We’ve reached the transitional period between winter and spring. There’s never a distinct overnight change as we move from one season to the next, but rather an overlap lasting a few weeks. Winter crops are gradually being phased out in order to make room for the future spring bounty. And, we’re putting more effort into bed preparation and planting. We’ll be harvesting our last round of winter crops like broccoli and cauliflower beginning next week so make sure to enjoy them while you can!

The tomatoes in the high tunnel have been loving the warm and sunny days this week. We installed string trellises for them to keep them supported as they grow. A length of string is suspended from the high tunnel frame above each plant. The opposite end is clipped to the base of the plant so that as it grows, the string can be gently twisted around the main stem to keep it upright. While trellising, we noticed several blooms beginning to open on our plants! You can see one in the photo below.

We harvested something new for you this week: shelling peas! Shelling peas don’t produce edible pods and must be shelled (hence the name) before being enjoyed. This type of pea is less common in our climate due to the length of cooler growing days it requires. Luckily, our high tunnel allowed us to plant these earlier in the winter so that they were able to grow within the optimal range of temperatures! We’ll be selling these peas at the farm stand this Saturday unshelled. Here’s a simple and delicious way to enjoy them.

In Season: Cabbage, Shelling Peas, Salad Mix, Spring Onions, Spinach, Beets, Kale, Radishes, and Barese Chard with Tomato Transplants and Cabbage Transplants for your garden

April 14th, 2021

We planted four rows of peanuts this week! We are trialing four different peanut varieties: Texas Red and White, Tennessee Red Valencia, Carwile’s Virginia, and Georgia. Both the Texas Red and White and Tennessee Red Valencia varieties are suited to growing in clay-heavy soils like ours so we will be eager to see how they perform compared to the other two. Peanuts are members of the legume family and like most legumes, they are capable of fixing beneficial nitrogen to the soil. This allows us to simultaneously improve our soil fertility while growing a food crop.

Remember our Hopi Turquoise corn that we planted? It has put on a lot of growth over the past couple of weeks! We decided to get a head start on our winter squash crop and interplant our corn with acorn squash. This is a nod to the “Three Sisters” system of companion planting among various indigenous groups in North America. The Three Sisters consisted of the three main agricultural crops: winter squash, corn, and climbing beans. Each crop provided a benefit for the others as they grew and once they were harvested and enjoyed together, they provided a source of complex carbohydrates, essential fatty acids, and all nine essential amino acids.

When we planted our sugar snap peas earlier in the year, we decided to trial an English shelling pea variety called Mr. Big. Typically, English shelling peas do not like our growing climate as it often gets too warm too quickly here in the spring. We were pleasantly surprised to see this crop succeed and give us one humble yet sizable harvest! These peas will be going to James Beard Award-Winning Chef Justin Yu so that he can work his culinary magic. As for our sugar snap peas, this will most likely be their last week at the farm stand so make sure you stop by on Saturday to scoop some up!

Our spring crops are beginning to wind down so here’s what’s on the harvesting horizon: green beans, tomatoes (check out those Midnight Snack cherry tomatoes in the photo!), summer squash, potatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.

If you’re out and about and want to support restaurants that are using our produce, check out the following: Ostia, UB Preserv, Nancy’s Hustle, Better Luck Tomorrow, and Brasil.

March 17th, 2021

Our tomatoes are beginning to grow up the trellis, set blooms, and we’ve even spotted the first fruits! Tomato flowers are self-pollinating which means they contain both male and female parts. While the flowers are capable of self-pollination, factors like wind and insects can help the process along. Now that we’re starting to see the first fruits, we’ll be eagerly watching their progress as they swell and eventually mature. The first to mature (and thus be harvested) will be our smaller varieties like Sun Gold (an orange cherry tomato) and Candyland Red (a red currant tomato).

