EverGreen Farm

May 6th

This blog is well over due for a farm update so I took a quick stroll around the farm on Sunday, May 6th and came back with these pictures to share.  We are fortunate to have seven greenhouses at EverGreen Farm which enables us to get a lot of planting done regardless of the weather outside.  We've been busy weeding every covered greenhouse space so Shain could plant or prepare rows for transplanting. 

I'm asked quite a bit just how early we can plant and even why we don't start planting earlier.  One reason is the cold temperatures.  Even with a greenhouse, even with row covers, plants need a certain degree of warmth to thrive.  Seeds wait patiently in the soil until the temperatures are just right.  Shain has kept detailed records of his many years of planting and just about has the timing figured out.  Even though the snow melted off the ground early this year, the temperatures for planting weren't necessarily that much ahead of what we've been regularly experiencing, at least that's what the seedlings are telling us.  I trust the plants.  I think they know what they are doing.  But it doesn't mean we don't try our best to coax them along just a little earlier.

Greenhouse 1 was the first greenhouse we built, 10 years ago.  It got it's first recovering this past fall.  We are really impressed that the plastic can last up to ten years if taken care of properly.

Inside this space, in the two far right rows, are planted beets; next (to the right of the white row cover) are new Chinese cabbage starts; and the row of empty holes will be filled with pac choi transplants this week (did this on Tuesday, May 8th).  To the left is more space for succession plantings of beets in the next few weeks.

Greenhouse 2 is where Shain planted our second crops of Japanese turnips and radishes (two rows on the left).  This is also where the first plantings of carrots and beets are growing (next several rows to the right).  Looks like we've got a healthy batch of weeds growing in there too.  We'll have to get after that.

Greenhouse 3 is also fully planted.  Left to right:  salad greens, spinach, yellow and red onions, leeks, Swiss chard, head cabbage, and kale.  This space is about 130 feet long.  One row grows a lot!

We are still working on finishing the ends of greenhouse 4.  We hope to have it finished this week and to get the cover on soon after.  Of course, we'll have to weed out the patches of quack grass before Shain can get it ready for planting.

Greenhouse 5 is used as our seed starting area during the earliest part of the season.  We start most of everything we grow from seed, either in seed flats to transplant or sewn directly into the soil with an Earthway Seeder.

Greenhouse 6, or sometimes called the big tomoato greenhouse, is where many of the seed flats are kept as the seeds germinate and grow large enough to transplant.  We keep a long row of them on the southern side for maximum sun and warmth.  This row is protected every night with multiple layers of covering, sometimes as many as 6 row covers on the coldest nights.  Happy to say we haven't lost any tender seedlings despite freezing temperatures. 

Last, is greenhouse 7.  This was the area we weeded and planted in first this season.  From left to right:  arugula, two rows of various salad greens, Japanese turnips, radishes, pac choi, more turnps, Chinese cabbages, and more arugula.  Again, you can see the row covers we pull over the plants on nights with threatening temperatures. 

Things can change quickly on the farm, given enough workers, a nice sunny day, or both.  Even after I've taken these pictures these greenhouses already look a little different.  I'm happy to report I've seen more growth in the plants and we've managed to work in some more transplanting and weeding. 

Tara

 

Farm Update with Lots of Pictures

I decided today the easiest way to give you a farm update is to take a stroll around the farm with my camera. 

First a quick update on our ground water situation.  Our family is now back into a routine of personal activities and farm work.  We still have water flowing under our basement which is kept under control with the heavy duty septic pump running full time 24/7.  The inside basement floor is remaining steady at about 1/2 to 1 inch of water covering approximately 2/3 of the floor space.  When the river accross the field from us rises, the water coming into our basement ususally increases a little too.  But we haven't seen it go over 1 inch for about a week.  Meanwhile, we still aren't able to use any of the conveniences that go along with a septic system.  No toilets, no showers, no hot water, nothing down any of the drains.  I'm VERY glad to have electricity and running water!  I'm also thankful for the port-a-potie, though not necessarily enjoying the process of using it. 

