Farm Notes

I hope you have all weathered the storms in your homes or are at least getting the relief you need at this point with a little sunny weather. It was a frosty morning here, maybe the coldest night of the year so far. We are seeing dry-ish weather in the near-term forecast and are jumping on the chance to knock down some of the cover crops at our Lewis Road property to prepare more ground to plant into.

During rainy winters, it’s always a little tricky to get the spring plantings in. We need the ground to dry out enough to get the tractor in to mow down and incorporate the cover crop. The residue then needs up to two weeks to break down (adding all those wonderful nutrients to the soil) before we plant into it, so we hope for another stretch of dry weather at that point to get in to the field to plant. We have been busily planting seeds in the greenhouse, where they are enjoying these sunny days and getting the headstart they need to grow well once we can transplant them out in the field.

We mow down cover crops that have been in the ground the longest first, while we let others continue to grow. The continuous onslaughts of rain have not created ideal conditions for cover crop growth, but they did better than in the years with little to no rain. We’ve already been able to plant in some fields. A few weeks ago, we planted into the field behind our house that we had left bedded up ready to plant into through the winter. This was a particularly weedy patch, so we were able to let the rain water up several successions of weeds which we then cultivated with a special harrow called a Perfecta which shallowly undercuts the weeds while maintaining the shape of the bed. It seems to have knocked back the weed seed bank pretty well! We will rotate this patch into a cover crop sometime during the coming year.

The arugula, radishes, and mustard greens you’re getting this week are from the new winter plantings we got in last month. The beets have been in the ground for a longer time; they grow more slowly in the winter, and the greens don’t tend to grow as big– by the time the beets are ready to harvest, the greens are no longer very appealing, so you’ll get the roots loose. That extra time in chilly soil brings out the good flavor though. Our supply of delectable delicata squash is still holding out, and we’ve brought a few items from other local farms to round out the boxes at this lean time of the year. Steve Marsalisi lets his limes ripen on the tree more than the ones you usually get in the store, so they are more yellow, less acidic, juicier, and more flavorful!

Enjoy this final winter box! The spring weekly season starts on March 15th and 16th.