This is a letter from one farmer to all the eaters out there. This is a small look into how the extreme weather changes from climate change is affecting your farmer neighbors. I hope this will help folks understand what we’re up against, what to expect from your hard-working farmers, farm-workers & ranchers and what you can do to help.

Water

This morning my neighbor and mentor Sandy called with news that set my day in motion and made my heart sink. “We’re out of water. We’re trying to figure something out, but I had nightmares about it all night. This is bad.”

Sandy and her husband Dick are used to their water sources–a ditch and a spring–running dry for a few weeks at the end of August. This year it happened July 18th. And they are not the only ones. I had already planned to go borrow some 50 gallon barrels from some friends this morning to help another neighbor, Jorge, who’s out of water. He bought his place a year ago along with five steers–it was a dream he worked toward for the last 25 years. He relied on the ditch to water them and now he is in trouble. Yesterday we made due hauling 5 gallon buckets from our place to his, but today we needed a better solution.

Sandy had already been preparing for lower flows for several weeks. She put shade cloth on four of her greenhouses to reduce heat and conserve water. She was trying to get more of her mature native plants out the door and decrease her inventory. My other mentors, Andrea & Tony, had seen the drought coming and started decreasing their herd in April to prepare. I followed their lead and didn’t buy cattle this year because I was worried about having enough pasture. We all did the best we could to prepare. Year by year we are trying to build resilience into our soil and systems, but at some point, it is out of our hands. Sandy didn’t know when the water would dry up. Andrea didn’t know her pump switch would fail in the middle of this drought and she’d have to scramble to get animals watered and the pump fixed.

As each of these issues arose for us, we leaned on each other and on other neighbors for help. One loaned us an additional shade cloth. One brought over huge tanks to store water. I searched for 50 gallon barrels to haul water. My dad offered up his 500 gallon water tank. Some friends from town dropped everything to come help harvest a bed of beets that we couldn’t water and pull the shade cloth over the greenhouse. We are working together because we have developed a functional community that acts for mutual aid. What we don’t have is climate policy that will keep this situation from repeating and worsening.

HEAT

The old joke is “if you have to buy zucchinis, you don’t have any friends.” This year I planted zucchinis three times by seed and finally transplanted them into the ground from seed pots. First they were killed off by very low temperatures. Then they wouldn’t germinate because of the very early high temperatures. Now, after weeks over 100 degrees followed by weeks over 90 degrees, they are slowly coming along. I’m a professional–I should be able to grow a zucchini! Bu, the climate change-driven temperatures are out of my hands and the multiple zucchini failures are outside my experience.

One thing many folks might not understand is that each species of plant has ideal heat and soil temperature ranges. Spinach is a spring crop because it hates hot temperatures. Mature plants bolt (go to flower) after a few days of hot temperatures, and the seeds won’t even germinate if the soil is over 85 degrees.

Similarly, while tomatoes love heat, but their blossoms are particular. If the nights get below 55F or stay above 75F, the flowers will drop, which means less fruit. Daytime temperatures above 90F can also cause blossom drop. Prolonged high day and night temperatures are the worst, which is what we’ve had. When I look out at my tomato plants that should be heavy with big green fruit, I see that the excessive heat has left me with only a smattering of fruit and a handful of blossoms.

Perhaps the biggest source of stress for me during the heat is concern for my co-workers and livestock. We have started working earlier and quitting earlier in order to stay safe. Even at 90, much less 100 or 110, folks start to wilt. A farm worker in the Willamette Valley died working during the heat wave in late June. I take this concern seriously because usually by the time folks know they are in trouble it is very serious.

We do the best we can for livestock making sure they have plenty of shade and cold water. My daughter’s bunny even got to live in the luxury of the mudroom for a few weeks during the heat wave.

We just have to make adjustments and adaptations as the temperatures spike but is this a permanent trend? Climate projections says yes. I keep asking myself, how do I keep my co-workers safe out in the field? How do I keep farming when nothing wants to germinate in this heat? I have to be able to plant continuously through the season to feed the people in my community. If I can’t direct seed my crops, I will need more space, more water and more labor to transplant more crops. How can I afford this or ramp up in time?

SMOKE

Just like heat, smoke makes me worry about my co-workers. I watch the air quality index, require masks, reduce hours, take more breaks, find things to do inside–but it is hard to know what the best course of action is. I still need to farm when it is smokey. My co-workers still need a paycheck and cutting hours hurts them and productivity on the farm. As I write this the bindweed is taking over and beds go unplanted as we try to avoid working outside in the smoke. We will see the consequences of these decisions in a few short weeks when I don’t have enough lettuce to fill orders or miss my window for the final crop of carrots.

One thing folks don’t realize is that unhealthy levels of wildfire smoke also slows down the ripening of produce. Tomatoes can’t ripen without enough sunlight. Even wheat maturity slows when there is too much smoke in the air. Farmers all have a lot of tricks, but no one can make crops ripen when the sun is blocked out.

