Blog
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. 
Today, we planted Shiitake mushroom "seeds" into cut logs. It's a mult-step process. First we cut logs, then we drill holes in them, inject the mushroom spawn into the holes and finally sealing the holes with cheese wax. Typically, the logs will grow mushrooms in spring and fall for three-five years. 
To us, there is nothing more amazing then a freshly harvested Shiitake mushroom. It has a wonderfully sweet, meaty, earth taste that is incredible in soups and stirfrys. We tried mushrooms last year for the first time with mixed results mainly because of the hot weather. This year, we'll keep a better eye on the logs and bring them to the market to share.
We've started our first plants for the season! Thousands and thousands of onions are quickly coming to life in our greenhouse. We have red ones, yellow ones, little ones (Cipollini) and my favorite, two varities of sweet onions. In another month, we'll be transplaning them and with some TLC, they will be at market by late June.
A lot of farmers grow onions from bulbs or buy small onion transplants. We've tried this but mostly prefer to start our own from seed. It's a lot more work, but we believe we get healther plants that taste better and we can choose many different varities that are only available from seed.
Happy New Year! Hope you have been enjoying our winter weather these past two weeks. The cold temperatures should help keep the pests at bay this growing season!
We've had a nice, albeit short, break from farming and are now quickly starting the 2013 season. Each season for us starts with crop planning. This involves a detailed schedule of what crops to grow by variety, when to start them, how much to grow and finally where to plant them by location, plot and bed. Our plan is similar to last year's with modifications as we learn what grows well in our climate and how we can improve crops that are still challenging. Like most farmers, we like experimenting with new varieties so we have included a few new things for this season that we’ll reveal at the market in the next few months.
