Our Farm by Earth Flora Inc. Vibrant and Living Produce, Sustainably Grown.

With the deluge of rain, we thought we could write about some fun practices we have in the farm connected to rain.

Our farm just has too much water. There’s a nearby spring. Not only that, we get more than 100 inches of rain every year.  Much as we appreciate what the rains do to our plants and our soil, she just showers us too much sometimes. And being that farming is dependent on good weather, we often have to know whether the day is a day for watering the plants, or staying put in our huts. Since our weather station has not been so accurate, oftentimes wrong (!) we have come to rely on our very own homemade farming predictors for rain.

• Our most accurate Weatherman is the busy bee.  When they come buzzing and visit our farm early in the morning, we can expect the entire day to be sunny.  When they decide to stay snug in their hives, the rains will come. Really, this method has been proven right countless times.
• The cows have their share in announcing the rains too. They lie down in the fields a little before the rains come.
• Birds are said to fly low when the rains are coming for a visit.
• Another way we can tell is when the humidity in the farm is unusually high.  When our farm manager’s curly hair gets unusually frizzy, we expect the rain. SERIOUSLY! Well that, and a barometer registering a low atmospheric pressure.
• The leaves on nearby trees react to the increase in humidity as well by curling up or turning their undersides to the sky.

Well, these are some of our techniques. Other people rely on the moon (ring around predicts rain the next day) the sky (red in the morning) and the clouds to foretell rain. I’m sure you have yours too. As for me, I like wetting my finger and holding it up to see if lightning will strike.