Blame it on the Heat Exhaustion

Blame it on the Heat Exhaustion
'Squash Hill' Midsummer

On one of these 90's-degree days we've been having, I finished weeding a bed in the field midday and felt the itch to write.  Welp...blame it on the heat exhaustion but I wrote about farming in heat waves again...but more in a survival guide fashion :).  For better or worse read on...

When outdoor conditions are not easy on living things, we must react accordingly.  Kind folks in our lives have checked in on us over the past month...are you guys doing okay in this heat?  I'll tell you what I told them...I feel like we are lucky after  reading about Texas or even Californian growers.  Though we have all wilted at one point or another from excessive heat this year, in southern Ohio we maintain a good amount of moisture which enables our plants to survive the shock of back to back heat waves.

Just when we have been starting to sweat days of heat without rain...thunder clouds have rolled in and rehydrated the silty-clay soils we have, which hold water much better than sandy soils.  In between Mother Nature's water works, we rotate our irrigation system throughout the field...making sure to never abuse our well which also provides for our house.  Plants store water.  They also put down roots which can find water deeper below the surface.  However, push comes to shove at some point and they need deep watering from the sky to really put on fruit or leaves.  Storms provide more than just water to the plants...as I've written about before in my absolute starstruck-ness...there is a whole chemical exchange that happens in a storm.  Nitrogen is fixed in the soil which feeds the plants some of that natural Miracle Gro that they love.

Okay. Okay.  All this plant talk may have put some of you to sleep.  What about the sheep? Chickens?  What about us?

Animals are so much more resilient than us :P.  However...a lot of that is due to our breed selection.  Consider this: The conventional chicken breed which we raised for meat production years ago, the cornish cross, has been overbred for extremely fast growth and disproportionate growth (think large breasts for lot of white meat).  These chickens became nearly immobile, weighed down from their excess of white meat.  They lost feathers on their bellies and chests from always laying down.  When we would walk them to a new area to give them access to fresh pasture, we would occasionally see a bird experience a heart attack.  This type of chicken is the cheapest to raise as it grows 3 weeks faster to market weight than the more natural and original version of a chicken.  That means three weeks less of feed to factor into the pricing of the finished product.  This breed of chicken represents 90-something percent of the chicken raised and eaten in the States.  After raising this breed as apprentices during our learning years, we decided we would rather raise chicken that has a better chance of thriving, even if it cost us more to raise and even if we had to explain to customers why it is more expensive than industry chicken.  All of this is to say...if you choose the resilient breeds which resulted more from natural selection than from fast/cheap/unhealthy practices, they have a better chance of surviving heat.  

Okay...a great tangent all to say that our animals handle the heat and complain a whole lot less than us in the summer heat when we make sure they have access to cold water, shade, and low stress (ie plenty of food and space to roam).

As for we humans...our key to success and appropriate use of our energy is to rise early and work in the field when the sun is still low in the sky.  As the sun rises, we gravitate toward the shade: seeding trays of veggies and microgreens in the barn, clipping of shoots in the washroom, washing and packing of veggies, computer work (ordering, facilitating wholesale and retail orders, Instagramming to keep everyone in the know or get on our soapbox ;P), baking, planning for our fieldwork, cooking, down time with the kids, errand running, deliveries.  And then after dinner...more fieldwork while the sun sinks low.  Inevitably, when we are 'in the weeds' this time of the year, we find ourselves weeding in the heat of the day, breaking our best laid plan as seen above.  Those are the days when our brains get foggy enough after working in high heat, when we've soaked our clothes through as our bodies attempt to moderate their temperature, when evenings are a bit hazy and we end up just making it to our bedtime routine.  

So that's how we do it...one day blending into the next until all of the sudden a cool fall morning greets us and our bodies are thankful for the instinct to grab a sweatshirt.  It's just around the corner now :).