Spring planting is well under way

Lise and Rachel space out kohlrabi transplants for planting

Since plowing our fields in mid April, we've quickly filled them up with our earliest plantings. Carrots, beets, peas, spinach, potatoes, onions, leeks, lettuce, greens, radishes, salad turnips, napa cabbage, kohlrabi and next year's strawberries have all gone into the ground over the last two weeks. Some of these crops, like potatoes, onions, and leeks, are a one-time planting. We plant multiple varieties that will mature at different points in order to have a more continuous supply during their regular season. Other crops, like lettuce and greens, are planted in many successions over the course of the season. Lettuce is probably our most frequently planted crop, as we will put in a new planting every week until September!

Once crops have been seeded and transplants planted, we cover many of them with a floating white row cover. It may seem like a shame to cover up such beautiful new green plantings, but this row cover is very important for the health of many of our crops. Not only does it keep our plants a little warmer (and thus speeds up their growth), but it also protects them from certain pests. Basically, it helps give our plants the best start possible. Plus, it's always exciting to take the row cover off a few weeks later and see their amazing progress. It won't be long before the farm will be looking less like a white moonscape and more like a lush green wonderland!

Next on the docket for us: more plowing so we can do even more planting!

Preparing for planting!

Lise plows a stretch of field.

For those of you who drive or walk past the farm on a daily basis, our recent big news is clear. Over 3 acres of land is now plowed! Our fields dried out over the weekend and Monday we had the ideal spring day to begin our major tilling for the season. We used our three-bottom plow to flip the soil into neat rows, flattening out rough areas and creating the basis for what are to be smooth beds for planting.  The first areas plowed are for our first crops to go in the ground: onions, potatoes, carrots, beets, and peas. We create our crop plans over the winter which detail where we will plant each crop, how much, and what varieties. That way, when spring arrives we simply look for our windows of weather to provide the right level of soil moisture and off we go!  

Another change around the farm this week will be cold frames set up outside our greenhouse.  The greenhouse is now full so it’s time for some of our most mature plants to head outside. They aren’t quite ready to brave all weather, so we will keep them covered at night with plastic for protection.  Keep a lookout for our onions and leeks as they spend the daytime out in the sun and wind getting accustomed to the wider world!

Spring thaw

Melting snow on our main vegetable field on April 1st.

One of the most common questions of the past couple of weeks has been "How will all this snow affect the growing season?" This is a great question! Overall we're optimistic that we'll have another bountiful year, but the snow will cause a few hiccups in our early season plans.

It's safe to say that we will have plenty of vegetables ready by the first week of our CSA, however certain crops will get off to a slower start. The first plantings of carrots, beets and peas will definitely be behind a "normal" year's schedule. Some years we have our first plantings of carrots, beets and peas seeded before April 1st - but not this year! Not only do we have to wait for the snow to melt before we can begin plowing, but the soil has to dry out too.

The other major effect of this snow is that our spring field schedule is going to be significantly condensed. We will have to catch up on seeding early April crops while staying on top of our late April plantings as well. This will also lead to a bit of a weeding "bottleneck" in May. We typically spread out successions of crops, which also helps spread out weeding pressure. This year we will have to combine some successions into one larger planting, leading to larger swathes needing to be weeded in a shorter time frame.

Many crops, however, will never know we had a record-breaking winter! Classic spring crops like arugula, lettuce, salad turnips and radishes should be abundant by the opening of the CSA. Those crops don't need to be seeded or transplanted into the field until late April or early May for June harvest. Other late spring crops like strawberries, asparagus and garlic scapes are already planted and just require warmer temperatures to begin growing and eventually producing.

The longer winter has had some side benefits for us, as it has allowed us to catch up on much of the office work that gets set aside during the frantic height of the growing season. We have particularly been able to focus more energy on redesigning our website, signing up new members for our expanded Vegetable CSA and new PYO Flower CSA, and planning some fun events on the farm this year. Each season presents its own unique challenges, and that's part of what makes it such an interesting intellectual puzzle for us every year!

Open (Green)House this Saturday!

There may still be snow on the ground, but it’s definitely springtime in the greenhouse! Join us this Saturday, March 28th from 10am to 12pm for an Open (Green)House at Barrett's Mill Farm. Celebrate the end of a long winter by stopping by the greenhouse to check out the young seedlings, chat with farmers Melissa and Lise, and seed a plant to take home. There will be a farm-themed craft corner for children to enjoy and light refreshments for everyone. There may even be some pea and arugula shoots to sample!

The greenhouse is attached to our farm stand at 449 Barrett's Mill Road, Concord. Questions? Email lise@barrettsmillfarm.com.

Green shoots in the greenhouse

With March halfway gone and the snow slowly melting, it is beginning to sink in that there is an end in sight to this winter! Spring is around the corner and nowhere is that more evident than in the greenhouse. Even if the outside temperatures are hovering just above freezing, on a sunny day it can feel like a tropical oasis. Last Monday we began seeding our leeks, onions and fennel, which will all be transplanted outside in late April. Because overnight temperatures are still quite low, we have not turned on the barn spigot for watering seedlings. Instead, we fill buckets of water in the house and haul them to our greenhouse, where we then use the buckets to fill watering cans. It's not the most efficient way to keep our plants hydrated, but it's well worth the effort. Yet another reason for us to look forward to warmer temps!

This week we plan to continue seeding shallots and our first lettuce succession, while also admiring the green shoots emerging from last week's plantings. By early April the greenhouse will be completely full, at which point we will start transferring those leeks and onions to a cold frame for hardening off and to make way for more seedlings. We are also planning an Open (Green)House for early spring so that our neighbors and customers can enjoy the new plant life - check back here for more details soon!