2022 Growing Season Officially Underway

Happy spring everybody! We hope this note finds you well and ready to embrace this round of our eight- or nine-month photosynthesizing tour around the sun. As daylight slowly increases, the soil warms and beckons our interaction, visible plant life wakes and excites our senses, we feel energized by the positive prospects of new beginnings and the blank canvas that is the farm every spring. Growing mostly annual crops, the farm gets a bit of a fresh start each spring, with a connection to the past that permeates the soil through our management.

Spring is a very, very busy part of the growing season. More than half of the crops that we'll harvest this year will be sown and planted and soil will need to be prepped to accept during this brief span of time. Throw in some challenging weather with wildly fluctuating temperatures and we're in for quite a ride. This is our 14th season here and we still feel excited, happy, nervous, thrilled, amazed, as well as a sense of awe. And honored and thankful for your support!

Seeding in the greenhouse began four weeks ago and will continue weekly through September. As of last week, the space is 100% full of crops. As soon we get past this current extreme cold we'll move seedlings to the hoop house to harden off. Preparing fields to accept those seedlings began last week when soil conditions became workable. I'm always super thankful and humbled when our heavy soil dries out just enough in mid-to-late March for tractor work. There may only be a two-day window to do initial soil preparations of 25,000 feet of beds for early April crops, but it somehow seems to always work out okay. Now we wait for the next round of dry ground to put finishing touches on those rough raised beds and as soon as the forecast looks temperate enough we'll begin planting outside. Peas, kale, kohlrabi, cabbage, turnips, radishes, bok choy, chard, beets, lettuce, romaine, lettuce mix, escarole, endive, radicchio, fennel, cilantro, parsley, dill, scallions, and onions will all be transplanted by hand during the first couple weeks of April. Carrot seeds will be sown directly into the soil with our antique human powered drill seeder and seed potatoes will be manually deposited in row and covered with soil by rakes and/or hoes.

Besides growing outdoors, we also have 4 tunnels that we'll be growing crops in during the spring and summer. Space in two of those is being manually readied for early greens.

With the harvest season a month and a half away and workshift opportunities right around the corner, you will begin to hear from us more frequently. We hope you had a nice and restful winter and are now ready for the bustle of springtime - see you soon!