Week 6 on the Farm: Potatoes (& Climate Change)!

Weather forecast: Tuesday, 100% chance of rain. Wednesday, high of 78 F, 20% chance of rain.

We're dancing around the rain this week on the farm as we try to get as many seeds and plants in the ground as possible in between rain events. This is the time of year when we really start to feel our vulnerability and personal relationship to climate, as our daily and sometimes even hourly activities become dictated by what's happening with the weather. Planting at the right time under the right weather conditions is really important in getting a crop off to a good start--sometimes it can mean the difference between having a crop to harvest or not! That's why if you drove past my house at 2am this past Sunday you would have seen me out in the garden planting carrots and radishes by the light of my headlamp in order to get them in before Monday morning's rain.

One reason that climate change is of such concern to farmers is that as weather patterns become more extreme and difficult to predict, our old assumptions about how to work with the weather may no longer serve us. We'll have to figure out how to adapt.

Because of Tuesday's rain and because the Wednesday farm group will most likely miss a farm class due to DOGL in the next couple of weeks, I've offered the Tuesday farm group the option of not coming out to the farm this week. By Wednesday afternoon, I hope the ground will be dry enough to do some planting. One crop I hope to get in this week is potatoes.

Here are two videos that describe two very different food systems involving potatoes. The first is 10 minutes; the second is 15 minutes long. Take a look and let's talk about the implications of each. Which system do you think will best feed us and future generations?

100 Circle Farms, Washington State: http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/see_what_we_are_made_of/meet_our_suppliers/100_circle_farms.html

Potato Park, Peru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLI2KySC9-U

And here's the website for the Potato Park if you'd like to learn more: http://www.parquedelapapa.org/.