Farm & Field
Late blight: the first part of the name given to the vicious plant disease that affects tomatoes and potatoes is somewhat misleading, at least this year.
Evidence of the fungus has never arrived so early in the season, nor has it ever been so widespread in the United States as it is now, according to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst vegetable program.
And Vineyard farmers, especially organic farmers, are on high alert.
Simon Athearn of Morning Glory was making hay while the sun shone yesterday, though he wasn’t yet ready to bet the farm — just a few acres in fact, out in Katama.
Less agriculturally-minded folk than Mitchell Posin might mistake the sign on South Road advertising compost tea for a joke, something dreamt up by kids searching for the world’s least appealing beverage to flog by the side of the road.
In fact it is there to promote the result of three years’ trial and error by Mr. Posin, the co-owner Allen Farm sheep and wool company: an organic fertilizer solution for the bespoke ecology of Martha’s Vineyard.
The general impression is that the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market is having a slow start to its 35th year. Farmers are weathering a recession as well as the persistent rains which are dampening the enthusiasm of crops and shoppers alike.
Nailing down anything more specific, though, is hard work. There are 40 vendors at the West Tisbury market and as many prognostications about the coming season. The market opens from 9 to noon tomorrow for its second Wednesday, and for the fourth Saturday, July 4.
There was a hoedown at Morning Glory Farm on Saturday. The farm was celebrating its 30th year as an Island agricultural institution, with friends, customers and other farmers showing up to share in the fellowship on the eve of the first day of summer.
The Whippoorwill Farm community supported agriculture program is still accepting members for the coming season, after a wobbly financial year.
The CSA, which serves between 300 to 400 families each summer, moved in 2004 from Thimble Farm to a 43-acre lot of farm land off the Vineyard Haven-Edgartown Road.
The space has better potential, according to farm manager Andrew Woodruff, but it has presented more problems, from poor irrigation to a lack of capital and, last year, a bad growing season.