Spinach and Smooth Roads
Malaya yawns on a spring day as she gets ready to plant with us.
Happy spring! We thought we'd lift our heads up out of the mud and puddles for just a quick update from the farm. First and possibly most importantly: our neighbor Mike spent hours yesterday working out some of Bell Lane's impossible pot-holes, so you should no longer need to plan extra time in your day in order to drive that 1/4 mile to get your eggs and spinach. Thank you to all who have braved the craters these last few weeks as the snow and mud melted.
And yes, we did say spinach....there is a pulse of beautiful tasty spinach that over-wintered in one of our tunnels despite the many days of 18 (or more) below zero. We cut it all to make way for spring seeding in that tunnel, so get it while it's here this week--the next wave of greens will be several weeks out (but they are coming--I just peeked on the lettuce and spinach germinating in the tunnel we planted last week).
Our meadowlarks returned in force a few days ago, perched on the fenceposts and the hybrid poplars around the yurt. They joined the growing chorus of red-wing blackbirds that, in my mind, have been shrieking SEEEED! SEEEED! for at least a month already. And with the temperatures finally above zero, and with ground thawed out in our high tunnels we have finally been following their advice.
This spring, with late February and early March averaging more than 25 degrees below the seasonal norms, had us re-arranging our crop planning and calendars even before a single seed went in the ground. That March 8th round of greens seeding? Um, afraid not. And it's ok, we'll catch up. In the meantime, there are no shortage of building projects and farm tools to build, make, order, and learn. The well-house is almost finished, and the daunting but exciting steps of final wiring and plumbing are next on the docket, to have water ready to go on our tunnels and front field before the irrigation ditches come on in late April.
We've also been on the steep learning curve of our newest piece of equipment, a BCS walking tractor, as we prep ground in our tunnels. And not just raise-your-heart-rate-while-you-hike kind of steep. Steep as in maybe we should harness up and be on belay, kind of steep. We are excited about this tool, which will help us re-set beds and prepare them for seeding without nearly as much mechanized soil violence as our old tractor-mounted rototiller, and yet....let's just say that the experts demonstrating how to use it on YouTube are not showing you the first beds they ever built with it.
When you order a new farm tool, I think it's normal to imagine yourself using it smoothly and expertly, turning out a perfectly formed planting bed nicely under control, fingertips on the levers. The reality is perhaps more like learning to use clip-in bike shoes. I can still remember my first outing, when the quick little side twist and disconnect that looked so easy when my expert friend pulled up to a stop sign looked nothing like my ungainly slow-motion crash while trying to remember how exactly that little bit of metal had me locked to my bike pedals and how I was supposed to get out. Similarly, rather than the easy perfect beds, we found ourselves slowly coming to understand the BCS, but not before first wrestling awkwardly with it, being pinned by the handlebars against the wall of the hoop house, or trying not to get bucked off the raised beds by the heavy machine as it slips and slides off of fluffy soil piled too high, and beds and pathways that simply were not adding up to the dimensions we needed. We're hopeful it will soon be a bit smoother (and building beds in the field, without walls at the end will be helpful practice), and advice from other farmers has been key. Little details, like "ignore the manual and set the wheels 6" narrower, or it definitely won't work."
Editor’s Note: After 40 hours this past season it got a lot easier; and after 80 hours this past season it was a breeze. One of the tricks was adding 35 pounds of weight to the front and easier a heavier power harrow to make the machine handle better.
Every day a little bit more soil emerges from the field, and every day we get a few more things planted in the tunnels, in starter pots in the greenhouse, and we get a little closer to the start of market and farm member pickups. We have a feeling that this spring that is starting slow is going to accelerate quickly, so hang on for the ride!