Gearing Up

Things are changing at the farm.

New Tractor. New Implements. New Stuff.

Actually, it makes more sense to refer to the farms in the plural now that we are farming at two locations.

New Location!

We've more than doubled our growing space this year--from approximately two acres to nearly five.

Which means we need an extra set of hands.

New Intern :)

Why, in our eighth year of farming here, have we decided to take on so much new stuff? Two reasons.

First, we want to improve the Wintergreen Farm CSA experience for our members. We've always felt we could have more variety and bulk in our later season shares. In 2014 we are making enormous efforts toward that goal.

One of those efforts involves planting about 10 times the quantity of
potatoes that we've planted previously.

And onions.

And rutabaga, and celeriac, and winter squash...

We're also adding new crops, like this super red 80 cabbage and celery.

The second reason is, of course, Wintergreen Foods, the new produce processing arm of our agri-business. We've been shouting about it from rooftops for nearly a year now (products coming soon, stay tuned!) but if you aren't sure what I'm referring to, please check out this blog post of the past to get an idea of what we're up to.

And all this new stuff means a new learning curve to climb, which has slowed us down a bit this spring. 

Scott modified our new mulch layer to make and
hill potato beds (my husband rocks!) which sped
up potato planting tremendously, once we figured out
how to do it ;)

All this learning, combined with weather, means we've decided to switch our CSA start date to July 9th this year. It was a tough decision, but the change will allow us to get the best possible start this year which means the best possible CSA shares for our members. Good things are in store this year.

Good things like tomatoes and basil from the hoophouse.

Farming in a Polar Vortex

I know the vortices are over, but we are still dealing with their dense and snowy aftermath.

Plus it's nice to have an excuse to use the word vortices.

 As you can see, the greenhouse isn't quite ready to be put to use this "spring", and it won't be for a while yet.

We still have seeds to start, though, and today was the day we put the very first seeds of the 2014 CSA season in soil. In our living room :)

We started 170 tomato seeds, 80 eggplant, and 80 peppers. They're all destined for transplant in the hoophouse during the first week of May.

For now, they are cozy on the heat mat, with a lovely view of the snow.

Tomorrow's project: Starting basil and lettuce seeds.