Redeemed

Watermelon radish and kn bravo daikon ready for dipping into Rhi’s delicious bean dip. Who needs chips when you’ve got fresh super-healthy, crunchy roots?!

David just said he didn’t realize how big this new greenhouse was until he went into the old greenhouse and it felt so small. Building the new greenhouse has come with plenty of adventures. First the climate battery piping went in underground so we can capture the heat from the ground and funnel it into the above ground crop area. The good news is, David felt hot air coming out of the pipes on a cold morning. Yay! The bad news is, a third of the greenhouse was sited on the one clay deposit on the farm, and that end filled with water. Not good. So we gulped hard and asked the excavator guy Jeff Ross to come back and dig a drain through to let the water out. Which he did.

Another little problem happened when David ran into the end wall with the tractor. He gave me permission to write this. He ran into that poor end wall three times! He was so keen to redeem himself that he wasted no time to get out there and fix it. Jake just shook his head. We hired Jake to build the greenhouse and he’s been doing a great job! He is thinking of providing a greenhouse building service to other farmers if they are interested. He has a lot of experience as a foreman for BD Stevens.

Our hope is to grow crops in this greenhouse all year round, using mostly ground heat. We might have to supplement on the coldest days by burning waste vegetable oil like we do in our seedling greenhouse. Our plan is to grow fresh greens through the winter, and get an early start on fruiting crops in the spring. Let’s see if that plan works (she said nervously). We’ll keep you posted!