Red Wheelbarrow Produce

2012 Internship/ Apprenticeship

2011-12-31T18:04:00.000-08:00

We are currently seeking interns for the 2012 season. Our hope is to create a mutually beneficial exchange in which everyone works hard, feels satisfied, and comes out having learned from each other. Our farm currently produces vegetables and cut flowers, and are planning to add honeybees this spring. We farm using sustainable, soil-focused techniques, though we are not certified organic. We sell at our local farmers market in addition to local restaurants and local food markets. We ask for four days of work in the garden, participating in ALL aspects of production: seeding, preparing beds, transplanting, harvesting, washing, processing, and selling if you are interested in coming to the market with us. In exchange, we provide primitive but comfortable and private housing, lunch and dinner on work days, produce for your personal use, and a small stipend.

Sandpoint is a wonderful place to spend the summer. There is bikable access to a large and refreshing freshwater lake for swimming, boating, etc., plus access to the amazing wilderness of North Idaho. We are not as isolated as it might sound, and our town is host to a realtively strong arts culture and progressive community. If you are interested in getting a part-time job, we can try to help you with the resources that we have.

We STRONGLY prefer interns who are available from May through October. Slightly shorter stays will be considered, but short-term stays are not eligible for the apprenticeship program. If you are interested, we would love to learn more about you. Please email us at emilyredwheelbarrow@gmail.com .

2011-11-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

On September 18th, Luke Mason from The Bistro came out to the farm to prepare a delicious meal made with all local ingredients. We had about 30 people and three fabulous courses on a cloudy but lovely evening in Sandpoint. Ever had chevre whipped cream on top of a grilled nectarine? I didn't think so. But you may want to find one.

2011-11-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

A huge, giganitic thanks goes out to Sophie, one of our lovely interns this summer. We laughed, we cried, we picked a hell of a lot of beans. She didn't tell me until a week after the last market that she hated washing carrots, which she did every week for two hours without a peep of complaint or frown. She taught us about biodynamics and REAL compost piles, and made the best damn salad dressing, which is important on a farm with so much lettuce.

Thanks Sophie! Come back next year! (wink)

(Check out Colleen from Solstice Farms in the background of this photo. She must have been lounging at the sunny picinic table when a customer appeared at her booth.)

A mid-summer update

2011-08-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

I guess that this farming thing really is quite time-intensive. I haven't written ia word all season, which I believe also occurred last year. It's now august, and the garden is all that I dream of in those cold winter months. Te beans put out their first harvest today, and the cherry tomatoes are just now beginning their transition to golden, purple, yellow, or red. It was a long cool spring to say the least...everything is about two weeks behind last year, ando that wasn't exactly a warm season itself. Our vegetables were just featured in a wedding as t he centerpieces ando brides bouquet-that's a first! I suppose she must have been my kind of lady, to recognize the beauty in a head of broccoli like she did. Pictures to follow...

2011-05-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Plants a-groweth!

2011-04-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Spring is here, the snow has melted, and WHAM--the workload just quintupled in an instant. The ground is dry enough to play in, so its prep time! I dug some parsnips yesterday--the gophers left a few for me. They were so sweet and juicy sauteed in butter with steak and fresh greens last night. YUM! We've been sleeping in the greenhouse with our plant starts, just because it's nice to sleep under the stars without the rain/sleet/snow/frost action that spring can deliver. Here's what it looks like at night just before bed. Dave added an extra rack this month suspended from the ceiling that you can see in the top left. Now we can fit 13 more flats, plus they are great for warm-weather crops like tomatoes and peppers.

Deep breath...and in we go!!

An Imitation Spring

2011-03-09T15:41:00.000-08:00

It's snowing (and raining and slushing) outside, but in the greenhouse it's Spring! Last Sunday, it was 70 degrees in our wonderful cathedral, and I celebrated by ditching my shoes and dipping my bare toes into the beautiful dark soil. "Awake, awake!" it cried. Come and tend me! I had fallen into the dregs of winter, almost-maybe-possibly (could it be?) dreading the hard work of Spring. The smell of warm earth in that greenhouse, the sight of dirt under my nails, the stretching of drowsy worms, and the satsifaction of a well-weeded row aroused me from my slumber. One week later, the north-most bed is planted in spinach, and the center row in salad mix. Here's Dave watering in the year's first!

