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turnips to tomatoes

3/30/2015

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It seems no matter how much greenhouse space one has, it fills up and runs out in no time.

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These Sungold cherry tomato plants needed to get planted out in the big greenhouse, oh, yesterday...

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...right here, where there are a few hundred pounds of turnips growing, that took a bit longer to mature than expected.  You know, those sweet little Japanese 'Hakurei' salad turnips you all love that right this moment, are at the perfect sweet, crisp golf-ball-sized stage.  If you want your little orange cherry tomatoes in June, it looks like you'll all need to eat lots of turnips this week!  Our two favorite ways to eat these turnips are either sliced and quickly sauteed in a little sweet butter, or pulled straight from the ground, roughly brushed off, and munched down raw.

I'd hoped to have asparagus for you this week, but the hard freeze this weekend set it back a few steps; temperatures below about 30 will melt every spear that's started to emerge.  Hopefully next week.  Just orange carrots this week; the remaining yellow and purple carrots are fairly small.  We're going to try and let them fatten up for a week or two; otherwise we'd likely be out of our 'rainbow' carrots before the end of the week.

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Lush deep green pastures are fueling the hens to produce an abundance of eggs, with the darkest, richest yolks of the season.  Just a few sweet potatoes remaining until the next harvest in fall; we will likely run out before the end of the week - if you want a few more, get your order in early!

Many of you have been asking when our tomato and pepper starts will be ready.  I shoot for April 15.  Warm sunny days might bring them on a little earlier, cool overcast days might make them a little later.  I've managed to not kill anything yet, and expect the full list to be ready in about three weeks.  Thinking I had extra greenhouse space this year (heh) I planted a lot of extra cucumber and squash starts as well...I'll try to get this list updated on the website later tonight.  It's too early to be planting tomatoes anyway.  If you're itching to get your hands dirty, I do have some extra cool-season starts available this week only: 'Red Russian' kale, 'Farao' green cabbage,' 'Red Express' red cabbage, and 'Snowball' cauliflower.  All are from organic seeds purchased from Johnny's Seeds, grown by yours truly.
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hello spring, we missed you so

3/23/2015

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enough spinach to feed Popeye for a lifetime
I don't think I've ever gotten so much planted in one week as I did last week, trying to get the farm caught up.  A quarter-acre of onions, carrots, potatoes and beets.  Another field of spring greens and brassicas.  Most of the spring transplants are finally in the ground and growing on.  The greenhouse is full to bursting with tomato and pepper starts, I spent a good part of the day today sowing flat after flat with summer squash and cucumber seeds.  Just a bit more warm, dry weather, and we'll start working up ground for summer crops.

It feels like the farm woke up out of winter overnight.  The blueberries are on the cusp of blooming, the perennial herbs are beginning to come back to life.  I picked the first tiny handful of asparagus of the season early this morning; with a bit more heat and light to the days there should be enough to share soon.  There are a few more 'Black Spanish' storage radishes and leeks available this week.  I was sure the snow and ice had done the last of them in, but they've greened back up nicely, even so far as to be able to include the leafy green tops with your radish roots!  We are getting down to the last of the sweet potatoes, but are literally over-run with spinach and eggs right now...can we make it a mandatory week for eggs florentine?

Unrelated directly to farming; thank you all so much for your kind words and thoughts last week regarding Andy and his mother.  My apologies for not getting around to replying to everyone individually, last week was a bit overwhelming.  To answer most of your questions: Andy did make it home safe and sound after a marathon trip on Tuesday afternoon.  He was able to see his mother one more time, she unfortunately then passed away early Wednesday morning.  She was laid to rest on Saturday; may the lovely lady who raised my favorite person in this world rest in peace.  Andy does not have to return to the Middle East for the remainder of his scheduled deployment.  We're now looking forward to a long string of very uneventful weeks of picking and planting!

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first tiny asparagus harvest...enough to share soon!
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ready, set...go!

3/16/2015

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Finally! dry enough by this afternoon to get the bulk of the ground turned over for the spring crops.  I sort of pushed and shoved the tiller through the least muddy spot on the farm last week, and got the peas and a few other direct-sown greens and earliest things planted.  The transplants are overflowing out of the greenhouse, itching to get in the ground...and they will by the end of this week.  A couple hundred pounds of seed potatoes and the 5000 or so onion starts can finally go out, beets and carrots still to plant.  It's go, go, go from here; should be an interesting week or two getting caught up!

I'm only (ha) a good four weeks behind; I usually try to start planting mid-February.  Which was about when it started snowing, sleeting, and dipping down into record low temperatures for the following three weeks.  Plants start putting on new growth exponentially faster as spring progresses, and so I'm hoping the earliest crops will catch up at a certain point, and we won't see too much of a delay at the final harvest stage.  Friday, March 20th, marks my favorite day of the year: the first day of spring!

