Production Update

We do realize that we have been giving you a lot of carrots to start off the CSA this year, but you will be getting a break after this week. Unfortunately this week marks the end of the over-wintered Chantenays that are our family favorites. We dug and topped them all last week because they were showing signs of sending up seeders, which they always do coming into spring (the carrots develop a tough, woody core and are practically inedible once the plants go to seed). If you can’t use all of your carrots this week, don’t worry—chantenays are a great storage carrot and they will still be good for weeks to come. The next block of carrots we will be harvesting from will be of the mokum variety, a tender, sweet, early carrot in the Nantes class.

Yesterday we planted most of our seed potatoes. We typically wait until the danger of frost is over and the soil temperatures have warmed enough so that the seed pieces don’t rot in the ground. This year we are a little later than normal, but with the late wintery weather we have been having lately we decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

Last week we also planted our first block of filet beans. These can also be tricky to plant when the soil is cool and moist. To help raise the soil temperature on these early seedings we cover the entire planting with a reusable fabric row cover until after the plants emerge.

Meanwhile in the greenhouse we built another heated propagation table for the transplants that need higher soil temperatures to germinate—like tomatoes, peppers, basil and squash. These tables have mats that provide bottom heat. We typically leave our seeding flats on the mats until after the plants emerge and then move them to another, unheated, table to grow out in the greenhouse. We’re growing a lot more of these warmth loving vegetables this year, so we needed another table to accomodate the starts. We’re also considering putting up another greenhouse for our starts, as its been getting pretty crowded in there!