The lettuce and baby kale plants in the Big House are sizing up really well with the warm weather and sunshine. We’ve been watering regularly in there and the baby kale is now ready to start harvesting. These lettuce plants were planted with our new PaperPot Transplanter and they are looking great! Photo: Sherri Nixon
Karl took this great panorama of the giant black tarp we use to solarize new fields and do serious weed suppression. We have had these tarps for years and move them around multiple times in a season to help get new fields ready and ensure that existing fields don’t have too great a weed load. This method helps because we don’t use chemicals or sprays, and most of our weeding is done with hand tools. We’ll be moving the caterpillar tunnel onto one of these areas after we’ve killed down the weeds with the tarp.Mekala moved these small plants out of the Little House to get them ready for transplanting into the field. After their cushy living conditions inside the Little House, they need to ‘harden off’ – this is the process of toughening them up for field life. Putting them outside for a couple days before transplanting exposes them directly to the wind and sun.
Amber is washing our Spring Saute Mix – a mix of baby kale and spinach we grew in the Big House. In the background you can see just how full the greenhouse is getting! In fact, this photo was the last time we were able to wash greens inside the Greenhouse – we’ve moved our temporary wash stand outdoors to make more room for all the seedlings we are growing for the farm and for the plant sale.
Compost delivery! We received two loads of compost from Seacoast Farms this week. We’re so fortunate they are our neighbors on Pine Road.
Mekala took this picture after completing another round of transplanting into the field. We now have scallions, cilantro, lettuces for our salad mix, and peas planted. The wild weather forecast means we’ll cover these with a light white fabric row cover that helps protect plants from pests, too much sun, and April snow.