Spring is such a special time on a farm! Of course, it’s the case everywhere, but there’s something else about it when you’re gearing up to grow vegetables and flowers for a whole season. It’s a blend of excitement, stress and wonder as the marathon is about to start. You have reflected on the disappointments you had the season before and you have made a plan to improve what didn’t work out.
Lately, we have been preparing for the season with much tidying, cleaning and organizing. To be honest, it wasn’t always easy to find motivation during the very rainy weeks we had at the end of March and beginning of April. We have worked on the list of our winter projects and readjusted our expectations to the time we have left – the clock is ticking now!
In farming, time and efficiency are key so we are continuously trying to upgrade workspaces and workflows. We know this is time well spent, improvements we will enjoy during the coming months.
Now, our wash/pack area is tidier and more functional and will be more pleasant to work in. From the pruners to the broadfork, the tools have been cleaned, oiled, sharpened.
We managed to give our seedling greenhouse lots of love too. A germination chamber has been built allowing us to gain some space on our heat tables. This big insulated box allows our seedlings to sprout inside it and therefore, we have more room for our hot crops (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers…) that need constant warmth.
The sowing of your first wave of lettuce was a bit late but overall we still started most our plantings earlier than we did last year, to provide more diversity for our first market and baskets in June. All the beds in our two biggest tunnels are now full of crops!
We are also excited about the new vegetables we are going to grow this year: we are trying out potatoes for example, and will soon plant asparagus crowns. The last are calling for patience, as we won’t be able to harvest them this spring. They need several years to establish and gain strength before they allow us to pick them. Also, more perennial flowers will go into the ground! You will marvel at them in our bouquets this summer.
With temperatures warming up, we transplanted our first kale, sprouting broccoli and napa cabbage outside. These vegetables are part of the brassicaceaes family, alongside cauliflower and mustard greens. They are hardy enough that they can handle a light frost without dying. As for the rotary plow, our new hand tractor implement, it has arrived and is sitting in the barn until we can use it to raise our beds – with the sunny forecast, we`ll be breaking ground before too long!
From now on time is going to accelerate and before we know it, we will be spending half of our days harvesting… and we can’t wait!
I`m excited to join the Spring Tide Farm team this season and look forward to meeting all of you!
Comments