Alright, lets start with greenhouse #1 (please ignore the weeds):

Home to our first crop of cabbages and second planting of Japanese Turnips and Arugula.  Left to right:  pac choi, head cabbages, a half empty row where the Chinese Cabbage was, Japanese Turnips, and two rows of Arugula.  The pac choi has taken off nicely and formed some very nice large heads.  The cabbages are finally starting to head up.  Turnips are ready to harvest and we are hoping the weavels don't get them before they go in your shares.  The aurugula is big now, almost too big, and has started to bolt.  We cut a lot of it today, which is hard to see in this picture.  We don't think it will make it to next week, though we'll wait to see how it takes this week of warmer weather.  Flea beetles are coming out now too and this is their favorite!

Greenhouse #2:

Just last week this greenhouse was full of old arugula and salad greens.  The second line in from the left was a row of Japanese Turnips which we took out completely for this week's CSA shares.  This greenhouse has now been planted with French fillet beans and zucchini.  We've had troubles getting a good crop of zucchini and squash the past two years (due to the cooler weather) and decided to bring them inside this year.  Squash and zucchini have a tendency to grow out-of-control-huge  inside greenhouses, but we put these down the middle for maximum ventilation and are hoping for the best.

Greenhouse #3, the new BIG one:

From left to right:  Swiss Chard, two rows of beets, kale, cauliflower & brocolli (growing in holes through black plastic weed block), pac choi/Chinese cabbage, and two rows of carrots.  This greenhouse is turning out to be very helpful after all.  It's a lot of space to grow a lot of food and we would be in an entirely different situation this year trying to grow produce in the cold and rain without it.  Unfortunately it looks like the Chinese cabbage wants to bolt so we'll probably end up harvesting that early as smaller heads.  Otherwise, all is well in greenhouse #3.

Greenhouse #4, the small tomato greenhouse:

We try every year to have tomaotes to sell at the very first farmers market or at least sometime in July.  As you can see, it's not going to happen this year.  We started these 21 tomato plants very early, grew them under wall-o-waters, even used a heater inside the greenhouse to get them outside and growing as soon as possible.  This goes to show that sometimes no matter how early you plant some crops, they will not grow until the conditions are right (enough sunlight and warmer weather).  I think the tallest tomato plants are only 1 ft. tall.  We will continue to cover them every night for another week or so, until the night temperatures are in the 40's on a regular basis.

Greenhouse #5, the big tomato greenhouse:

Left to right:  seedling trays with many of our herbs and other "back-up" plants.  Then rows of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.  The basil will be transplanted in here eventually too.  This is our main crop of tomato plants and they are nearly as big as the first crop.  Again, this is a great example of how weather is the real factor in plant growth.  We often see a second crop be ready nearly the same time as plants we put in a few weeks earlier.  One good thing to note is that the rodents mostly left all these plants alone.  They did very little damage in any of the greenhouses this year. 

Greenhouse #6:

My favorite greenhouse right now because it is so beautiful to look at.  We've weeded it several times and it has really paid off.  Left to right:  several rows of carrots, onions, and beets (golden and red).  I wish all our farm looked this nice.

Now outside to a section of Field 1:

I'm pretty sure I talked quite a bit last year about our nemisis weed - thistle.  It's quite a headache for us.  We've tried torching it, spraying it with an organic weed spray, and digging it (over and over and over again).  Thistle is a very invasive and stubborn week.  The only method we've found to be even semi-successful at beating it is to smother it completely with thick black plastic.  This is a section of field 1, larger than the size of most people's entire garden.  We decided it wasn't even worth planting this year due to the thistle.  There are several more patches throughout the farm that could use this treatment. 

Field 2 (again, please ignore the weeds):

These rows are planted with yellow onions, a few shallots, and leeks.  I mentioned before that our supplier for leek starts had a crop failure and we were unable to find a substitute.  These leeks are planted directly from seed.  They are tiny.  I wonder if they will ever get bigger than scallions.  Even then, we'll enjoy the taste.  This is a new trial for us, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Field 4:

This year we divided our largest field into two smaller and more manageable sections, now know as fields 3 & 4.  (Are keeping track of all this?)  This section is planted with our yukon gold poatoes.  They are planted under a thin black plastic for weed block.  Using weed block is a new for us this year and we are hoping it cuts back considerably on labor.  I welcome anything to help cut back on the weeding.  