So far it looks like a wet start to the season, but it's too soon to tell much....more to come!

fall photos

2011-01-28T12:19:00.000-08:00

jarrahdale delight

2011-01-28T10:56:00.000-08:00

The heirloom Jarrahdale winter squash stole my heart this fall. With its slate gray/green skin and deep-ribbing, I fell hard before they even ripened. But when I opened the top and baked soup inside for a pre-Thanksgiving treat, I knew this was notjust an autumn fling.

2011-01-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

Ahh, winter. The seasons are truly a blessing. Its so inspiring to have the time and energy to look out at the garden, all covered in snow, and scheme about the year to come. New varieties, new ideas, new people, new opportunities for learning and growing. I just submitted my seed order, always a philisophical kind of experience. Trying to imagine the garden that as yet doesn't exist, trying to remember the ups and the downs of the last season, the small but vital comments made by our customers that determine how much and what to grow this year. Integration. Information. This is actually one of the parts I love best. Remembering the awe at how one variety of broccoli looked greener, tasted fuller, and produced twice as much as the other. Searching my garden maps, planting records, and seed bins to remember which it was (Windsor? Belstar?). Looking at the pile of squash still in storage, noticing which ones are still hard and bright, and seeking their seeds.

We have a few changes for this coming year. I am beginning to truly look at our garden as a business, which is actually quite empowering. This spring, we are expanding to fence in almost twice our current cultivation area. We won't necessarily plant it all, but the idea of having more room opens up many more doors and ideas for what to grow, how to do it, and what we will need to make it all happen. I am delighted that we have someone lined up to work for us this summer, someone I know and already cherish. I can't wait to have her on the farm, sharing her energy, cooking skills, and strong back with us this season. yippeee for Sophie!

Here's to winter, which will slowly but surely fade into spring.....

2010-09-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

Jana braids garlic.

Whoops. Fall has arrived, and I haven't written a word since last winter. It's been a busy summer! Plant zucchini in a WIDE row. Belstar for broccoli. garlic in higher beds.

pig roast

2010-06-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

Our first annual solstice pig roast was a tasty success. Though 3/4 Jewish, it turns out that Red Wheelbarrow Produce knows how to cook a pig.
On to the Summer!

2009-12-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

the fire is crackling and the rain has turned our first substantial snow into a slushy grey mess. the garden sits quietly, its neat little rows identified by mild rises and falls in the snow. in the summertime, i could not imagine time enough to be sitting here, inside, in broad daylight, wasting away my day with small cups of coffee and mindless thoughts. but it is a day before solstice, and the ground is frozen. i have drooled over seed catalogues enough already this week.

now is the season of eating.

i have been having a glorious time preparing the various winter-stored vegetables that we produced this year. i am slowly but surely testing every kind of squash for the best "pumpkin" pie. so far, i think butternut has been my favorite, with the long island cheese and orange-smoothie pumpkins coming in second and third. Though i hear many chefs say buttercup is the best pie squash, I found it too dry and mealy....perhaps it was the individual squash, too. The squashes are storing well, though each week we find one or two with soft tops, which we move to the front of the line for consumption. I wish we had labeled which ones we had cured in the cabin verses the ones we cured in the pepper house, so that we could see how much of a difference it makes. Our squash have taken my appreciation of curcubita to a level far beyond what I previously thought to be a most sincere affection. The delicatas are like candy for hippies; dare I say better than fresh tomatoes? In the summer I keep a shaker of salt in the garden to enhance my heirloom tomato fetish, but my delicatas need no augmentation. no french finish salt, freshly ground cinnamon, sweet cream butter, or first run maple syrup can better the flavor of a simple roasted delicata. lucky me.

