Most of you know me as your local lettuce farmer. I love growing lettuce - it's crunchy, colourful, relatively quick growing and pairs beautifully with pretty much anything. Personally, I don't add anything to my salads. I love the simplicity of lettuce dressed with a delicious house made vinaigrette!
Seeing you all enjoy my lettuce warms my heart - it brings me joy and fuels me through hard times. I pride myself in delivering you a damn good lettuce mix - but unfortunately this year has been like no other.
Way back in March when I was creating my planting plan, there were sooo many unknowns. Will the restaurants be open? Will there be any tourists? How should we sell our product? In a contact-less world, how do we get our product safely to consumers? Finding answers to these questions proved to be pretty tricky.
And then that summer-long heat wave hit us, bringing with it the hottest, driest summer I've ever experienced. I'm so thankful that I finally had my irrigation system up and running. Not sure what the garden would look like without it...probably crisp and brown. Yes, the irrigation system was a blessing, but we also faced a pretty steep learning curve! I now know that there's a very fine line between dry and rot, especially when outdoor temps linger around 30 degrees.
As many of you have already noticed, this year hasn't been our best lettuce season. Actually, it's been really tough. But all we can do at this point is look back and say...
'ok, that just happened, now how do we do better next year!'.
Year after year, we farmers simply try our best. We celebrate our successes all while trying not to get too caught up on our mistakes by simply noting them and planning to do better year. Isn't that's how instincts are created??? - years of trial and error till you've experienced enough to know what to do in most situations.
So, my friends, I do apologize for the low supply of lettuce this year, but be reassured that I'm taking real good notes and dreaming big for next year!