Photos: Bees Love Dandelions!

Photos: Habitat Farm Sunday.

From right of grassy path: Ruby Streaks mustards (ready for harvest next week!), a shy row of Shungiku, and a row of rainbow beets-- all sown under cloche February 22nd.

 White Egg Turnip, sown 6 days ago.  First appearance!

Salada Musume burdock root, aka gobo, sown March 26th.

Annual and perennial rye grass in "hen zone 2", first sown February 15th, last sown March 10th.  Almost ready for the girls.

Big ol' bumble on a blueberry flower.

Photos: Habitat Farm Saturday.

Fenugreek seedlings, sown April 2nd.  First germination noted 6 days later.  Just now showing true leaves.

Oregon Giant snow peas at the top, Red Round turnips on the bottom.  Both sown March 7th; the turnips showing first germination after 11 days, peas showing after two and a half weeks.

Frog Island Nation fava bean, in flower.  Sown December 2011.

About 250 Dakota Tears fall storage onions, sown in flats March 9th, transplanted @ 6" in-bed spacing to these ~3'x16' beds on April 16th.

April 22nd harvest a no-go.

The mustards are looking great, we have one row of leeks still in the ground (about 3 per share), and the escarole is growing by the day.  But everything we have in the ground right now would benefit from another week of growing time, and so we have decided to make the tough call of cancelling this Sunday's harvest and resuming with our second of ten harvests on Sunday, April 29th.

So far, spring CSA has been a different animal from our fall season.  We appreciate our members' understanding that this is a learning opportunity for us, and part of that process is discovering when and how to make the right call.  We believe we have a chance to do this right, and if we harvested this Sunday it would set a tone for the entire season-- a tone of just barely catching up and scraping the share together before the plants are quite ready.  By waiting this week, we can let the frisee head up as it should, the overwintered carrots and beets size up, etc.  By extending the harvest that one week later into June, it means you'll be more likely to get some warmer weather crops you mightn't have otherwise.  Plant growth is exponential, and the warmer soil temperatures we are starting to see also spur things into more rapid growth-- so just one week can make all the difference.

New options for spring 2012.

Members, we'd like to offer some options for your share....
Namely, the options of cut flowers, starts like strawberries or poblano peppers, seeds saved from our garden, and others as yet unknown.  These items would be substituted right into your share, when available.  Opt in (or out)HERE.

An April 15th 2012 share.

A share from the first week of our spring 2012 season!
For more detailed information about the April 15th share basket, click HERE.