WHAT EATERS CAN DO

1. Be patient with us

We growers are up against a lot right now–water, heat, smoke, and the regular stuff too. Your tomatoes may be late this year. You may not be able to get lettuce in the heat of August. Please understand we’re doing our best to plan and adapt, but we’re seeing problems we haven’t encountered before.

2. Heed the “Bat Call”

When I have an emergency, I send out a “Bat Call” (a text message rather than a spotlight in the sky.) I ask for folks to come help me. Tell your farmer and rancher friends to put you on their “Bat Call” list. Today when I sent out the Bat Call around our water emergency, I had friends and a husband show up and we got done in two hours what it would have taken me all day to do.

3. Push for climate change legislation NOW

Call your members of Congress and tell them to support climate change legislation in the current infrastructure bill (aka “Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework as of July 2021.) This life-changing, world-changing, critical legislation may be compromised out of the bill. Tell your members of Congress you want clean energy production, a Green New Deal, and effective climate change mitigation NOW.

(P.S. Calling is more effective than emailing your reps. It just takes a few minutes! Once is not enough. Do it as daily as possible!)

Find phone numbers for your members of Congress here: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

Thank you for reading and for acting.

Your farmer,

Nella Mae

It is March 1st, so it is time to start thinking about starting your tomatoes indoors. Below I outline my tips for starting tomatoes in my climate, zone 6B in northeast Oregon.

Tip 1: Don’t start too early! They will catch up.

In northeast Oregon zone 6B, it isn’t really safe to transplant your tomatoes outside until June. The earlier you start your plants, the more of your house they will take over before they can go outside. Also, the earlier you start them, the deeper the hole and the more time it will take to transplant them outside.

I shoot for a plan that is about 8 inches tall and no more than 12 inches. However, my friends at Val’s Veggies in Medical Springs plant them much smaller and they catch up easily. Seeing how Val’s does it has made me want to plant smaller and smaller plants. I think smaller starts are generally more healthy because they have less time to develop problems or get leggy.

I think planting any time in March is safe for a healthy crop. Maybe try planting some tomatoes early and some later in March this year and see what works for you. Notice if the starts catch up with each other in size before planting and what happens with transplants too.

Tip 2: One seed per pot

I’m all about reducing complexity and work down the road. If you can carefully put one seed per pot or planting tray cell, it is a lot easier than trying to carefully disentangle tiny seedlings or thinning them later.

Tip 3: Big, deep pots

I like to start my tomatoes in large, deep tubes because I don’t have time to transplant 400 plants up from small trays. If you do start in small trays, make sure you transplant up to larger pots once they get bigger. Remember there should be at least the same depth for roots as you have for the shoot above ground. What I mean is you don’t want a two foot tall plant in a shallow pot. It is better to have a pot that is too big than too small.

Tip 4: Lots of light

Many people ask, “why are my tomatoes so spindly?” Answer: Not enough light! If your plants are consistently “leggy” your window isn’t doing the trick and you need a grow light.

Tip 5: Watch for disease & pests

We have trouble with mice getting into our greenhouse at night and mowing down young tomatoes and peppers. We set traps to reduce loss. Slugs will do the same thing, so consider leaving Sluggo pellets around your plants.

If you’re a smoker, do not touch your tomato plants without gloves. Tobacco mosaic virus can easily spread from your hands to tomatoes and it is bad. Give your plants the best start.

Tip 6: Whack ’em back

If your tomatoes get really healthy, and tall with thick stems, you can whack them back without worry. If they are making a jungle in your house or just getting too darn tall, it is important to prune them for a better transplant. Again, you want a 50/50 root to shoot ratio. If anything, you should have more/deeper roots than you have shoots above ground.

Remember to pluck off flowers and fruit before you transplant them. Both just waste your plant’s energy at the beginning of the season when they should be putting on vegetation rather than fruits and flowers.

Tip 7: Don’t transplant too early!

At our farm, we’ve had frost as late as Father’s Day often. If you plant before Father’s Day in June, be vigilant. You can use “Walls o’ Water” or remay/cloche to keep the frost off, but they only provide so much frost protection.

At our farm, we plant tomatoes inside the hoop house about May 15th and plant outside after Father’s Day. A lot of folks in our valley say, “wait to plant until the snow is off Mount Emily.” So you can try that if you want.

Keep an eye on the 7-day weather forecast to look for a good time to plant. I know the weather report for our farm is usually correct when it comes to precipitation, but wrong on the forecasted low temperatures. I usually just subtract 9 degrees to the forecast for a more accurate estimate.

Again, if your plants are huge but you don’t think the conditions are right for transplanting, just prune them back and wait.

Those are my tips! Thank you for reading.

Your grateful farmer,

Nella Mae