THE BEET: VOLUME 18; WEEK 16
FULL SHARE & GREEN HALF SHARE PICK UP TONIGHT
Pick up today: 5pm - 7:30pm at PS 56 on the corner of Gates and Downing
This Week's Share
Spinach
‘Delicata’ squash
Sweet corn
Arugula
Yellow bulb onions
Assorted tomatoes (perhaps the last)
Green leaf lettuce
‘Valentino’ green beans
And one or two peppers, eggplants, squashes or cucumbers
Fruit: Yonder Farm’s plums. Apples and pears and cider will be coming soon
Delivery #16, Week of September 23, 2019
What’s new on the farm?
It will come as no surprise to anyone who has been here that we chose this farm for its remoteness, its proximity to wild places and its topography as much as for its horticultural prospects. We are in farm country, but the northern part of our farm in particular has regular visitors from the wilder side of our often ineffective fence, including moose, bears, deer, foxes, turkeys, snapping turtles and Great Blue Herons. For the most part, we coexist peacefully with our wild neighbors. And I think that that is largely because we have left them a fair amount of undeveloped habitat, including woodland, swamp and hillsides full of grasses, raspberries, rosehips, thistles and goldenrod.
Barn swallows occupy nearly every outbuilding on our farm. No matter how clever we think we are in battening the equipment barn doors and windows, they (and House Sparrows) find a way inside. The acrobatics involved in their feeding of their young is entertaining to watch. They have already left for the Southern Hemisphere, and our barn is now quiet. I have read that Barn Swallows are the most widespread bird species in the world. Although they have demonstrated a degree of success in their adaptation to the “Anthropocene” (they used to live in caves, but now largely occupy portions of buildings), they have declined in northern places by 50% since the 1980s. They are insectivores, and the demise of insect populations is, I imagine, the likely immediate cause.
Killdeer spend their summers here. They nest on the ground throughout the growing season, producing multiple broods of little long-legged downy feather balls. We mark their nests when we find them in farm fields so that we don’t harm them when working on tractors. Their broken wing act is astounding. They eat seeds and ground dwelling insects. I saw several last week, but they are now leaving the area for their wintering grounds in Mexico and South America. Their populations have declined 47% according to the North American Breeding Birds Survey.
The call of Blue Jay is especially notable this time of year. They have come down from the mountains to our north, heralding the arrival of fall. Some will stick around all winter long; others will head southward. According to the Survey, the Jay population has declined 29% since 1966. Goldfinches, which are seed eaters, time their nest building to coincide with the flowering of thistles. It seems to us that there are fewer of these lovely, small, bright yellow birds around our farm, and the Survey indicates that they have experienced a small decline.
We have been told in recent weeks that many common bird species are in steep decline because of the loss of habitat, the loss of insects, seeds and berries they feed on, to attack by cats - both domestic and feral, to physical impact against cars, wires and buildings, to exposure to pesticides, and to causes unknown. Not every bird species is in decline, but the news is very bad. What to do? There are small but meaningful steps: Put up bird feeders and nest boxes, grow a garden, leave your lawn unmowed, keep your cat inside. Protest the government to take global warming seriously.
Robins nest in the most unusual places here - under the hood of the old Farmall, on the safety grill of the mulch spreader, on grape trellis posts. They have a varied diet: from insects and worms in spring to fruits in the fall and winter. In a rare instance of good news, their breeding populations appear stable - it seems they benefit from human development and the structures and plant foods that come with it. Bluebird numbers, too, seem to be stable, and installing Bluebird boxes appears to have helped.
Learning our role in the demise of the creatures we share the planet with is a sad but essential part of reversing these trends. The forces behind them may appear to be too big for any of us to do much about, but then I look around our little place and I find hope in the small things that all of us can do.
Best wishes, Ted