Anyone remember the musical into the woods? The farm has been moving along in leaps and bounds, this week we were:
Into the fields
to work the soil,
knock back weeds
begin our toil.
Into the fields
to tidy up
to plant the seeds
so veggies erupt.
It's such a euphoric feeling I had to share it with you all. This year is one of the earlier years as it's been quite dry. Every year the date changes depending on the warmth, drying days, and rainy days. When water replaces the air in soils, the ground gets squishy and children's rain boots will sink in, usually with delight. The same goes for the tractor and our boots although with markedly less delight. We wait until the ground drains, and the air pockets return to the soils bringing back rigidity. If we are impatient it is like bubble wrap - we collapse all the little air pockets where the microorganisms thrive to feed our plants. Without air in soils, plants can't grow and the ground turns to cement. So we're patient, and we celebrate when the day comes.
We lifted mulch, row covers and hoses out of the way for Stephanie to get in with the tractor. We discovered treasure troves of cilantro and parsley to share with you all this week that survived under row cover from last fall. While the greenhouse is full of seedling trays ready to plant out, they will then take a month or two to mature after planting in the fields. We got ahead of the game with our new greenhouses, planting in soil under cover. This delivery we've got the first of our bok choy and spinach coming out of the new greenhouse, and Stephanie finally got the second greenhouse finished... and we were planting in it this morning. Our two full time workers from Mexico also arrived this week and are safely in quarantine, yet another reason to celebrate after last year's struggle to get by without their help at the start of the season. As far as I'm concerned, prefect antidotes to another stay at home order and very scary numbers. I hope you can share our joy and taste it too!
