Farm Updates

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2024 Sweet Corn began on July 5th and ended on September 30th. We continued at the Dubuque Outdoor Farmers' Market through October.  We do not participate in the indoor winter farmers' market.  During the fall we will be seeding our fields with cover crops, strawberry field weeding, greenhouse repair, implement maintenance, and planning for the 2025 season.  This is also time for us to spend with our families and recuperate after a long season of hard work.  We will begin planting seeds in our kitchen in late January 2025.  We will start planting our hanging flower baskets in our greenhouse in early March 2025.  The spring becomes increasingly busy as we plant our greenhouses with tomato seedlings in mid March, and continue with multiple plantings of our outdoor produce.  We are typically beginning to plant sweet corn by the first or second week of April, weather dependent.

2024 was one of our more challenging years.  We experienced heavy rains with high winds in the first half of our season, which caused flash flooding, erosion, fertilizer reduction, and other problems.  Mid-season we experienced a derecho which flattened one of our plantings.  Late season we had a lack of rain and dealt with many critters that wanted to feast on our corn.  We are hoping to have more stable weather conditions in 2025.

During the last 10 years, our sweet corn has begun between July 3rd and July 14.  Our earliest ever start to our sweet corn season was on June 24, 2012.  The timing of our first sweet corn date depends completely on the weather in the early growing season.  Our sweet corn typically ends in mid-late September, all weather dependent.  We have typically planted our first sweet corn between April 1st - April 22th.