We took a ‘farm-cation’ the first week of May to prepare the rest of our beds and get the first of our transplants. It was certainly the least relaxing vacation I have every taken. But also the most satisfying. The long hours and hard work haven’t let up since then. But the transformation has been incredible! Farm time seems to move at its own weird pace. We’ve been so busy that each day goes by so quickly. But we’ve done…
How do we turn our field into an inviting home for the 1,500+ transplants we’ve started in the greenhouse? Our field had a ryegrass cover crop over the winter. Ryegrass is great for cartwheels [see above], soil erosion protection, winter-long photosynthesis, nitrogen scavenging, and weed suppression. It is particularly good at weed suppression because it allelopathic (i.e., it produces chemicals that suppress the growth of other plants). Because of this property, we need to wait at least 2 weeks after…
This week felt like fall. We got some rain, the smoke cleared, and there was a crispness to our sunny days. We also planted many of our winter transplants in the p-patch at just (we hope!) the right time – about 9 weeks before the Persephone Days. The story goes that Persephone was kidnapped by Hades, god of the underworld. Persephone’s mother, Demeter, was so distraught that she turned the Earth barren, creating winter. Zeus brokered a deal to split…