We have more than 10,000 sweet potato plants due to arrive later this week. Normally we'd be ready for them, but....the cascading effects of a broken tractor delaying the mowing and tilling in of the cover crops and then the continuous rains last week and those forecast this week are making things exciting for us. The green manure cover crop (plants grown for the purpose of increasing soil biology and organic matter rather than as a cash crop) residue needs time to break down and we need drier soil conditions in order to make our raised beds so we can lay the drip irrigation lines and the reusable weed mats. All that needs to happen before we can dibble the holes and stick in the slips. We've been watching the weather closely and hoping the rains miss us. Sweet potato slips are just cut pieces of sweet potato vines usually from plants grown down south where it's warmer earlier. Since they don't really have roots, they don't keep very long. If the big rains hit us Sunday night we may need to call the farm and see if we can delay their harvest and shipment a week to give us time to get ready. If we hadn't made the decision to grow cover crops and had simply tilled the field a couple times in spring, we'd have been ready, but we want to invest in the long-term fertility of the soil. The copious amount of organic matter generated by the cover crops will be good long-term, so we're glad we did it, and if the tractor hadn't broken, we'd have been fine. One way or another, we'll be doing a big sweet potato planting soon. And that will the be final big spring planting of the season.
Does that mean we're done planting? No, we actually plant every single week, both seeding flats for transplant and direct seeding in the fields, but in spring we also have all the long-term summer crops to get in the ground in addition to the spring crops and our normal weekly seedings like radishes, cilantro, arugula, etc. Once the sweet potatoes are in the ground we'll have basically set the bulk of the food train in motion that will be providing all of us with wholesome food for months to come. Now it's time to harvest, weed, trellis and prune. But we can't take our eyes off the ball because we have to get ready for fall crops too. Would you believe it? Just today we seeded flats of broccolini for the fall.
All in all, given the slow start from a cool spring, the farm is looking really good. There is so much future food growing out there, it's unbelievable! All systems are go, and the farm is ready to launch!
If you want salad mix, now is the time. We have literally hundreds of pounds of super-tasty salad mix that is ready now. If you want lettuce, stock up for mega salads. Once the heat of summer comes, salad greens will be in short supply, but right now it is IN SEASON!!!
Bread and Cheese
Bread: Farm to Market French Farm Artisan Loaf
Cheese: Hemme Brothers Applewood Smoked curds
We're grateful for our friendly eater-community. Thanks for giving a good home to the good food we grow.
Your farmers,
Dave and Sheri
