Blog
An exprience farmer told me the other day, that year's ago, spring time was often cold and wet. He said, get used to it; develop strategies to work around it. Another seasoned farmer said, "never complain about the weather." So, following thier advise, we've just keep our heads down and planted crops according to our schedule put together this past Decemeber. Sometimes, it's worked, other times not so much. We planted Sugar Snap peas four times this year. It was just too cold for them to germinate. Now they are doing just fine. I'm on my third try at bush beans - same problem as the peas; right time, wrong year. It's okay in my book. I like a challenge and learning from my mistakes. So this weekend, we took the plunge risking the cool weather and transplanted our first batch of tomatoes, many hundreds of them. They were very much ready. I think they will be just fine. And if not, we'll try again :-) Photo: Farmhand Joe, tying up Big Beef tomatoes.
Spring has come and the vegetables tell me this everyday. All except for one crop that we expected by now, strawberries. By next week, these little jewells will be ready for picking. I can't wait!
Behold, the super sweet Earliglo strawberry.
Spring is marked by many events, for Jennifer, the coming of our delicious strawberries is a sure highlight. I took this photo today. The plants look excellent. By my observations, we should have strawberries by the first weekend in May. Deelish!
The last few days we've been busy transplanting onions, leeks and shallots. I just realized we are growing 10 varieties of onions. What was I thinking?! I'm sure the crew was thinking the same thing, but was polite enough not to ask.
I suppose one could call it, "catalogitis". I tend to get sucked in by the seed catalog's marketing to try new varieties.
Look for onions, shallots and leeks in mid-June. We'll have sweet, cipollini, red and yellow onions, in addition to shallots and leeks. Photo left: Our beautiful organic leek transplants from Walker Farms.
The rule of thumb here in Southern MD, is to plant potatoes the week of St Patrick's Day. Even though Spring seems to be on a temporary furlow, amazingly, the skies cleared-up Saturday just long enough for The Crew, Jen and I to plant our wonderful spuds. And plant them we did! See the Photo Gallery for more details. Many thanks to our Crew: Joe, Mindy, Joe, Connie and Priscilla. Be sure and thank them next time you enjoy one of our organic potatoes!
Garlic is good for your soul! Our recent rains, longer days and warmer temperatures have spurred-on nice growth for this bed of German White organic hardneck garlic. Look for it at our farmers market stand in late June. For those in the know, garlic scapes will be available in early June!
Jen and I transplanted red and white organic scallions during Saturday's beautiful warm sunny day on our Leonardtown farm. Scallions add a nice touch in salad, stir-fry and pasta salads to name a few dishes. What's that red thing Jen is on you ask? It's a Drängen. Our Swedish farmer Barcalounger.
We recently seeded several beds of radishes, beets and turnips. Just in time for the big snow storm! The seeds should be fine since the weather is predicted to be warm this coming weekend.