I am officially switching to shorts and T-shirts in hopes of warmer weather. My clothing strategy hasn’t been very successful, though! We are still waiting for a good stretch of warm weather to kick it into another gear. However, with that said, the valley farmers are getting active and doing as much as we can to get ready for planting. On our farm we will be planting lettuce this week. The soil is still relatively cold, but we can get a decent seedbed ready for transplants. I am less optimistic for planting any direct seedings and will be waiting a few more days in hopes of dryer weather. Plants are pretty resilient and seeds can germinate through the most inhospitable conditions, but I have found that less stress on the plants equals better crops, so we prepare and wait.
For now, lettuce and onions are going in, but beets, peas, kohlrabi will have to wait for slightly warmer weather. As will green beans, cucumbers, summer and winter squash. One thing I am expecting is that when the weather does turn warmer this farm season is going to feel like a sprint and less like a marathon. We will go from plodding to planting to weeding in the blink of an eye. Stay tuned.
(Resharing from last week) Supply chain issues are popping in ways that I have never experienced. I was talking to another grower and I was commenting on some of my germination issues with the first round of lettuce plants and, he shared that he was also having issues.
He had been using the same potting/transplant mix for the last decade, but this year Vermiculite wasn’t available, Vermiculite lets in air and keeps the soil from compacting. This year he did everything the same, but he is having to learn how to grow transplants with the new formulation. The only reason I even know about this is because I was hunting for a few more trays to offset our own lettuce woes!
Another friend of mine, who has farmed for decades, who I can usually count on for extra plant starts, shared with me that he hadn’t even started a single tray! He has been bitten by the labor shortage and may call it a year after the nursery season is over.
Inflation, labor, and supply chain issues affect all of us. Our team is working hard to grow and source food for your family and balance the increasing supply challenges. For now, we are going to hold our prices steady and continue to source the highest quality produce, and soon we will be harvesting produce from our own farm!
Thank you for supporting Box of Good.
Tristan, Joelle and the Box of Good crew