We're finally feeling better now about crop production on North Star Farms.

After nearly a month of stagnating crops mostly because of overnight cold temperatures and lack of rain, which is unusual for June, the crops are finally beginning to become productive.

We've actually received signficant rainfall twice this week and that was after spending nearly all of last Sunday irrigating. So, ample moisture has helped as well.

The rain actually hit us pretty hard and bent some of the plants as I looked at them on Thursday night. But there is some good news.

I pulled a carrot and ate it, I pulled a turnip and ate it and I pulled a beet and ate it. They are small yet, but I expect in one more week (July 17) we will have produce to deliver. 

As a matter of fact, I clipped garlic scapes once again, making it the third time that I've done that in two weeks. We now have 6 pounds of garlic scapes in the refrigerator so that is a good start.

It looks like I'm going to have the best beet crop I've ever had. They look awesome, as do the potatoes.

And, my trusty (Nova) Scotia tomatoes are coming through. I found one plant last night that is blooming so we are going to have tomatoes. It took a long time, but the tomato plants look fantastic. Cucumber and cantaloupe plants look really healthy as well.

Finally, the peas. Some of the peas didn't come up, but the ones that did look great and the pods are filling nicely now that we've had some rain. 

I took no pleasure in telling our CSA shareholders that delivery would be delayed and personally, I was disappointed that production hadn't progressed faster, but now, I'm feeling more confident about our first delivery on July 17. 

Thanks everyone for your patience and we look forward to seeing you July 17 in Bismarck.

In the meantime, we have a farm house to tear down so we can set up our first-of-a-kind in North Dakota, solar greenhouse to grow certified organic seedlings.