By Richard de Wilde & Andrea Yoder
Looking back to February and March when we had gorgeous sunny days with clear skies and temperatures in the high 50’s and 60’s, all indications were that we were going to have an early spring. The garlic pushed through the mulch and was taller than we’ve ever seen it that early in the season. We worked diligently to stay on top of the greenhouse planting schedule to make sure the plants were ready for the field as soon as our field crew returned from Mexico. And speaking of crew, we did everything in our power to keep the visa process moving along to ensure a prompt arrival, with a goal of no later than April 1. Well, we succeeded, and the first group of field crew started work on March 25!
We dug parsnips and sunchokes, transplanted celeriac seedlings into larger trays in the greenhouse, and did our first harvest of overwintered spinach. On April 1 we sent our first planter out to the field to seed cilantro, red radishes, dill, baby bok choi and baby white turnips. We were on a roll! And then the temperatures dropped, and snow fell from the sky. By Wednesday, April 3 the spinach field was covered in snow, and we called off work for most of our crew because of poor road conditions. We cancelled spinach harvest for the rest of the week because the daytime temperatures were never high enough above freezing to melt the snow! Thankfully the sun came out over the weekend, the snow melted, and we were back out harvesting the following week.
April 11, 2024: Washing Overwintered Spinach |
We’ve done our best to take advantage of windows of opportunity to get our outside work and field work done, but it has been a challenge at times! We’ve had snow, rain, hail, lightning, high winds, freezing temperatures, and finally this week we’re starting to see the temperatures rise and have had mostly sunny skies! Is it still early spring? Yes and No. As mentioned, we were able to plant on April 1. April 1 is always our goal for the first planting, but seldom do we get that opportunity to actually be in the field that early. Those crops that were planted on that day will be ready for harvest on the first of May, likely just in time for that first CSA box! Our overwintered spinach crop definitely came in ahead of schedule by a few weeks, an indicator of an early spring. But the cool weather held back the ramps to a more “normal” start of the harvest season. We had hoped to start transplanting some plants in the field earlier in the month, but rain and freezing temperatures caused delays. We aren’t too far behind schedule, and we’ll catch up quickly, but we are a little late.
April 11 2024: Silvestre seeding cover crop seed in the Asparagus field |
First Radishes of the Season! |
Mini Romaine Head Lettuce......coming to CSA boxes in mid May! |
As in every year of farming, there are opportunities and challenges and if we play our cards right, we can turn those challenges into opportunities to succeed! While April has brought us a variety of conditions to work with, we’ve also had a lot of productive work and have made great strides towards the start of what we hope will be a very prosperous growing season!
While deliveries are just around the corner, we do still have plenty of CSA shares remaining. In fact, we would like to pack another 200-250 boxes each week in May! So, if you have not yet signed up, please submit your order soon so you don’t miss out on any deliveries! And for those of you who are already signed up, please tell your friends, neighbors and anyone else you can think of who might be interested in delicious vegetables! Remember, we offer referral coupons to those of you who help us recruit new members, so it’s win-win all around!
We hope your spring is off to a great start and we look forward to sending delicious vegetables your way very soon!
3 comments:
Thank you, dear friends. We can't wait for the new season to start!
Re: you cilantro, in Madison our sage and parsley, in the ground with no protection also survive. A first for us as well.
very excited for the first box!
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