10 january 2011

i spent the morning planting more flats of greens to grow in the greenhouse for the winter markets. to do this, i combine the soil mix we buy with compost soil from the farm. i fill flats (plastic trays) with the soil, sprinkle some seeds, label each flat and cover with a light coating of soil. everything is carried out to the greenhouse where we have lights, heat mats, fans and a heater set up. i water at least once a day, sometimes twice. having greens in the winter is no easy task, but they are in high demand and taste great. so tender, as i say about most of the items we grow. i planted another 20 flats today including lettuce blend, mesclun mix, arugula, vitamin greens, rhubarb swiss chard and micro greens. everything but the arugula will go into one salad mix blend. this is in addition to the 30+ flats we already have in the greenhouse. the greens in those flats were cut on friday for saturday's markets. we got 20 small bags of greens from all those flats. those greens will re-grow and will be cut again next month for markets. with these new flats, we should have lots of greens next month (fingers crossed).

the afternoon was spent working on next year's planting plan. it is coming along, but there is still much to do. today i worked on root crops - turnips, carrots, beets, radishes and green onions. there will be several varieties of each in a range of colors. i was fascinated this past year with selling bunches of carrots and beets in a rainbow of colors - white, red, orange, purple - it's beautiful. i am expanding the color of radishes this year - purple, white, yellow and red. should make a beautiful bunch and look great in salad. it takes time to see what we did this past year, figure out if it worked and what needs to change or stay the same. then i go through the many catalogs we get and see what varieties we should grow - which ones do best in our climate, what looks good, what can we grow to be unique from other growers, what seeds are organic (or at least untreated), what heirloom varieties should we try, etc. then i need to figure out how many of each variety to plant, when to start the seeds inside (if that is necessary and it is in most cases) and then when to plant them outside, or when to start the seeds outside and where the plants/seeds will go in the field. multiple that times every vegetable/fruit/herb we grow.... i enjoy this kind of thing because i am a very organized person and i like having a plan, but there is a lot to think about and plan for. and i could do all this and it might all go to shit because it rains for a week in april and things can't get planted. or we lose crops due to insect or fungus damage (remember this is an organic farm). it's just part of farming. you pick up the pieces, do what you can with them and move on.