The first seedlings are in the fields, greenhouse harvests, and why we still have storage veggies. ~
These past two weeks have been very busy around the farm. We've been planting our first seedlings out into the fields! So far we've focused on veggies that won't mind a nip of frost in case the temperatures do drop. The onions and shallots are all safely establishing, we have peas, cilantro, spinach and lettuces busy settling into their soil. Meanwhile, the space they've freed up in the greenhouse has been diligently refilled with more seedlings to grow for planting out. The hardest part now is waiting - by transplanting we've brought the harvests a week to a month sooner, but all these plants will take at least a month to grow in the fields before we can harvest if not longer. I'm hoping by our last spring delivery we'll be into the field crops!
In the meantime, there's lots of treasures still growing in our greenhouses - you'll gradually see a higher and higher percentage of your bag being freshly harvested. This week I'm super excited about beautiful big bok choy, while we usually grow "baby" heads we decided to try growing some larger ones for those of you who want lots of cooking greens. We've got more lettuce, arugula and spinach this week - have you noticed how tender the leaves are? When we grow in the greenhouse the leaves are sheltered from the wind and elements, and consequently they are extremely tender and delicate! We are much more careful when harvesting and washing them, but you'll notice a few more folded leaves than in summer. In case you were curious, that's why.
We've still got lots of good food in storage too. In order to keep veggies fresh to enjoy six months later we store our root veggies dirty in a humidified fridge. As we go through the winter and spring, we wash them up fresh to enjoy. This way we're able to ensure there's still good solid veggies on offer in your bags in addition to the greens which grow much more quickly in the greenhouse this time of year. In our quest to keep people well fed year round, we've learnt a lot about how to store vegetables and how to extend their growing seasons (like with a greenhouse). Since spring is a "shoulder" season for farming it's the hardest time of year to find fresh local veggies growing outside! We're just starting to plant and don't have anything in the fields to harvest yet - so instead to keep people fed we turn to storage veggies and greenhouse greens. I've gone from a city dweller with no local options in the grocery store come springtime to a farmer feeding people lots of local options right from my own farm. Now that's a good feeling, and as far as I'm concerned it's pretty delicious. Thank you for eating local and seasonally with us this spring!