Field 5:

This is now our largest field, which we only started clearing to plant a few years ago.  It's got a lot of rocks and weeds, but over time we'll get it in shape.  So far this year, we have this field planted (left to right) with our new garlic, a first row of peas, spinach (under cover), our first crop of outdoor salad and then our second crop of outdoor salad.  Thanks to a few days of intense weeding, these greens should grow nicely now.  They'd be ready even sooner with some days of sunshine.

We got out little piglets this past week.  They are already eating well from what we pulled up in greenhouse #2.  The little piggies don't know how good they have it here.  We take good care of them and in return they make us a very nice pile of compost.  Oh, and we eat them too.

This is our first batch of meat chicks for the year.  They are pretty cute, for now.  We plan on raising three batches of meat birds over the coming months.  Meat birds are a good match for our farm.  When they are older, we will move them to chicken tractors.  These birds will help us clear our fields of older crops, weeds, and bugs and be eating very well all the while.  They will be slaughtered and sold around the first week of August.  More to come on that later.

My goats are also living a good life.  The three spring babies are growing quickly.  This mama goat is keeping her triplets fed well which is quite an accomlishment.  The two kids in this picture have been sold to a farm in Utah.  They'll leave in the middle of July.  The third buckling is yet to be sold, but will probably also leave the farm around that time.  We really enjoy their company while they are here.

There you have it.  A virtual tour of the farm.

Farm Update & CSA Newsletter, Week #5

In your share this week:

• A 10 oz. bag of Salad Mix 
• A 10 oz. bag of Arugula
• Japanese Turnips
• Radishes
• Pac Choi or Chinese Cabbage (a reverse of what you got last week)

A quick and short farm update:

::  Potatoes were planted (over 400 pounds) last Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  We are trying a new method of planting them under black plastic to block out weeds.   It took more time upfront to plant, but we are hoping it saves a lot of time later on with weeding.

::  Cauliflower transplants are in.  Again using black plastic mulch.

::  Shain recently planted more salad mix and spinach.

::  The pig pens have been cleaned out making a new compost pile that will eventually be spread in the greenhouses or on the fields.  New piggies will be here soon (they are all spoken for before even arriving at the farm this year).

::  We are still experiencing crazy weather here.  One night the temperature forecast was for 29 degrees so we had to take precautions and cover sensitive crops in the greenhouses.  That very next day the temperature in greenhouse #5 (with all the seedling starts and newly transplanted tomatoes and cucumbers) had shot up to over 100 degrees!  Shain scrambled to install our greenhouse fans but unfortunately we lost a few plants.  Good thing we keep "back up" replacement plants.

I know my food photos aren't the best, but I like to share some of the meals we have been making with our veggies.  This is a soup Shain made for lunch yesterday with our turnip greens.  It's a variation of our Potato, Bacon and Kale Soup Recipe.  Actually, this is quite a healthier variation from the original recipe.  (Shain likes to make things up as he goes along.)  If you are making anything yummy from your CSA share, please send us a recipe (and pictures) to share with the group.

Have a great day and ENJOY your veggies.

Tara

 

Photos from around the farm on Memorial Day

We've woken up two days in a row with about two inches of snow on the ground.  It's been a wet and soggy couple of weeks on the farm.  With the few dry days, Shain has taken every opportunity to work our fields and get in some plantings of a varitey of crops:  salad mix, spinach, herbs, peas, scallions and leeks.

Meanwhile, we've been doing a lot of work inside the greenhouses.  We love our greenhouses this time of year.  We have 6 greenhouses in total now, equalling a combined 13,500 square feet of covered (and dry) planting space. 

This is the inside of greenhouse #1.  Planted from left to right with pac choi, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, our second planting of Japanese turnips, and two triple rows of arugula (which I harvested from this morning).  The Chinese cabbage is getting close to being ready to harvest.  The pac choi will follow soon after that.  The third cabbage we are growing is a new variety for us and growing more slowly.

