A Spring Update

Here at the farm I have found myself thankful for the many rainy days we've had recently but even more grateful when the sun has shone itself, which seems like it's been few and far between. But how easy it is to forget the gray days when the blue skies appear. On those days, to get up and out at 7 is a real joy. The bird songs hover in the cold air just a little longer. The fog hangs in the shallow valley on the horizon. The pigs wait impatiently for their morning feeding. The moo of a cow from a neighboring farm bellows along with the roo-coo-ca-coo of the rooster in the hen house. And I head for the green house along with Bethanie, Emily and Gunther to check on the starts and get the day rolling.

Recently we have been transplanting tomatoes and cukes in between the thriving lettuce and leeks on fruit days and we've already got peas sown and coming up in the market gardent along with some good looking swiss chard transplants. Emily has filled in a few more beds in the greenhouse with fennel, their slender leafy fingers glowing bright green next to deep forest green of the deer tongue lettuce. Apparently deer tongue lettuce is Gunther's favorite. His directions were to make it a priority in the green house before sowing any other lettuce, and so we did. I can't wait to try it in a few more weeks when the leaves start maturing.

Just yesterday on a beautiful sunny day in the low 70s we found the time to transplant a dozen or so rasperry plants at the bottom of the garden along with 3 gooseberry plants. And at the other end of the garden we put in an apple, pear, peach and cherry tree next to a handful of blueberry plants. I'm looking forward to their juicy offerings in the seasons to come.

Big Day

The board meeting is coming up this weekend -- so all the members are arriving one or 2 at a time tomorrow. So today was the last day without the added responsibility of cooking for 15 people that Beth, Emily and I have been assigned to do -- it'll be fun, actually. Lots of good food! I'm even making a banofee pie.

So we spent the day, beautifully sunny and still, with the plants. We planted a peach, pear and cherry tree early in the morning. Then I mowed the market garden with the new riding lawn mower while Beth and Emily transplanted raspberries and gooseberry bushes. I don't want to become the permanent lawn jockey so I'm doing my best to avoid being the one who always mows, but so far that's been the story. At one point I totally lost sight of what I was doing on the mower for a second and completely wiped out a blueberry bush seedling. Felt bad, but what can you do? Maybe it'll grow back.

So that was the morning. in the afternoon we planted 8 tomato plants in the greenhouse and cleaned up a bit and watered before putting up a tent that will serve as the mess hall for the next couple of days.

But the highlight of the day was when Bethanie told me how happy she is here and how it feels so good to be tending to the earth while our baby grows in her. Pretty amazing! She's 4.5 months along now and feeling full of energy!