Germination!

Danny in the "fields" - From SHF CSA

I've been farming for more than ten years now and I was a gardener for years before that. Somehow I'm still amazed every spring when things that I've seeded actually come up. Maybe it's actually more a sense of relief that there might be something to harvest and pay the bills eventually. Germination is just the first step though. We've already started hoeing the beds and I've seen some slug tracks, although no actual damage yet from insects. The first harvests are still a month off and some of these crops won't even be harvested until late summer.

Right now potatoes, favas, arugula, spinach, lettuce, kale, onions, beets, chard, and carrots have all started poking their heads out of the ground. With a little luck, some water, some sun, and a bit of help with the weeds we'll be harvesting the first of the crops in about a month.

Arugula germinating - From SHF CSA

I'm really pleased with the way the six row seeder has worked for us on a few crops. It's a frightening tool to use because it's very stingy with the seed and you can't actually see the seed dropping so it always seems like it's not working. The proof is in the germinated arugula though, very even, with good spacing - I guess it was dropping seed after all. That stinginess with the seed saves us on seed costs and the labor of hand thinning but the tool requires a near perfect bed to actually work without clogging with soil.

Drip tape on the beds - From SHF CSA

We've laid out drip on the first nine beds in anticipation of our first irrigations in the next couple weeks. We're trying to only come out to the farm once a week so we have to be prepared to make that day count. I'm also going out of town for the next three weeks so Danny will once again be holding down the fort solo and prepping and planting like a mad man while I'm working in Hawaii.