We’re in it Now

Well, it was 90 degrees yesterday and things are growing like crazy. For two months it felt as though we were just waiting. Waiting for the ground to thaw, waiting for tools to arrive, waiting for seeds to germinate, and for the plants grow in the greenhouse. Everything was happening slowly; the nights were consistently freezing and the days were cool and often cloudy or rainy. Now all the sudden it’s full-on summer weather with highs in the 80s and 90s, and nights in the 50s. The plants are thriving and guzzling up as much water as we can throw at them – It seems like the tomatillos have grown six inches in a week!

At this point it seems almost comical, but through the winter and much of the spring, I had this irrational fear that the plants would just not grow. I have heard farmers say something along the lines of, “don’t worry, the plants want to grow” and now I am a true believer. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if the plants slowed down for a few days to let us catch up.

Tomato transplanting begins! Tomatillos in the back

Tomatillos, now a foot tall, dying to be transplanted

Now that there is considerably more work to do than hours in the day, our inefficiencies stand out like a sore thumb. One thing we did not fully prepare for was the time it takes to prep a bed by hand. It goes like this: pull back the tarp, measure bed top and paths, make two passes with the tilther, rake grass rhizomes and clods of turf into piles, shovel grass into cart and move to compost, mix and spread soil amendments, incorporate amendments with the tilther, then mark out plant spacing. At this point, we’re ready to plant, but this can take a couple hours for the really grassy beds. I guess our downtime activity in April should have been bed prep… whoops. No regrets. Hiking, mountain biking, and backcountry skiing are a nice alternative to raking all day.

Enjoying spring skiing on Mount Washington

Not to complain more, but our overhead irrigation from Neversink Farm Tools has a defect that we cannot seem to fix, meaning that water is distributed poorly at one end. Watering by hand with the hose is mandatory and this is super time consuming, drawing one of us away from other tasks that need our attention. Ok, now I’m done.

Despite the craziness, we are feeling fulfilled by the long days of hard work and are both excited to see how much food we can grow. Major milestones like potato and allium planting are nearly complete and our first harvest is a day away. We have seeded all of our cucurbits and our summer crops are looking healthy. We’re in it now and things don’t seem like they’ll let up until fall. Gotta catch some ZZZs when we can.

Also, shoutout to Cailin, Rhianna’s sister, for coming up and farming for a few days so I could go down south for a family gathering. Thank you!!!

Once a Lego Kid, Always a Lego Kid