First Big Harvest!

What a heat wave today!  After a month of below-normal temperatures and lots of clouds, I think I actually heard the plants growing today.  Heat does wonders for plants as long as they have enough water.  The asparagus spears that were growing about 2-3” per day in the cool weather today grew a foot.  What a difference.

Although I was contemplating delaying our first traditional CSA share delivery due to the cool spring, I think this Saturday, 5/24, will be a great time to share our first big harvest.  The greens that have been growing in the hoop house are at their peak, with good size, color, and flavor.  Perennials and overwintered vegetables like rhubarb, asparagus and spinach have some size, and a few herbs like parsley and chives are a healthy green.

It will be a few weeks before we have enough volume of produce to come down to the farmers market.  But, only a few short weeks!

When the weather has allowed it, we have been scurrying to get transplants in the ground.  The onions seemed to take us about two weeks to get in this year, partly because there are a lot of them (more than 20,000, I think) but mostly because it kept raining and it was too wet to till and plant.  Now that the night temp’s are at or above 50 degrees, we’ll put the tomato plants out, followed by the eggplant and sweet potatoes.  The okra and peppers will wait until June, when the temperature rarely falls below 55 degrees (in theory).  Each to their own season, right?  At this point, I can report that the crops that are in the ground are looking great, and we are almost on schedule with the next round of planting/transplanting.

Erik Sessions and Sara Peterson

Patchwork Green Farmers