deborah madison's "onion galette with mustard cream" was absolutely gorgeous and fun to make, not to mention delectable. the cortland onions cured and are storing quite nicely. even the thicker-necked ones that we put aside to eat first seem to have finished curing in the bags, and show no sign of rot. they and the squash are together living in the bathroom in the barn, set to stay at a steady forty degrees. I have noticed that their skins are far thinner than commercial onions. perhaps the big guys have to make them last for SO long that they cure them far beyond our needs. We have only two thin layers of pale brown skin to peel. The red onions that we cured also doing fairly well, though seem a tad bit softer than the cortlands.

perhaps the most sensory culinary experience I have had with my produce has yet to be completed. just yesterday I ground a few cups of corn flour from my painted mountain corn. the smell was absolutely divine. sweet and earthy, and full of mood. i kept going outside to "cleanse my nasal palette", then returning to my jar of flour, stuffing my nose inside, and inhaling deeply. perhaps it invoked something from a past life in the Americas, the scent of survival, of the comfort of sustained existence. I do not know what to bake with it that will reveal its depth enough to merit transforming it from such a lovely state of being.

potatoes are great, but have not struck my fancy like my other produce. thanksgiving garlic mashed potatoes were lovely, and latkes have been good too. they are storing well, no complaints, in burlap and plastic mesh sacks in the root cellar across town. i did make a delightful potato leek soup the other night, the leftovers of which brought out the flavor of the leeks superbly. I always have a hard time with the color of potato leek soup- no garnish can hide its dull grey slop look. but the little bites of leeks, still holding their sweet round layers tightly, overcame the lack of aesthetics. I am looking forward to growing better leeks this year; i never really read about them, and planted them like onions, only a few inches deep. now I hear to grow them inside to a great height (10 or more inches), and then drop them into 8-inch dibble holes, and leave only a small bit sticking out. it makes sense, because that greater depth with lengthen their blanched white base. also i will pull them when i pull my onions this year, so they do not begin to rot in the ground.

i'm still eating kale out of the garden. it has survived some extremely low temperatures (down in the low single digits) unprotected and still tastes great. i guess the "winterbor" lives up to its name. the row i covered with agribon is now inaccessible due to snow, while the uncovered batch has shed the snow enough so I can harvest all I like. plus i think the snow has collapsed the wire we used to lift the agribon....won't do that next year.

while the turnips lasted in the ground until thanksgiving (under cover), they have now frozen solid and will not, i don't think, recover. oh well. they were good with the turkey.
i'm hoping the parsnips are ok. i didn't mulch them, but am looking forward to roasted parsnips come spring if frost or moles haven't beat me to it.

i just today got around to starting to clean out the tomato house. it is partially frozen, so i covered the sections i could not pull with row cover to try to warm them up. i feel extremely guilty about our october road trip, as the garden feels incomplete and untidy in its sleep-mode. there are weeds gone to seed sticking up through the snow, and only i know about all the plant matter under the winter blanket. i didn't have a chance to cover crop, mulch, or even till many beds at all this fall, and i'm sure we'll pay for it this spring with extra preparation work.

for future reference, we stashed for winter approximately:
60 pounds onions?
80 pounds potatoes?
80 pounds squash?
35 pounds carrots?

2009-09-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

When I first decided I wanted to grow vegetables, my daydreams culminated with this event. From seed to plate, we have loved and learned from the food we've grown and prepared. The final joy of farming is sharing the harvest with our community, and this is our opportunity. The menu is already making my mouth water.
Call 208.265.2689 or email emilyredwheelbarrow@gmail.com for reservations.

2009-08-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

2009-08-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

above: Dave's son Cy was the superhero of the garden this month. He mastered the carrot harvest like no other. Here he displays his strength after the garlic harvest.

full swing farmin. wow. i am truly too tired to expound of the beauties, challenges, successes, and failures of this project right now. our garden is simply astounding. I cannot believe the satisfaction that lies in watching plants grow, nuturing fruits to the point of ripeness, and lying down at night absolutely exhausted. we could plant many many more carrots. and salad mix.

