A dry and windy Spring!

13 Apr A dry and windy Spring!

What a difference a year makes! Looking over blog posts from this time last season, we were drowning in rain. Plants were waiting, and waiting, to go into the wet soggy fields, we were doing lots of construction projects to keep busy, and we were generally frustrated by too much water. This Spring is the complete opposite. The lack of rain wouldn’t be too bad, we do have a great irrigation system after all, however the wind adds another level of stress to the plants.

Transplants that go out into the field are either hooked up to drip irrigation, which delivers water through tubes directly at the base of the plants, or by overhead sprinklers, which creates a shower-like effect in a 40 foot radius. Overhead is necessary for our direct seeded crops like radishes, spring turnips, arugula and carrots. And with the wind, you can imagine that any overhead watering is quite a challenge. Even when we do get something nice and watered, it quickly dries out again.

Because of this dry windy weather, we have had some difficulty getting germination from our first rotation of carrots, so we’ll be trying again next week. Even the transplants themselves are dealing with wind stress. We often utilize hoops and row covers to try and protect them a bit, but they can act like giant wind socks and cause more harm by banging against the plants.

Blowing in the wind: Row covers (or "remay") over the lettuce seedlings.

We are seeing some wind damage on our transplants, but our hope is that they will be very strong after this week, and will grow in leaps and bounds as soon as they are given calmer weather!!

Sugar Snap Peas

What’s growing out there? Lots! Our crew of 8 has been busy planting, planting, and planting, oh, and a little weeding too! Spring onions, sugar snap peas, lots and lots of potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, bok choy, kohlrabi, beets, fennel, radicchio, and Chinese cabbage are all out in the fields. As our harvest start to trickle in, our farmers markets will begin May 5 and 6th (and we’ll be at the Wrightstown mini-market Saturday April 14) and then once we have enough volume, and when those strawberries ripen up, we will start the CSA pick-ups. Keep an eye on your emails, the blog, or the website. As soon as we know when that first week of the CSA will be, we will let you know! We are in the process of adding classes and events to our online calendar. Check here on the blog, or on our website’s calendar , for updates. We hope you’ll join us April 29th for our Spring event at the farm: a Cookbook Swap and Food Tasting Adventure! There are still CSA shares available, so please spread the word. We have flyers if you’d like to hang any in your neighborhood.

Brian potting-up flower seedlings. Spinach seedlings.