Greenhouse #2 is where we've been taking all our salad greens from.  You can even see some of the area Shain cut from this morning towards the left in this picture.  From left to right:  mizzuna (which continues to grow like crazy), two quardrouple rows of salad mix (3 varieites in these rows), Japanese turnips, radishes and our first planting of arugula (which we've already harvested completely over the past two weeks).  We are hoping to get another week or two out of this salad crop.

When greenhouse #1 & #2 are "done" we will rework the soil and plant them both with fillet beans.

This is a picture from inside greenhouse #5, aka "the big tomato greenhouse".  Because this is our warmest and most air tight greenhouse, this is where we keep many of our seed flats.  The seedlings currently growing here are basil, romaine head lettuce, oregano, dill, cauliflower, and our leftover "back up" tomato and cumcumber starts.  In the middle are three long rows of newly transplanted tomatoes, interplanted with basil.  To the far right are the cucumbers.  The center row under the bunched up white row cover is where we will plant our peppers.

Those who are new to our farm blog may wonder "what are those plant cover things" and why we use them.  The "covers" are recycled pop, juice and water bottles which we've cut the tops and bottoms off of to place around each precious tomato and cucumber plant.   Many people think we do this to protect the plants from the cold, but actually we are protecting the plants from hungry rodents.  A few years ago we lost about 30 tomato plants to the little devils.  We came up with this solution and it has been working well for us ever since. 

I've posted a picture from inside greenhouse #6 recently.  This is where we are growing carrots, onions and beets (left to right).  I think it's amazing to see this much growth in just two short weeks, especially when there has been such little sunshine.  I swear I saw an inch of growth or more on the onion plants the day after they were watered. 

We still have a rack of seed flats growing inside our home.  The zucchini, squach, pepper and melon plants need warmer conditions to germinate and sprout.  The squash seedlings came up just a few days ago.  On this rainy day, they are reaching for any chance of sun that could possibly shine through our southern facing windows.


Remember these little ones?  They are two weeks old now and so CUTE!  For the record, I did not stage this picture.  Amazingly, all three jumped up on the log and stood there looking at me.  By chance, I was ready with my camera.  Baby animals are a lot of work, but they also bring a lot of smiles.  We are having fun with them and I'm glad to say they are healthy and well. 

Plenty of other things going on behind the scenes here.  We'll start planting potatoes this week and hopefully the cauliflower too.  The weather forecast says sunny warmer days are on the way.  Our college daughter comes home for the summer this coming weekend.  This family farm is one of her jobs for the summer.  (We hope someday she'll appreciate the opportunity she has to work here with us.)  Shain is through teaching school for the summer and I'm glad to have him home helping me again.

Life is good.  Bring on the sun.

Tara

The Garlic Made It

(BIG SMILE!)

Seeing the new garlic popping up through the mulch this year makes us so happy!

We have high hopes for this garlic crop. 

Our experience with the garlic last year was upsetting.  First, most of the crop grew very poorly.  It was stunted (smaller than normal) and "ugly" (odd coloring, strange markings) and some of it literally rotted in the ground.  We eventually figured out that our garlic crop (all three varities) had succommed to a virus (most likely due to stressfull weather conditions over the past few years).  The bulbs were edible, but we could not use our own stock to replant in the fall. 

Second, we had quite the ordeal finding and purchasing new garlic to replace our infected stock.  We found a local grower with beautiful garlic, but he would not sell to us because he sees us as "competition".  Finally I found a good on-line supplier with a decent price for garlic.  We ordered a lot!  (We were choking on the price tag but considered it a vital investment.)  We wanted to have enough garlic stock to plant so that the following year (2011) we could give it to our CSA members, sell some at the market, and then have plenty to plant again in the fall.  When it came time to receive the order, we received bad news from our supplier (a garlic grower back east) that he could not fill our complete order.  He was cutting us back to only 40% of what we needed.  Not good!

