During the winter months we are busy planning and preparing for the upcoming farm season. We look through farm and seed catalogs and choose some tried and true varieties and look for fun, new varieties! This year we’ll purchase seeds from our local supplier, Osborne Seed plus High Mowing and Peaceful Valley. We purchase only certified organic seeds – to support organic farming methods that align with our values and those of our valued customers.
This warm weather is getting the farming juices flowing through my veins, and as the days get longer, these telltale signs point to the fact that soon it will be time to grow food. For over two decades we have let weather dictate our farming schedule and that has worked well. But the downside is that crops take longer to grow when planted earlier, we often must till and re-till the soil due to sporadic weather, and hope for a good weather window to plant those early transplants.
When I factor in my desire to farm and the realities of weather, the early spring feels more like running on a hamster wheel. I have winter’s worth of energy and desire all pent up! But when I surveyed the previous 20 farming seasons, I approached John, our main farmhand, about intentionally starting a little later. We decided back in December to not fall prey to the Siren’s Song of early spring. We are going to start seeding crops in trays on the first day of spring! This is a big shift for us, because normally we would be planting out our trays on the first day of spring.
Our soil is heavy and, while it responds fine to early tilling, it really works up nicely later in the spring. Starting later will also create better seed beds and facilitate quicker crop growth. One major advantage to starting later is there will be less weeding. In the early spring, weeding is more akin to relocating the weeds as we hoe, (moving clumps of weeds around) compared to having them dry out and die off. Starting just a little later we will be able to skip one whole cycle of weeding.
We are also going to focus on multiple varieties of salad crops this year, and we plan to bring back the pumpkin patch for 2022!
Tristan