2009-07-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

oh, abundance

our garden, it appears, loves the heat. everything is just bursting with color, vigor, and sweet, sweet juices. Dave's son Cy is in town, and he's made the carrots his own, harvesting, washing, and bundling them each week, only to watch them FLY off of the table at the market. the deer have begun to lurk near the garden, but i don't think they'll make a move. dave's fence is too sturdy, and we have protected the whole space with magic charms and spells. and our own pee. that works.

just so that I know for next year:
carrots: 20# july 17, 15# july 24
salad greens: ~ 7# per week, could EASILY do more.
potatoes: first 13# on july 24
beans are coming on this week
beets have been SLOW
lettuce heads: sold ~45 out of 60 last saturday
squash: can't count it. lots. people like the soliel.
harvested garlic july 29: 310 heads.

havin fun.....

2009-07-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

a selection of our fine lettuces....

notes to self:
flea beetles like cascade glaze collards better than ANYTHING else. plant as trap crop.
plant lettuce EVERY WEEK in the early spring
prune the bottom branches and bottom suckers from all tomatoes!
don't over-water broccoli as heads form- remember brown bead!
cover early brassicas for many many weeks
plant cabbage closer than this year (measure this year's, then plant closer)
always always always cover spinach with row cover
plant beans by hand
don't plant sweet corn
sing to the garden
don't plant radishes as a row marker......
order lots of red cross lettuce

that's all i can think of for now...

2009-07-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

family!
dad, joni, sam, mike, and dominic (attached to mike)
visited the farm and sandpoint this past week.
what a blessing to have my family, all in the garden, giving their love, weeding skills, and energy into my "little project". i realized that there are three top satisfactions in gardening, in no particular order:

1. the work itself
2. sharing the harvest
3. sharing the space

2009-07-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

our first farmers market table.... right now we are averaging 30 heads of lettuce per wed, 60 for sat. could sell more!

harvest!

2009-06-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

The payoff has begun. We have now attended two farmers markets, and sold out within hours at both. Wednesday we kicked off with about 30 heads of lettuce, 2.5 pounds salad mix, and 5 bunches of kale. Saturday we followed with 40 heads of lettuce, 3.5 pounds salad, 7 bunches kale, 8 bunches garlic scapes, and about a dozen bunches of these lovely amethyst radishes (cleaned to perfection by our 9-year old garden protege, Ailsa).
Since the last update, a few major shifts have occurred in the garden:
cabbage maggots in the broccoli..... gross white maggots that live in the stem just below the surface of the soil. one day the plants are perfect, one day...whoop! like a felled tree, they tip over, dead. luckily, we caught it early, and warded them off with diatamaceous earth around the base of the plants. they seem to have recovered, and are currently producing heads that seem to be growing by the minute.
Our carrots are shooting up (and down), and our most recent thinning should prove to be the last for this early batch of yayas.
After a debatably sketchy start, our tomatoes look beautiful and dark green with a little help from our friend, mr. fish emulsion. we realized that we cannot make perfect soil in one year, no matter how much Eliot Coleman we read every night. Thus, we fertilize.
More coming! my eyes hurt from the glare!