Next, we quickly searched around for another source of high quality garlic stock and learned that many garlic growers across the nation were experiencing crop shortages, even failures like ours.  The only sources we could order from were charging very prices which we could not justify spending.  At this point we came to a difficult realization.  The garlic we had purchased would not be enough.  If we planted all of it in the fall, and replanted that entire crop again the next fall, we could be back up to our previous garlic crop levels by 2012.  But for 2011, we would not have any extra for the CSA or to sell. 

Last fall we planted our beautiful newly purchased garic stock.  It was a little on the small side (really nice BIG garlic costs $$$).  But we got it planted just fine and Shain even roped off the area with stakes and brighly colored tape to make sure nothing bothered our precious efforts.  Then about a week later a cow got loose in our fields and proceeded to run through the garlic patch.  Thankfully, a helpful neighbor came to my rescue (Shain was already back to teaching school by then) and the overall damage was kept to a minimum.

The end of the story is that we decided not to take any chances and that we better make sure to put a nice layer of mulch over the garlic patch.  We don't typically mulch our garlic and haven't for years.  But we figured we'd already experienced enough challenges getting this crop in the ground, why tempt fate any more than necessary.  On the very day that a heavy snow storm was coming into the valley (which ended up being the first heavy snow fall that didn't ever melt), we were out spreading a thick layer of hay over the garlic.  (We don't want to tempt fate, but we probably push her a little too close to the limits this time.) 

Throughout the winter we've though about the garlic.  We've wondered how it was doing under ALL that snow!  Many times we expressed our relief that we got that layer of mulch spread in the nick of time.  When spring came and the garlic was still under snow, we were a little worried that it would make it.  Then the snow melted and we could see tiny shoots of green poking through the rows of dried hay.  Seeing that new garlic growing (after all we've been through) really makes us both very happy!  We are on our way back to having a great garlic crop again someday.

Weeding, Planting, and Goat Babies

In summarizing our farm activities of the past week, three things come to my mind.

1.  We got a lot of weeding done!  By Friday late afternoon, all of our planted greenhouses were caught up on weeding.

This is greenhouse #6:  carrots on the left, onions down the center, and beets on the right.  This is about 1,000 square feet to weed.  Because these plants are so small and the spacing is tight, this greenhouse was mostly weeded on our hands and knees.  But I used my new favorite hand-held hoe so it wasn't so bad. 

2.  We also got a lot more planting done this week.  We transplanted the Swiss chard and more onions.  Shain started the zucchini and summer squash in seed flats which are being kept warm inside the house for a while longer.  He also planted cilantro, parsley, scallions, leeks, and snap peas out in fields #3 & 4.

3.  On friday, May 13th, our goat Daisy delivered her babies.  Triplets!

These two pictures were taken just a few hours before she delivered.  She was HUGE!  Poor girl.

(Sorry if this picture is a little "too much information".  I'm trying to show you just how big and wide she really was.)

I'll spare you the details of the long and semi-complicated delivery and skip right to the baby goat pictures.

Our son Eli is doing a good job helping Daisy take care of the little ones.  They are SO VERY cute!

Now several days later, Daisy and her kids are doing quite well.  The hard part is that I already have to start thinking about finding new homes for them.  That's part of farming...

 

Covering Greenhouse #3

The frame for our newest greenhouse (we now call it greenhouse #3) went up last fall.  Putting it's cover on this Spring has been quite an adventure.  It is a new style of greenhouse for us and is called a single bay high tunnel.  There are several differences between this structure and our other 5 greenhouses. 

First, the size is a lot bigger.  It covers about the same lenghth of ground as greenhouses #1 & #2 put together, as you can see in the photo below (greenhouses #1 & #2 are to the right/south).  This one measures 154 feet long by 30 feet wide.  That's 4,620 square feet of greenhouse growing space! 

The design for this greenhouse is for the plastic covering to come down over the winter.  The spacing of the metal trusses are furhter apart and they not intended to support the weight of heavy snow piling up on a covered top.  Also, the plastic sides are not anchored down to a baseboard, rather they are held in place by a criss-crossing of ropes which are tethered at the base of each metal frame.  These two changes alone cut the construction and material costs down considerably.

