Early morning two-wheel tractor lesson

With the weather continuing to be somewhat colder and a whole lot wetter than usual, getting  some of our work done has been a challenge.  Tomorrow, even though it’s supposed to rain a lot, we are scheduled to transplant many hundreds of tomato and pepper plants in two of our field tunnels.  We are also hoping to set up three more tunnels that were protecting early season crops until a few days ago.  Once all five are up, we should have 500ft of tunnels up.

Having all of this protected space is proving to be a great form of crop insurance.  The no-till, raised bed and tarp system is also performing well in the wet conditions.  We use this system for our greens and short season roots like radish, sweet turnips,  beets, and carrots.  Since the planting space is covered, it is so much easier to get these fields planted on time.

Our outdoor plantings of peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and many other main season crops are behind schedule because we haven’t been able to prepare the land for them yet.  One field that we can usually start planting by now is so wet I don’t expect to start planting in it until early July.

This means that we will have to juggle our field plans to fit what we can in our well-drained fields.

Overall, we are feeling good about the season so far.  An obvious highlight is our crew.  Each one of them brings a lot of goodness and sweetness into the life of the farm.  They are working long and hard to get the planting done as close to on time a possible, while maintaining a positive attitude.

We are also so very grateful to all of you, our customers.  By supporting our farm through your thoughtful food purchases, you are helping us all to live our dream.

This tunnel got taken down and is being moved to cover heat-loving crops

Row covers are being used to protect crops from cold and pests.  We are using it in every field.

Let’s see what is under this row cover…  Nice!  Sweet turnips.