaining three rows don't seem AS affected, so I'll dig those up later and we'll see. But I'm not expecting much. So, what have I learned from this? 1) Don't plant taters -- or any other root crop -- at Try/On. (The house's vegetable garden there, which is mostly non-root veggies, seems untouched by the gophers.) 2) Now that I recognize the signs of gopher invasion, consider possible courses of action. These include, but are not limited to: traps, planting Euphorbia lathrys (which they don't like), sulphur ignition in the holes (a method that is acceptable under USDA organic standards), training small dogs to get them out, or finding a friend with a 22 to sit out there and pick 'em off as they appear. Most practical, however, seems to be to avoid planting gopher food where gophers have already made their home. So... everyone gets a very lovely tater sampler this week. They are colorful, delicious tubers. I'm sure they'll be enjoyable. There's just not as many of them as expected. That's the news for now. Time to go work on stuff. See you soon! Your Farmer, Kollibri