The manfacturer's instuctions for attaching the ends of the large plastic covering to the metal framing is to use their provided clips.  This is how we assembled it the first time back a few weeks ago.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  We had a crew of great helpers here and the entire process went without a hitch.  The greehouse was covered and roped down in about an hour and a half.  We were really excited!

Then just a few days later a large snow storm came in and literally blew off the cover!  I was home alone and was quite surprised to look out the window and see the east section of plastic flapping violently high up in the air, the middle area ballooned like a parachute, and the west end still anchored in place but not for long.  The clips we used to hold down the plastc on the east end were no match for the force of the wind which was very easily entering at the open space along the ground.  Once inside, the gusts had no where to escape.  I called my neighbor to come help.  We unclipped the rest of the covering, pulled everything down to the muddy, snow covered grond, and did our best to roll up the plastic so it wouldn't go anywhere.

(I took this picture on the morning we tried to recover greehouse #3, the second time.)

After several phone calls and a lot of research, we came up with a new plan using a more permanent anchor system along the tops of the metal framing on both ends.  

The folowing Saturday, April 30th, we gathered a crew of workers again to recover greenhouse #3.  The plan was to wait long enough into the day for the snow to melt and the ground to dry a little.  Unfortunatley we waited too long because the wind kicked up again and we had no choice but to conceed ourselves to it's power.  As I think back on it now, it is amusing to recall how we fought so hard with ropes and our body wieght to keep a sheet of plastic anchored in place.  It was all over the place.  WE were all over the place. 

We left the plastic there on the ground again in hopes of a better day. 

The next morning Shain walked outside to do our morning work routine and declared the weather to be perfect for another try!  He made a few phone calls, we did our chores in record time, and within 30 minutes there were enough people here to make our third attempt at covering greenhouse #3.  The process went as smoothly as our first try, this time using our modifications.  Shain also cut a small opening along the top of both ends to allow the wind to escape.

So far, so good.  It's been tested with a few more wind/snow/rain storms and stayed on just fine!   The area underneath has already been planted with Swiss chard, carrots, and beets.  There is still plenty of room for more cabbages, pac choi, broccoli and cauliflower. 

OK, what's next?

Tara

Growing Slowly and Grateful For It.

Earlier this week I was feeling grumpy and all around too negative about the extended winter weather we've been experiencing here on the farm.  Then came the news and pictures of destruction from the tornadoes that recently ripped through the southern states.  It sure put things into perspective for me.  Immediately I committed myself to stop complaining about the weather.  Our concerns are so mild in comparrison to others around the world.  The temperatures have dipped down into the teens at night and it's snowing even as I write this, but here we are!  The farm is moving forward and we've sold all our CSA shares.  A lot of food has been planted and it is growing.  It's growing slowly, but it is growing!

Being the recovering perfectionist that I am, it's hard to concede so much control to Mother Nature (like I have a choice) when we work so hard to do things just right.  In theory, if you plant a crop it will be ready to harvest on a given date.  We water.  Weed.  Cover, uncover.  Etc.  But sometimes it doesn't work that way.  The temperatures get much colder than "normal" (killing 1/3 of our newly tranplanted cabbages and pac choi), we don't see the sun for days at a time (slowing down the growth of everything), or a fierce windstrom comes through and blows the cover off our newly finished greenhouse.  But it's OK.  We started more seeds, the salad looks great (though still small) and we'll try to put that cover back on tomorrow (if the weather cooperates, and if it doesn't we'll try again another day.)

It's hard for me, but I have been reminded once again to ENJOY THE PROCESS, not just focus on the end result.

 
Farm Update:

Above is the inside of greenhouse #2.  Left to right we have arugula, radishes, Japanese turnips, several varities of salad greens and then mizunna. 

Greenhouse #1 is planted full of pac choi and cabbage transplants, more arugula, and more Japanese turnips. 

Greenhouse #3 will hopefully be recovered this weekend and we'll focus on getting the soil ready for planting.

In Greenhosue #4 the soil is prepped and ready to plant.  This is the small greenhouse where we put out our very first tomato and basil transplants.  We brazenly push the limits here using every method at our disposal to keep them alive and well.

