catch up

not only can i not keep up with my blog posts, i can't keep up with how quickly things grow on the farm. we start seeds in the front room of the farm house every week still. days later, like 3-4 days, plants are sprouting and they need to be moved under lights. a week or two later, the plants need to move to the greenhouse. in 2-3 weeks, the plants need to be planted outside. once the plants are planted in the field, they are on their own, but man, can things happen quickly. where did those weeds come from? what is eating the leaves - deer? flea beetles? groundhogs? it is ready to harvest already?! we just planted it! it is amazing how, in general, plants just want to grow. you can throw a lot of obstacles at them, but for the most part, they do well.

we have been having some trouble with a few crops this year. broccoli is minimal. the plants look good, but they are not producing heads very well. salad mix, arugula, cress and spinach are really not doing well. it could be the heat. it could be too much rain, then not enough. it could be the salad beds are missing something in their 'diet.' however, leaf lettuce is doing well. spring root crops (carrots, beets, turnips and radishes) are small and few, if any. no beets or carrots yet, small radishes and turnips. there is no purple broccoli because the plants were lost early on in the field, i believe due to ants doing something to their roots. germination rate of summer squash, cucumbers and melons was low in the field.

on the plus side - head lettuces are doing really well - all varieties - oakleaf, greenleaf, redleaf, romaine, red romaine and buttercrunch. cooking greens are also doing really well - swiss chard, kale (lacinato, russian and vates), mustard greens and collards. the herbs are also doing well and we are selling more than last year. herbs are very time consuming to prepare for market, so when they don't sell, it's a bummer. but this year, it has been well worth the time. the basils (genovese, purple and lemon) are doing especially well. the tomato plants look good and the new staking technique seems to be working well. there are LOTS of green tomatoes and we are hoping they will start turning this week. winter squash plants look great. leeks look good. the potato plants were covered with the colorado potato beetle a few weeks ago...the plants were practically striped down to the stems, but dale vacuumed them off. seemed to give the plants a chance to bounce back and we've been digging up lots of nice looking potatoes. asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries are done, but here come the black raspberries and sour cherries. garlic plants are going well, and so are the yellow and red onions. tomatillos and husk cherry plants are looking really good and will be ready in a few weeks. we harvested a few jalapeno peppers today...the rest will follow soon.

i haven't mentioned every crop we grow, but you get the idea. there are a lot of ups and downs. for now though, the ups are outweighing the downs.