In addition to our tomatoes, our snap peas are beginning to flower. Snap peas have a very short window of time between blooming and harvesting. Typically the pods will be ready for harvesting within five to seven days after the flower blooms. Once the plants hit their stride and begin to bloom regularly, we’ll be harvesting almost every other day to keep up. Like snow peas, the entire pod of the snap pea is edible and can be enjoyed raw or cooked. It’s possible we’ll have the first harvest as early as next weekend so we will make sure to keep you posted!

Spring planting continued this week with cucumbers, peppers, and eggplant. We decided to interplant our Rosa Bianca eggplant with marigolds in a continuing effort to incorporate more flowers on the farm and maximize the use of our growing space. As for the rest of our crops, we’ll have a couple of different vegetables coming into season this week and next, namely our rainbow chard that has recovered beautifully from the freeze and baby arugula.

If you’re out and about and want to support restaurants that are using our produce, we delivered iceberg lettuce to Chef Justin Yu at Better Luck Tomorrow and frisée and beets to Chef Kaitlin Steets of Littlefoot, a pop-up concept with a French tasting menu.

March 3rd, 2021

Spring preparation is in full swing on the farm. Our snap peas have been swiftly growing since the freeze so we added a trellis system for them this week. Snap peas have a vining habit so they do best with a support structure like a trellis. As the snap peas grow, they begin to produce specialized leaves called tendrils. These tendrils are able to coil once they come into contact with a solid object like the netting on our trellis. If you look at the photo above, you’ll be able to see the first tendrils already beginning to wrap around the trellis! Training our peas to grow up the trellis will help to prevent disease from lack of air circulation and it will make it much easier when it comes time to harvest.

Tomato transplanting continued this week and like our peas, we’re incorporating a trellis system to provide support as they grow. We’re aiming to be more intentional with our growing space this year so we’ll be regularly pruning our tomatoes in order to allow us the room to interplant low growing vegetables in the beds with them. As the tomatoes grow, they will create shade that crops like lettuce and carrots will benefit from as the temperatures begin to rise. This allows us the ability to maximize our growing space while also increasing our crop diversity.

We’ve been focused on planting several quicker growing crops since the freeze in order to make up for our losses. In the field we’ve planted crops like spinach, arugula, and Hakurei turnips. In the greenhouse, we’ve been experimenting with sunflower and cress microgreens. Microgreens are young vegetable greens that are harvested when they are between one and three inches tall. They have a much more concentrated flavor than their mature counterparts and are often denser in nutrient content. We’ll have our sunflower microgreens available at the farm stand this Saturday for you to try! Sunflower microgreens can be used in salads or sandwiches and as a garnish for tacos or soups.

January 13th, 2021

We’ve been planting up a storm over the past couple of weeks in preparation for spring. Lettuces like Iceberg, Butterhead, and Little Gem were transplanted this week along with celery. We also sowed English pea and snap pea seeds directly in place in our beds in advance of the spring season. We’re looking forward to a drier weather pattern over the next week that will allow us to prepare more of our beds for spring crops!

If you’ve happened by the farm, you might have noticed our high tunnel structure that resides on the back portion of our field. A high tunnel, also referred to as a hoop house, operates in a similar manner to a greenhouse. The interior of the high tunnel heats up because the solar radiation from the sun warms the plants and soil inside the tunnel faster than the heat can escape. The warm air is then retained by the walls of the tunnel. This allows us to extend the season of some of our crops as it creates more of a temperature-controlled environment. The high tunnel is currently planted with crops that prefer temperatures in the 70s and 80s such as celery, cilantro, and turnips.

Farming always comes with its fair share of potential pests. We’ve been noticing that something loves to munch on our leafy greens in the field. After doing a bit of investigating, we’ve narrowed it down to rabbits! While we are flattered that they love our lettuces, we decided to employ a method that will safely deter them from our crops. We’ve been covering rows of our lettuces and other tender greens with insect netting. The netting allows for adequate sunlight and airflow to get to our crops while simultaneously keeping the rabbits out.