Shain finished prepping the soil of greehouse #5 (the big tomato greenhouse) this evening after work.  We wont' plant it for several more weeks, but it's ready to go.  This greenhouse also houses our cold weather seed starts:  kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, more pac choi and cabbages and probably something else I'm forgetting.

Greenhouse #6 is planted with onion transplants, beets and carrots.

Inside my house we have two racks full of tomate and basil seedlings.

I can see on Shain's list that he'll be starting more seeds soon:  cucumbers, peppers, squash, and zucchini. 

One thing I should mention is that EverGreen Farm is still covered in a lot of snow.  Even a mile down the road from us the fields are bare.  Not here.  Our first small fields are mostly bare or will be soon.  But the larger main fields are still 75% covered.  This is why we've made greenhouses such an vital part of our farming operation. 

There's a lot going on here.  I try to give daily updates of Facebook for those who want even more updates from the farm. 

Take Care,

Tara

 

Preparing for the Season

Allow me to catch you up what we've been doing here lately:

:: Greenhouse #2 was planted weeks ago with salad greens, arugula, mizzuna, rasishes and Japanese Turnips.  They are growing well. 

:: Greenhouse #1 houses a few rows of baby cabbage and pac choi transplants.  Sadly, they are struggling through these crazy low temperatures from the past week.  Tonight's forecast is for 19 degrees.  Seriously?  Extra row covers!  (Started more back up plants last week.)

:: Greenhouse #6 will be planted with onions, carrots and beets this week.

:: Workers coming to put the ends on our newest greenhouse.  If all goes as planned, we'll be putting plastic over the frame this Saturday.  This will open up a large area of planting space which we can fill to capacity regardless of the weather outside. 

:: Snow in the fields is melting.  The depth varies from 2 feet in some places to 6 inches in others, but it is melting.

:: Concentrating all our efforts on starting seeds, preparing soil, planting, and weeding in all 6 greenhouses.

:: Thousands of seeds started over the past month:  tomaotes, basil, cabbages, pac choi, kale, and chard.  Racks of seedling trays in my home in the big southern windows.  More cold tolerant seedlings growing outside in a greenhouse.

::  Did I mention we are already weeding?  ("I just don't remember those muscles.")

:: Learning some of our seed orders won't be filled this year due to crop failures across the nation.  Searching the internet to find replacements.  Finding somethings, not others.

:: Developing new strategies this year to deal with skunks that like our greenhouses and especially the peanut butter I use to bait all my mouse traps.  Standing firm on my decision to let this be Shain's responsbility.  But if they make me mad enough... who knows what skills I'll have to develop.

:: Catching very few mice this year (so far), but have out over 50 traps just in case.  Checking them daily.

:: Shain is very excited to be using a new tool this year.  It has already saved him days of labor, literally.  I'll explain the tool in detail in another post, but basically it helps him take an area of hard ground layered with old compost and turn it into this (below) in a matter of hours - a perfectly prepared planting bed.

::  Goat babies are due in a few weeks.

:: Fixing things, organizing, ordering, blah blah blah. 

I think that catches us up for the most part.  I'll just summarize by saying it's a busy place around here now.  Shain and I are crossing projects off our list nearly everyday.  Now it's up to Mother Nature to give us a brake so we can grow some great food for all of you!

Take Care,

Tara

Me vs. the Mice

Before I can start setting traps in the greenouses, I had to find the traps.  They were in a bucket out in the hay shed.  The bucket was full of snow.  The traps were frozen.  So I've layed them out to thaw.  I'll try again tomorrow. 

And speaking of greenhouses, this picture was taken inside greenhouse #2.  Shain and I decided to winter over all the spinach and beets left over from last year so we could keep up our healthy eating habits.  Come about Christmas, we got a little tired of green smoothies. 

2 months later and the spinach in greenhouse #2 looks exactly as I left it.  The tops of the beets have seen better days, but the beets are great.  Too bad I have to turn this all under so we can spread a layer of compost on the ground and get this area ready for spring planting.  I'll harvest as much spinach and beets as I can before then and make myself sick of green smoothies again.  Tonight it's spinach quiche.