Soggy Days

As Yogi Berra once said "It's deja vu all over again." This Spring has continued to be wet, just like last year. We hope, however, that we learned a few things from last year's difficult growing season. The intensive hay and straw mulching that we are doing seems to be allowing many crops (chard, kale and peas right now) to "weather" the cold, wet conditions to date. We also planted the 2009 potatoes in a large block to allow for better drainage than last year, hopefully eliminating the rotting (80% of the crop) that we had in 2008.

The bees are doing well, being fed a syrup of water and sugar until they get their hive established. The strawberries are also in good shape (they like all the rain), with some already starting to flower. And on a personal level, it's been a good year for morels on the farm.


Bees on their temporary feeder


Strawberry patch


Morel


Last week we were able to get the first tomatoes planted, 67 cherry tomato plants. They are currently undr row cover and doing well. And while this week's soggy conditions (2.75 in rain Sunday/Monday) have once again brought planting to a halt, there is plenty of work to do. The last several days have been spent thinning the beets, spinach and arugula, as well as sanitizing the many crates and buckets we use to harvest and pack the vegetables.


Cherry tomato transplant


Cleaning crates


Ready for harvesting


Lettuce update (see 4/1 posting for last view)