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| | | Hutten Family Farm Newsletter for Sunday Apr 1, 2012 |
It looks like another week of spring like weather. The nights have been quite cool lately but we have enjoyed lots of sunshine which is great. The early plantings of vegetables which were seeded outside on March 20th have come up under the row covers. We saw the first Asian brassicas and spring radishes come up last week Tuesday. This is definitely the earliest date that we have ever planted outside. I would expect to begin harvesting the first greens and radishes from the field by the end of April or early May. Even if these crops are not successful I'll be happy knowing that I planted before everyone else in the community. This means that I won. Winning is what it is all about.
We will continue planting a few more crops outside this week. We have also transplanted some romaine lettuce into a coldframe a couple days ago. As we empty overwintered greens out of the coldframes we transplant new crops in as space becomes available. The intention is to keep a steady supply of cooking and salad greens in production as we move from heated greenhouse into coldframes and then outside. The selection of greens will soon expand as well.
There will still be some root vegetables in the CSA boxes for another month or better but we are getting very low on them.I think we have two or three weeks of carrots left. By the time that they are gone we should have little carrot plants about an inch high in the field. This means a two month period without local carrots in the boxes. I think this is called "eating in season." Last year some of the carrots that were left in the field survived the winter and we spring dug them in late March. They had been under the snow for most of the winter. Because of the lack of snow this winter the carrots that were left in the field have all frozen and look like carrot soup. Such is life.
In one more week I will have two more employees starting their work season. This should help me get caught up on a significant backlog of spring work. We still have the raspberries to prune, the currant bushes and gooseberries, and some apple and pear trees as well. I plan to build another greenhouse also before summer. The early crops in the field will need to be hoed by hand in a couple of weeks as well. Lots of stuff to do and all of it is great fun. Strange that I actually really like this kind of work after twenty-five years of doing it. I remember a few years back I was hand weeding crops in a small field one evening. A friend of mine who had recently immigrated here from Africa stopped in to see me. He watched me weed for a few minutes and then said "God made you for doing stupid jobs." Maybe he was right.
Have a good week. ted
p.s. - for customers in Halifax only; please try to sign the check off sheet at local source when you pick up your box. This really helps us track the CSA and saves us a lot of time sending emails to various people. Thank you.
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