Catching Up

Already a month or more has gone by since I wrote on here! March is underway and it's always such a crazy, variable month...last week it felt like summer was already here, and then this week we have had snow, rain, sun, wind, and everything in between.  But we were able to take advantage of the nice weather on Sunday to get the high tunnel plastic on, so now we have our own little home to ward off the worst of the weather and get things started.

Getting the plastic secured to the frame

All covered up on a sunny March day!

There are already a few sprouts starting to come up inside, too.  I actually sowed a few beds before the plastic was even on, figuring I'd take advantage of the big snow we had forecast on the 6th to water them in.  Sure enough, there are tiny baby mesclun mix plants coming up in there today...still almost too small to see in the photo, but there they are...okay, they are too tiny to take a picture of yet, all my photos are too fuzzy to make out.  But here's some of the starts that have been moved out to the greenhouse; mainly cool-weather stuff like onions, kale and lettuce:

 Here's the four beds currently planted in there: from left to right, mesclun, spinach, more mesclun, and radishes.  Lettuce should be going into the leftmost bed tomorrow.

 And there's still lots going on inside under lights, too.  Here we have some Amish Paste tomatoes; the bigger ones you can see at the top right of the picture are sungold cherry tomatoes.  (They're bigger since they're going to end up in the tunnel this summer; so I planted them a little earlier).

Oh, and just to finish up with all the themes of last month's post: here's one of our baby chicks!  This picture is about a month old by this point; the four-week old chicks are far too big to perch on your index finger any more.  We'll see if I can get some pictures of them for the next blog post, which will be, let's say, Tuesday, and try to make a weekly round of it from then on out.




Other news: we have a CSA member willing to host a pickup in Mechanicsburg...so if you're interested in a share and live out that way, we may have a dropoff nearly on your doorstep.  The organic certification is in and the inspector should be out soon, and the farmer's market apps are in too - so we should know by the end of the month if we'll be selling at the Carlisle market or not.  If not: Camp Hill and New Cumberland are both looking like good options.

One more photo: we actually have a crop growing outside already!  Last year's garlic planting is popping up fast:

I can't wait for garlic season, and before that, for scapes! If you've never had them, check back in with us in June and try some out.
Dave