Farm Update
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These green onions in the coldframes are
ready to be harvested! |
Hi everyone! Things are really starting to take off at the farm, and life is becoming busier for us as the weather warms up! Each year, our workload follows a pretty distinct bell curve. It starts to slant upward this time of year, peaks in the last week of June/first week of July, remains on a very slight downward slope for several months, and then starts to dip much more dramatically once we hit November. Now that the days have lengthened just slightly, there is enough sunlight to trigger the plants in our hoophouses to start growing again. In fact, Fred has been harvesting the first green garlic, spinach, green onions, and microgreens of the year! This time of year, there isn't enough variety or enough volume to start the CSA, but we are able to begin deliveries to a few local stores and restaurants. We've done our first few deliveries to Greentree Co-Op Market in Mt. Pleasant (who just opened up at their new location a few months ago!), Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor, Red Haven Farm to Table Restaurant in Okemos, and the Allen Neighborhood Center in Lansing.
Fred and the crew have also been doing lots of work in the field over the last two weeks! Before they could plant our first field planting of lettuce and spinach, they collected a bunch of rocks from the field that would obstruct our ability to plant properly and made several huge rock piles on the perimeter of the farm. They put up low tunnels over our overwintered spinach so the plants have room to grow. A lot of people don't realize that you can actually plant some very coldhardy plants (such as spinach and kale) in the fall and cover it with layers of protective plastic throughout the winter to keep the heat in and the wind out. This allows the plants to get a little bit of a head start growing, so when the temperatures get warmer and the amount of daylight increases, the plants can take off a lot sooner than they would otherwise. They don't do much growing in the winter; they mostly just bide their time until nature signals that it's time, so they're perfectly fine under layers of plastic laid directly on the ground. Once they start growing in the spring though, they need a little more head room, so we put up what we call low tunnels. They're basically metal hoops stuck in the ground, and then we lay the insulating plastic over them to protect the plants until it gets consistently warm.
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Our greenhouse is full of flats of microgreens and
little plants that will be transplanted into the field
when the weather gets warmer. |
The planting of spinach that we're harvesting right now was overwintered in the coldframes (unheated greenhouses), and is now at a harvestable size. The planting of overwintered spinach in the field that is currently under the low tunnels will hopefully be at a harvestable size right around the time we go through the last of the coldframe spinach. And the third planting of spinach just went into the ground last week, along with the first field planting of lettuce. Now all of those new lettuce and spinach plants are starting their life in the field under layers of protective plastic, and will probably be at a harvestable size right around the time we finish up the overwintered field spinach. This system of planting the same crops at multiple times throughout the year so we (almost) always have some that is the right size for harvest is called "succession planting". We do this with many of the crops we grow so we can have each item for as much of the year as possible. Some crops have a relatively short harvestable season, but some (like lettuce and kale) have a very long season, and we plant some of these crops a dozen times throughout the year. Most people think of spring as planting season and fall as harvest season, but with succession planting, we're both planting and harvesting virtually every week throughout the long growing season.
Planting is definitely the theme of right now though, and that includes starting our seeds! We've seeded a whole bunch of flats so the veggies can get a head start growing in our heated greenhouse. When the weather is warmer and the plants are bigger (about an inch or two tall), we'll transplant them into the field, where they will continue to grow for the rest of their lives. Right now, the greenhouse is about 2/3 of the way full of seeded flats, so hopefully we can get some great weather that will spur everything on, and we won't run out of greenhouse space before we can start transplanting into the field!
Aside from planting, we've also been working on plenty of other projects that need to be done in preparation for the upcoming season. Our new farmhands, Callie and Taran, finished pruning the blueberry patch last week, which is a huge project! The next steps before we can officially move on from the blueberries for now is to spread our organic fertility mix on the plants to promote lots of strong new growth, and to haul away all of the random blueberry branches that are still laying on the ground next to the bushes. Then we won't have to think too much about the blueberries until May and June (when we monitor the blossoms, then the green unripe berries), and July (when we stress out about deer and birds messing with our bushes until the massive blueberry harvest at the end of the month). Along with the intense physicality of farm work, there is also the large mental load of timing each planting as perfectly as possible given what the weather will likely do, and then protecting everything from extreme temperatures, storms, droughts, disease, weeds, and pests. And that's all before we get it all harvested, cleaned, sized, bagged up, and delivered to you guys four days a week. Basically, the farm is like a massive, months-long game of Tetris, but outside in nature.
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The spinach that was overwintering in
the field is now under a protective low
tunnel, which gives the plants space
to grow. |
Speaking of nature, I have to give a shout out to all of the wildlife at the farm! There are the ones we're not huge fans of (like the mice who try to stay warm in the barn and greenhouse), and the ones we love, like the two bald eagles we've seen circling above the farm for several months looking for small animals to eat, and the big gray feral cat who hangs out in the coldframes and keeps the mouse population under control. The other day, Fred accidentally disturbed a bright white weasel who still had his winter coloring, and who will likely blend in much better in a few weeks when he gets his gray summer coat.
So this is a portrait of what March at the farm looks like! Each month has its own rhythm, and it will be different in April than it was in March. Probably when I send out the newsletter next month, it will be full of field plantings, rain, warmer weather, and asparagus.
And as always, don't forget to sign up for the CSA if you haven't already! With food prices on the rise, it's a good idea to lock in your produce for the season at a price that is way cheaper than buying organic produce at the store. You can check out the CSA details here at our website (which I revamped last week, so go check out our new look!). Here is our 2022 CSA sign-up form, and once you fill it out, I'll put you on the membership list and email you an invoice. Just let me know if you have any questions! We'd love to see you all again this summer!
Recipes
Locavores, rejoice! Michigan small farms finally have fresh produce coming out of the coldframes, so you can say goodbye to storage vegetables and root crops that have become a little boring over the long, cold winter. You'll start seeing locally produced spinach, lettuces, microgreens, green onions, green garlic, and kale at your friendly neighborhood co-op or independent grocery store (including our veggies at Greentree and Argus), so it's time to get cooking with all of these lovely spring veggies!
