We have had a pretty cold spring this year which as you can tell has set our spring plantings and harvests back a few weeks.
Our first CSA pick up was on Tuesday, May 13, 2014. We had a great turn out at the pick up and many others have been interested in joining since then. We hope to add a weekly signup page to our website soon for our weekly veggie bags. Stay tuned for more info on that.
This winter/spring has been so crazy here on the farm. It’s been colder than usual which is good and bad. Plants grow slower in cold weather even in a hoop house. And during our last big snow/ice storm, our hoop house collapsed with all our transplants inside. Thankfully, all the transplants were saved. So then we had to use a makeshift hoop house until we can buy the items we need to fix it.
Every spring we always feel like we are behind on planting and this year was no exception. So, we have been planting and planting and planting. Although sometimes you feel like all you are doing is just watching your children. They are almost always out in the field with us “helping” our progress but we love it just the same.
After last season’s record amount of rainfall, we realized that many sections of our field don’t drain very well. The same thing happened to us again this season right after we planted our first crops in the ground. I quickly realized that I would need to grow many of our crops on raised beds to stop standing water from harming our crops. The areas of the field where water stood became extremely hard to cultivate and because of that, plant growth has suffered. Specifically our snow peas and snap peas and a small bed of kale and broccoli. Thankfully we have kale and broccoli planted in other areas also. For this reason, we have bought a hiller to use with the tractor. Look how great a job it does. The hills in the second picture below were made with the hiller. The hills in the first picture below were made with our disc attachment and took many passes to make a small hill. Making the hills with the hiller only took one pass. It definitely saves a lot of time.
I hope you enjoyed this little farm update. What’s going on in your garden or farm?
