April 17, 2023
6 Weeks and 2 Seasons Later...
by Farmer Derek

When we last wrote, it was still officially winter, feeling like spring, and now, after passing through what felt like midsummer, we're rejoicing in legitimate springlike conditions. So much has happened on the farm since early March and we've barely had a minute to sit down and collect our thoughts - but here we'll go and attempt a brief synopsis!

Ninety percent of field space has now been managed in some way. Fields for summer and fall planting have been mowed because the warm weather instigated cool annual weeds to initiate their quest for seed making. Fields home to late spring crops like watermelon, sweet potatoes, and winter squash have been chisel-plowed and opened up during this exceptionally dry April. Compost was spread on fields that missed out last summer and fall. Preparations are well underway to finalize beds for the first round of frost sensitive crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and okra. The entirety of early spring crops has been transplanted in what felt like a record-setting pace. When conditions allow, farm work progresses uninhibited. To quantify the massive amount of seeding and transplanting that has taken place, that's 22,000 feet of beds and 81,000 crop plugs/plants that have gone in. Tunnel crops are thriving and have been cultivated and watered. The mile of carrots has been cultivated and this week we embark on the three miles of wheel hoe passes on the other early plantings.

Residing within the mild, dry, and almost perfect spring farming conditions we've had a few challenges. Weather related, of course. The weekend following the aforementioned cold day of transplanting peas and the first round of brassicas had two fairly cold nights with temperatures bottoming out in the upper 20s with a pretty hard frost. Heavy enough to actually burn some of these cold-tolerant crops. The peas made it through completely unscathed because they spent a couple of weeks prior hardening off in our unheated hoop house. The brassicas, unfortunately, were only hardened off for a few days which is probably why they initially showed some damage (just some frost burned leaves). But don't worry, they've bounced back just fine and were ready for their next battle: water deficit. So far we're on pace for our driest April in 15 years and irrigation had to be installed and run earlier than I can ever remember.

Overall everything is good and we're looking forward to seeing you on the farm soon!