CSA Shares February 25-27
/Bakery Shares
Buttermilk sandwich loaf
Apple butter
Pepperoni Roll
Chess bars
Loaded breakfast muffins
Penne or fettuccine pasta
2x pizza kit
Produce Shares
Turmeric / Beets / Carrots
Collards / Kale or swiss chard
Radish microgreens / Clover sprouts
Lettuce / Spring mix
Red cabbage
The first year we moved the bulk of our vegetable production to the current plots was spring of 2018, that year ended a long dry run of springs (and a few dry summers) in the area and began a succession of wet, early onset springs that looks to be repeating again this year. In related news, it also just so happened to be the first year we had real irrigation. The longer I farm, the more I realize that things like this are par for the course, Mother Nature cares very little about your planning.
The soil here is much more composed of clay than down at the other plot, where it is all river bottom land and sandy. There it's Easy to work, but the weeds love it. Here in the clay, these wet springs make it extra tricky to find that window to till the first beds since turning over some for cover crop in November. If it is just the least bit too wet, it just turns the tines of your tiller into a perfect cylinder of smooth wet clay, and your just compact your soil as you go over it. Exactly what you don't want to do. Our seed is all here, the tractor, and mower have been serviced up, the propane tank is full at the greenhouse, and we are ready to roll.
However, today is one of those frustrating days farming when it is absolutely beautiful outside, and things are humming along, but we need just one more day of dry weather in order to be able to till, and we ain't gonna get it. In fact, its gonna rain for at least a week, then it takes almost that long a run of dry days in a row again to be able to till in an effective way. So, although these last two days have been a pleasure to work outside and feel like it's time to farm, we are gonna miss this window by just a day, and with it, the opportunity to get certain stuff out on the early side. Miss three times and get up in to March too far, and you can really screw up your planning. Fitting all theses crops and their timelines across beds and fields and seasons is a bit of four dimensional tetris as it is, and the less the early weather cooperates, the more you are doing on less. So she goes in farming, as they say, it's always something.
Instead we will work in the greenhouse next week, and hope another tilling window opens up soon. This one would have been a little too good, so hopefully if we get some ground chopped up in the next 3 weeks or so, we will catch up a bit. On the good side of things, all the fresh seed we got in the ground this week in some beds that were already ready will be getting a nice drink to get them started..
River Creek Farm Season VIII. Let's give this thing a go again, I can't remember being this glad to see spring coming in a long long time. Thank you all making this possible, and caring about local food, and the planet.
