More Cornelia
Cornelia watering bok choy and more.
Blog : March 2007
Planting tomatoes
I transplanted the first two rows of red (buffalo) tomatoes. Those are our new greenhouse fans at the back. Almost all tomato disease problems come from moisture on the plant, so the fans should help keep the plants healthier. Also the air moving through the greenhouse also helps to develop the plants develop lignins.
Planting another row of peas
As Peter mentioned in his post, yesterday the kids and I planted another row of peas along the south side of one of the new hoophouses up top. When we went up Saturday, we went up first thing in the morning, so the snow was still frozen and hard enough to bear our weight. Yesterday we went up in the middle of the day and the snow (and mud!) was soft so it was tougher hike up that hill. Wavy and I were fussing at each other on the way up -- it was not quite as idyllic as these photos suggest, though we did have fun. Another effect of going up later in the day is that it was warm and steamy up there -- even the lense of the camera got fogged a bit.
Also this time even Henry got in on the planting action.
Spring has sprung
Or "What a difference a week makes."
Puddle
Last Tuesday was the first day of spring, but on Wednesday morning it was -5 F on our porch, and there was three plus feet of snow lying around. But all week it has been in the 40s and 50s, and one night it didn't even freeze. So we have lost a huge amount of snowpack, there are actually bare spots up in the field, and the greenhouse is starting to fill up.
Tomato seedlings almost ready to be planted out
All this also means that we are in full-on mud season, which turns out to be somewhat challenging with two young children who have cabin/spring fever. They want to go outside each day, but usually end up completely covered in mud from even the shortest outings. Today Waverly's boots got sucked off her feet by the mud when she and Maryellen were going to plant more peas, and she literally went a few steps in just her socks before flagging the problem for our attention. Henry, on the other hand, attempts to go over to the sandbox everytime we step out the door, but the sandbox is still covered by drifted snow. Soon! Although spring has already come to most of the northern hemisphere, it will soon come to us!
Planting peas
We planted a row of peas up against the north wall in the hoophouse up top.
Planting trays
The first day of spring and a lot of planting going on. Cornelia came up and worked the morning with Peter seeding trays out in the greenhouse. Waverly and I seeded a tray of cosmos for fun in the kitchen. I helped her keep track of where she had left off seeding, which is always tricky with those big trays.
The kids and I came out to visit the greenhouse for a bit in the afternoon. Henry loved having unslippery outdoor space to run around in. The sun and warmth was so so nice.
Goodbye to the bees
We gave all of our beekeeping equipment to a neighbor. It was sad but it was time. After the bear smashed the hive, I hadn't started a new hive. Part of it is me cutting back on activities that I can't do with the kids. It's pretty much impossible to work the bees while taking care of the kids, and I already have too many demands on my kid-free time, so this was something that goes, at least for now. Maybe when the kids are bigger I will do it again. I really liked keeping bees (though I love having kids way more!)
Trying out new things and then cutting back is also part of developing the farm into a workable enterprise. Lately we have been realizing that what we really like doing, and what makes the most sense for us on a number of levels, is concentrate on growing vegetables and on selling them locally, mostly directly to customers, for as long a season as possible. We like meeting people, we like doing markets, we love the CSA. So we are dropping the seedling sale, for example, in order to concentrate on early tomatoes and other early veggies.
Making up the CSA flyers
CSA flyers are done! We spent the afternoon folding the brochures and making up little flyer holders for them to go in on community bulletin boards. Even Wavy got in on the action. She actually did a really good job gluing. The flyer holders are 6x9 envelopes with the clasp cut off then a small flyer glued on with various wallet size photos of CSA baskets. They came out really nicely.
Next steps are putting the flyer up on the blog and mailing it out to last year's subscribers. We're also thinking about buying some ads in newspapers.
Italian seeds
We got a bunch of seeds from Italy today.
Henry running off with the zucchini costata romanesco seeds. It's nice to have a professional food writer for a neighbor and customer; that's who prompted us to get that variety of zucchini.
Other fun things we got in our box of Italian seeds that we are trying this year for the first time -- cardoon (!), artichokes, some new pepper varieties, and some fancy Italian torpedo onions. Plus, we also want to try jerusaleum artichokes, salsify, some new melon varieties, and Peter even ordered a little bit of horseradish root (!). This time of year is fun because the possibilities for the upcoming season seem endless! And although it was -18 degrees F this morning, spring is right around the corner!
Time on CSAs
Got a very nice email from someone looking for information about our CSA (the flyers are just about done!) after having read an article in Time. "I loved you web site and the fact that one feels like part of the family reading the various pages." Thank you!!
Anyway, the article in Time is here. Actually that's a link to the part of the article talking about CSAs. It's an interesting article in a number of ways.
Tomatoes started
Tomatoes are up and going.
Everything is still inside for now.
Getting ready
Greenhouse season is almost here.
Henry picking rocks.
Waverly with a really big rock.
Peter figuring out a better system for getting water to the greenhouses.
