Is it spring yet??

We are trying to be patient, but it's really hard! It seems like it's been overcast and cool since sometime in early October-yuck! Our strawberry crop is about 3 weeks behind because of the weather, they just haven't had enough bright sunny days to encourage growth.

I hope you've had a good winter. We're getting excited about spring, the garden is growing, the CSA starts next week and we've been rearranging in the market. We'll try and get some new video this week so you'll have an idea of what's new. We hope to be open by April 24th. Stay tuned!

Monday Night, Frost-Protecting with Uncle Russell

Well, we've got at least two, potentially three nights coming of COLD weather. Here's a brief video Uncle Russell took on Monday night around 5:30, it's just stopped flurrying here at the farm.

Planting Vegetables

It's the last week of February and we're starting to plant our first spring vegetables. We have a great crew to help us. We use an old converted tobacco setter to put the plants in the ground. The plants have been growing in the greenhouses located in the Back Forty and are the perfect size for transplanting into the field.

This video shows Benton driving the tractor and Christina on the plant setter, putting cauliflower in the field. The rows are mounded up and covered in plastic. This allows better weed control, better irrigation and makes it nicer for picking! The setter pokes holes in the plastic. Christina is dropping a plant in every other hole to get the correct spacing for when the plants start to grow. You can get a quick glance of Farmer John in the background, he's writing some labeling for the different varieties of cauliflower!

Uncle Russell in the Ice!

Uncle Russell is in the field in the early morning after watering the strawberries all night. We use overhead irrigation to create ice on nights when the temperature is going to drop much below freezing. The making of ice actually creates warmth and insulates the berries.

With care like this, we should have berries on April 1st, no fooling!