Fly Girl Farm

August 16, 2022

We wanted to take this time to update our loyal Fly Girl Farm supporters about some of the challenges we are facing at the moment. You may have noticed that we have had a very limited array of produce on our stand this season and we understand that it can be quite disappointing to find your favorite strawberries, spring flowers, tomatoes, peppers, cukes and zukes missing when they would normally be in abundance. Trust us when we say that no one is more disappointed than we are.

We crop planned, invested in, and planted all of these crops, in multiple succession as usual and one by one we suffered losses on almost all of these precious plants. In the spring, our heaviest losses were due to garden symphylans, a centipede-like arthropod that thrives in alluvial soils with high levels of organic matter and optimal soil structure. The garden symphylans are omnivores that feed on germinating seeds, seedlings and plant roots, resulting in the plants inability to grow and thrive.

As the spring and summer progressed we continued to suffer dramatic losses to our next rounds of warmer weather crops. A massive spike in rodent, bird, and rabbit pressure was clearly the culprit as we watched whole successions of peppers, cucumbers, summer squash and tomatoes disappear over night. We first attributed the spike in these populations to a lack of predation on the burn scar, and as we have researched further we continued to learn that, in addition to a lack of predation due to the wildfires, higher than average temperatures through the winter months has led to a record number of pests surviving the winter months and reproducing heavily in the spring. 

We have tried to recuperate some of the losses by planting more lettuce and baby greens than usual, but the resulting market tables are still slim compared to what they would normally be. We’re grateful for and proud of the flowers and delicate greens we are bringing to you each week and hope to fill out a little more as we harvest fall crops like potatoes and winter squash. Thank you for your continued support through this lean time, it means so much that you continue to come and grab a bag of greens, a bouquet, or just to say hi. 

We would be nothing without you.

Love,
K + A