April 2, 2024 Harvests To Begin Week of May 6th or 13th (weather depending) by Farmer Derek
The Hoop House, where plants harden off after the warm comfort of the Greenhouse and before they're exposed to the rigors of outside life.
The 2024 growing season is well underway. A lot of stop-and-go due to abundant rainfall (record breaking 8 inches in March in fact) but a just-long-enough dry period in the middle of the month to mostly stay on schedule with field preparations. One thing I've come to expect each season is something new weather related, and this year it happened to be our wettest March in 16 years (last year it was a very late hard frost in May). Even with extreme weather events scattered throughout the growing season, more appealing or tolerable weather always seems to arrive eventually, so now we just have to (try to) be patient.
Establishing evenly spaced rows and plants in the Hoop Tunnel using equipment from our transplanter machine.
We began seeding in the greenhouse the final week of February and will do so on a weekly basis into September. Early cool-weather loving crops like spinach, kale, radishes, turnips, arugula, bok choy, and lettuce mix were transplanted into four tunnels last week. Yesterday, amidst a light rain, the first batch of outdoor crops went in, including peas, chard, beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, cilantro, dill, as well as another round of choy, kale, arugula, and turnips. Next week we'll transplant head lettuce, romaine, escarole, radicchio, onions, scallions, fennel, as well as additional beets, kale, and other greens.
Farmers Gabby, Connor, and Alex (not pictured) transplant the first batch of crops under cover in the Hoop Tunnel.