I had written most of the above pre-dawn this morning, but then...

I don't typically like to get into personal issues in this space.  Some of you know that my husband Andy is a reservist in the Air Force, and has been deployed to the Middle East for the past few months.  He was scheduled to be gone for yet another 4-6 weeks.  His mother's health is rapidly failing, to the point his CO conceded just an hour or two ago to pull him out early on a flight home tonight.  This week is such a mixed bag, I don't know whether I'm coming or going.  I hate to cancel orders and deliveries again for the week after missing several weeks recently due to weather, but it is what it is.  I've been sitting here trying to figure out how to plant out half a farm before it rains again Thursday night, handle the weeks' picking and deliveries, and grapple with a family emergency in the next few days.  Superwoman is not my middle name; something's gotta give for now. 

We'll see you next week when the multiple whirlwinds have hopefully subsided.  Please keep Andy and his mother and family members in your thoughts and prayers this week.
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ready, set...wait

3/9/2015

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I am incredibly thankful that spring seems to have arrived at last!  Unfortunately, still waiting for mud season to pass.  All the frozen wet stuff over the past few weeks has long since melted, but the soil needs to dry out and warm up a fair bit more before planting can begin out in the fields.  Ever impatient, I tried thwacking the mud up into a few beds by hand this morning, but it's still too wet for even that.  The soil calls all the cards - try and mess around with it when it's waterlogged, and it turns into an unmanageable block of concrete that won't grow a darn thing when it does finally dry out.  So spring's crops are still hanging out in the greenhouse, and I'm potting them up as they outgrow their initial flats to try and keep everything steadily growing on.  Keep fanning those rain clouds out of here!

Crop losses from the ridiculously unseasonal deep freezer we've all been living in lately, combined with what's typically a less bountiful time of year anyway means there's not going to be much variety for the next month.  I'm sorry about that, but farmers get to work with whatever nature decides to throw at us, and it isn't always beneficial.  The main farmers' market season starts in (yikes!) six weeks.  This weekend I turned over most of the big greenhouse (the only relatively dry spot I've got on the farm) and replanted it with the fastest-growing goodies I could find.  Hopefully we'll have a better selection of produce by mid-April.

For gardeners out there dreaming about their own plans for this summer, our heirloom tomato and pepper plants are growing up nicely, and should be ready by mid-April.  You can check out the list of this year's offerings here.  As always, some new varieties to try, and some old favorites.  I also usually have smaller amounts of other garden plants available as progress is made through the farm plantings; stay tuned!

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tomato starts
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tiny signs of spring

3/2/2015

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it's March now, so no one's allowed to utter the "S" word until next winter. 

I feel like I've been living in an old black-and-white silent film for weeks, except for the sound of tree limbs in the woods cracking under the weight of ice, crashing to the ground.  Frozen fingers, cold wet feet, power outages, backed-up frozen pipes, heat-less nights, frayed tempers.  I've spent far too many hours over the past few weeks stuck inside, buried under blankets, while watching snowflakes fall and icicles drip in between storms and waiting for the driveway glacier to melt long enough to run a few errands before the next storm moves in.  Good riddance, February.

The snow, sleet, and ice look to have finally cleared out, afternoon temperatures have at last sprung up out of the 30's.  Flocks of robins are pecking at the ground for earthworms.  If I squint, I swear I can see the faintest tinge of green emerging in the woods.  I ran up to our sleepy little neighborhood hardware store early today for a few odds and ends.  The shop was mobbed with winter-pale people packing carts full of gardening supplies the way they were cleaning out the bread and milk aisle just a few days ago.  On a Monday morning.  The stockboy was moving the pallets of icemelt off the sidewalk to the back room, which made me want to jump for joy.  Tiny signs of spring. 

We still have to get through a hopefully brief mud season (and probably some more cold) before I can start the outdoor planting in earnest, but it's good to see spring on the horizon.  It is now officially all-you-can-eat egg season; and the winter carrots are still just as sweet as promised.  Also something a little different this week: broccoli greens.  There is a row of overwintered broccoli plants in the big greenhouse that have not been earning their keep in little side-shoots, so it's time for them to go and plant something more productive.  Broccoli leaves aren't all that tasty in hot weather, but in the winter after a good hard cold snap (done!) the leaves are very tender, and taste almost exactly like sweet broccoli.  I recommend sauteing them quickly with a little garlic; they're also wonderful in a mixed-veggie stir-fry.  These greens will only be available this week!
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