The beginning of the end

Every week around here we are putting crops into the ground. We do these succession plantings so that we always have yummy veggies available every week as the season unfolds.

And we here at Old Shaw Farm get our veggies into the ground two different ways. Some crops are seeded directly into the field, like peas, beans, beets and salad mix. And for a variety of reasons, some other crops are first seeded in greenhouse trays and raised as seedlings for a few weeks, and then transplanted out into the field. These are crops like head lettuce, salad turnips, and broccoli.

Each week around here settles into a semi-stable pattern of tasks. For example, Tuesday and Friday nights we harvest, new beds usually get prepared for planting on Sundays or Mondays, salad mix gets planted on Fridays, etc.

The way things have worked out, for the last few months, seeding trays is something that Susannah and I usually do on Wednesday afternoons. As you can see here, we have a little seedling room set up above the woodshed where we fill trays and then drop tiny seeds into the appropriate hole, usually one at a time.

It is not bad work -- perhaps a little tedious. But at least it doesn't rain on you, you can put the radio on, and if you do it with someone else, the time usually passes pretty quickly.

But this past Wednesday was kind of a momentous day. We seeded our last tray of the 2004 season!! You see, the first frost will be here in a month or so, and after that point, it really doesn't make any sense to be transplanting out fragile lettuces, etc. So this was the last bunch. We still have a lot of work to do this fall, but this is the beginning of the end. Here are Susannah and I with the last tray of Merlot lettuce, waving goodbye to the 2004 season!!!!