It's bean awhile

Busy, busy, Just trying to stay ahead of the weeds. It's pretty much a non-ending task. Things are looking good. Some of the early crops like boc choi and raab ae starting to wane and some of the newer things like turnips, broccoli, peas and kohlrabi are coming on within the next week. Hoping that we dont have much of a product gap this week. I always think we are short but by the end of the day we have a bounty.

Market has been good. Last week was a little slow for produce but we sold a good deal of starts. We'll have more this week. We are just getting ready to put out tomates so you're not too late. In fact we still may need another week or so. I just can't wait. Ours are going in on Monday come hell or high water. We'll pop in a few rows of fingerling potatoes that are all greened out and ready to plant as well. Soil temps are still off by a few degrees but I suspect we'll hit 55 o in the next couple of weeks. Great weather for growing lettuce. Ours is looking lovely. We did get hit with a little downey mildew, not enough to worry about. Typical for cool/wet conditions. We also lost our cauliflower to a couple of persistent critters. First slugs and then cabbage root maggots. Oh well, pest damage has been minimal to us this year and no deer invasions!

Strawberries are all up and growing like crazy. Our old patch has tons of berries on. Should see the first ripe ones in a couple of weeks! Still sowing indoor but as beds become availble we are going direct as much as we can. We even started beans inside. We don't normally go this route and franklyI have not had good luck doing it. We'll give it a try again. We'll sow some direct at the same time. We did get the first corn in and it looks awesome. We have a econd succession that was jut planted in flats yesterday.

Alright, I have to get going here folks, It's a busy day. Take care and eat well,

John

Where to start

Uhh, there's alot to do right now. It's generally an overwhelming sense. Basically about three days worth of tractor work staring me down. Tilling, bed prep, cultivating, mowing, etc. etc. We had a nice couple of days of rain. I'm thankful although it did interupt my busy schedule. The weather is supposed to get real warm for a couple of days and then switch back into a cool and wet period (oh really) Not exactly what we are hoping for but hell, we'll take anything over 60 degrees right now with a big smile. We need some sun for our crops to grow. It's all growing soo slow. we're looking at a gap unless it kicks in her real quick. Anyway, I'm tractor guy today.

Weeds have been a big obsatcle for us this year. We lost a couple of beds of carrots because we simply can't devote that much time to weeding/thinning 150ft rows that are smothered in weeds. Till em' up and do it again. That said we've been on the weeds better than most years. It's just those small things like carrots that are especially challenging. We are getting the to the point where we are having to devote so much time to harvesting that it is hard to keep up on everything.

Despite the difficulties, we are off to a stellar start. The first two markets have been great. Sales are brisk, inventory has been strong and we have sold through practically everything we have taken. Plant sales have been fair. Lots of competition and a limited market. We have a great selection if you need starts, espescially tomatoes. Commercial sales are coming around. The economic slow down can be seen and felt directly.

In the field. Stawberries are in. Tomatoes are going out next week. New greens are just about ready. Old greens in the greenhouse are just about done. They'll be out next week and something will replace them. Melons or toms? hmm maybe peppers. Potatoes are chitting and I'll be working on the field they will go in today. We arte planting them with AnneFords second and third grade class on the 29th. So much more to list. Where's it all going to go?

Keep well,

John

Talk about the weather

The weather forecast caught me a little off gaurd this week. I was expecting that we would be dry again on Friday. Instead we had a steady rain for a good part of the AM. Missed my field prep. Bummer. The extended forecast is'nt looking too promising either. Extended series of storms passing hrough every 36 hours for the next several days and cooler, wetter condidtions expected through at least the next two weeks.

An intersting side note here. The last week of March was the coldest on record since the 1940's! The upper level atmospheric condidtions have been much cooler than normal this spring due to La Nina. In fact the entire northern hemisphere has experienced cooler temps than normal. I'm betting it's going to continue for a bit longer.

So how does that affect us? Well, first off the ground temprature is stuck in the mid 40's (lower than normal) That simply affects how things will grow. There is less microbe activity in the soil at those temps so plants in the ground tend to just sit there. This makes them less healthy thus more vunerable to disease and pest pressure. The ground is still too wet to work in many places. That delays us getting crops in the ground thus setting our schedule back a bit. All in all not too big of a problem really. I take our flukey weather as the new norm.

Fortunately we did get some ground work done back in February as I have mentioned here several times before. It's been a blessing to have the space to put things out. Despite the slow growth, at least we do have things in the ground and they appear to be doing just fine. They'll pop when the temps do rise.

We are having to get creative with space needs in the greenhouses. There are flats everywhere! We continue to forge ahead with our planting schedule despite the fact that we are about to run out of bed space. Yesterday we hand raked five 100 ft beds and direct sowed two beds of carrots, two of beets and another of Asian salad mix. That was all the space we had. There are hundreds of flats that need space. Hopefully today I can eek out a few more beds even though condidtions are not quite prime. The Allis with some row markers will earn it's keep today.

Thank goodness for greenhouse's. without them we'd be sunk right now. The greens that are coming out of there are fabulous. The nicest I can remember. Radishes are full on and gorgeous. Shelling peas have just found the trellis and are going nuts! It looks awesome. Overwintered onions are beautiful and proud. Some great chervil also! Soon we'll be transplanting tomatoes into there. It's a whole other world. I just love being in there this time of year when it's all weird outside. Step into the greenhouse and it's all warm and calming. Odiferous too. It just smells.... green, you know?

All right. I'll hold it there. Shine on.

John