Fresh, spring crops! Green Garlic, Purple Radishes, Lettuce Mix, Rhubarb, Sorrel, and Thyme.
WEEK 5 MENU:
• Lettuce Mix
• Purple Radishes
• Rhubarb
• Green Garlic or Shallots
• Fresh Thyme or Sorrel
• No U-Pick right now…around the end of May there will be more flowers
COMING SOON: Pea Shoots, Dill, Cilantro, Chervil, Beet Greens, Mustard Mix, PEAS, and Carrots!
What an incredible week! Taking a break from harvesting last week was an incredible idea. It gave us time to get a lot of new things planted, and all of the old things cultivated.
These dry days have been perfect for getting our big onion crop in the ground. Did you know that onions have a timer? Up here above the 45th parallel, we have to get our onion plants as big as possible by the Summer Solstice, June 21, because bullying onions have a timer: As soon as the days start getting shorter, they start to bulb. So the bigger the plant, the bigger the bulb!
Two-thirds of the 2018 onion crop is planted and doing well. That’s about 9,000 onions so far. All that’s left are the winter storage onions and leeks. I am determined not to repeat the Onion Disaster of 2017.
Cultivation, in the farmer sense, means cleaning up weeds, but it’s also a disturbance of the soil. Aerating the surface allows oxygen and water to enter between the soil particles easily, and that results in quicker, healthier growth. Roots grow faster, which means the plants absorb more nutrients, faster. This wheel hoe is my tool of choice: on the left are the cultivated rows, and on the right are those that need cultivating. It’s also good upper body exercise.
The first outside planting of Snap Peas, Pea Shoots, Carrots, Radishes, and Turnips. Plus a second outside planting of Arugula, Spinach, Mustard Mix, Cilantro, and Dill. Next week we’ll be able to plant out the first Lettuces, Napa Cabbages, Kohlrabi, Green Onions, and the Artichokes.
Extra weeding, watering, and heat this week pumped the greenhouse peas into flowering. It’s hard to say which will win the race, Sugar Snaps or Shelling Peas. But I’m not picky! I’ll eat them both!
Though the temps were in the 80’s last week, let’s not forget that last year at this time we were still waiting for the rain to stop and had NOTHING planted outside yet. 2018 is going to be incredible!
Whistling Train Farm 