The Valley is Waking Up

It's a gorgeous day in Harmony Valley. It's 72 degrees, sunny with just a few clouds in the sky and there is a nice breeze in the air. While we still see a lot of brown in the landscape around us, every day things get a little more green. The birds are chirping in the background. I haven't seen a blue bird yet, but I have seen some purple finches. The peeper frogs are awake and ready for spring. When we drove through the valley last night, it sounded like they were peeping in stereo. In some places it was so loud...what a beautiful sound. There are buds on the trees, the bees are buzzing, and we are thankful for the breath of fresh, spring air.

We're hoping to plant this week...pending rain in the forecast and the field is still a little too wet to work up. We shaped beds in this field last fall to help them dry more quickly this spring so we can get in more quickly. This field doesn't look like much now, but give it a few weeks and it will be multi-colored and lush. The planter is out, the seeds are ready....as soon as Richard says go, we'll be rolling. Salad lettuces and greens, baby bok choi, cilantro, dill, mustard greens, spinach, arugula, baby white turnips, radishes.....I can hardly wait to eat it all!!

Jack and I took a walk along the Bad Axe River. Evidently the water isn't too cold, since Jack had no hesitation to jump right in. He had his eye on a long stick which he promptly retrieved and pulled over to the bank. Richard is always trying to clean up the river to keep it flowing within its banks and make it the thing of beauty that it is. Seems that Jack has learned a few lessons through observation. We also spotted some little tufts of wild nettles.....it won't be long before I'll be spreading nettle pesto on a pizza topped with spinach, ramps and morel mushrooms!!









Of course we had to cross the river and tromp out into the woods to check on the status of the ramps. Last week we only found small, purple sprouts. This week we found green leaves!! The biggest plants are only about 3-4" tall, but if they keep growing at this rate, it will be just a few weeks before they are ready to harvest.

The green garlic and overwintered green onions are several inches tall now too. Grilled green garlic on top of grilled salmon......always dreaming of meals to come.

We have a lot to do this week. More sunchokes to dig, ground to work, planting salad in the field and dandelion, broccoli, cauliflower and sage in the greenhouse. We're hoping to put some nasturtium and calendula seeds in the flower tunnel this week too.

The forecast right now is for chances of rain and thunderstorms all week. It's anybody's guess what we'll get. If the temperatures stay warm, we could be harvesting overwintered spinach within a few weeks too!! Game on!