2009-06-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

its like the last day of school in the greenhouse. that sense that things are over; what in the hell happens to the school building itself in the SUMMER? you can feel the approaching end as the last week winds down...the emptying of lockers, backpacks with fewer and lighter loads, classes with less and less agendas. the greenhouse is empty. there's a few stragglers here and there, some unstacked, uncleaned pots that still need ordering. it's empty, but not the same kind of empty that it was in february. no, this empty is FULL. tomatoes i can still see, growing from tiny bits into huge beings. it's almost, ALMOST, sad, but really, it feels just right. empty but for the field full of its graduates.
not to say that everything is perfect. i thought that it was, really, i did, for a while. the greenhouse.....it was perfect. the fence....pretty much flawless. the irrigation leaks here and there, but who could ask for anything better the first year? we've done everything right. but i guess that old saying, "patience is a virtue"....turns out it has some merit. soil, in the end, is NOT a quick fix, or an easy lay. it takes time. it takes observation. every moment there is something new in there, something not quite visible, and it is not always the safest harbor for our precious, over-nurtured greenhouse graduates. like any college freshman, the transplants are blindly finding their way though the onslaught of new drugs, new bugs, new friends, new enemies, new nutrients...a whole new life. some thrive, others don't. it's all a learning process, and i feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to LISTEN. listen to the plants, to what they want and need, to do what i can for them. it will take time, but it is time very, very well spent.
and though i promised not to tell the world all of my garden woes (not that they are uncountered by garden fortunes), i recently remembered the goal of this blog: it's selfish, a personal log so that i can look back in future years and see what's been up and when and how. so, a small list of the problems and flourishes of our first June:
Lettuce- seems to have slowed its once rapid growth, perhaps due to heat, perhaps due to intensive planting (closeness) perhaps due to nutrients. Still fairly tender and lovely, not showing signs of bolting, though not really "heading up", but for a few red cross butterheads. yum. cutting lettuce is small but delicious, again i think due to tightness in planting.
Kale- infuriatingly not reaching my ideal harvest size, but tasty and may get there after a dose of fish emulsion tomorrow morning
Broccoli- lovely. a few autumn colored lower leaves have fallen away, and no heads yet, but the plants are full and strong, about a foot tall and that again across the top. Cabbage is in similar shape.
Carrots- psyched after a weeding by healer extraodrinaire Janeen, and a subsequent thinning. green and strong tops.
Beets look good after initial flea beatle damage was warded off by row cover. seeding was spotty...probably should run over twice with the earthway next time. goldens look nice.
Onions- impressive for seed-started, strong and putting on tall new growth. about 4-9 inches in height right now, 3-4 leaves.
Garlic- looks great, thick stems and good germination. yellowing tips don't appear to be a problem. staying moist under the straw mulch.
Potatoes- just poked up a few days ago. look very green and nice, though will need a good weeding asap, as their bed was a monster to begin with.
Beans- round one came up yesterday, a bit spotty from the earthway, but waiting for final judgement. will plant second batch soon.
Radish and Turnips- flea beetles had their day, but row cover saved it. too soon to tell.
Corn- came up yesterday with beans. too soon to tell.
Tomatoes! new growth in cathedral looking damn fine, outsiders got bnipped by light frost and turned purple on top, brown on bottom. determined to recover! brandywines have very yellow bottom leaves, but again new growth is mostly good but for a tad bit of dry edges.
Squashes are having a tough transition. hopefully will make it though the next few days and become the sprawling mess they were meant to be in a few weeks. mostly wilty leaves, with a few displaying whiteish powder on lower leaves.

2009-06-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

marvelous dirty days. they go like this:
dig spread till rake lay plant water ahhhhhhhh
dig spread till rake lay plant water ahhhhhhhh
lettuce and kale are IN. marvelous people are buying our tomatoes, i love that they will all go home and cherish these little babies i've been raising for so long...

farmers market soon.....

2009-06-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

tomatoes, happy in their cathedral. if anyone in sandpoint wants the best greenhouse in the WORLD, call dave. we planted 114 tomatoes in there today, including cherokee purple, brandywine, stupice, black cherry, and san marzano paste. hmmm....i can taste them already. don't miss the kick-ass venting windows at the top of each end and on the sides.

also planted beans and corn today. it was a bit hard to push the seeder through the winter rye debris, but we made it through together. i'm still holding out on my judgement of the winter rye. if it doesn't all die, I can just see it coming back year after year, but i still have hope that we can stop any of it from going to seed. our lettuces seem to have stopped growing in the heat, but it's supposed to cool down after tomorrow....
i'm hoping to get my squashes in the ground by saturday, and then I'll be on cruise control!

the curch is raised

2009-05-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

what more can I say? well, a lot more, I suppose. Dave singled handedly built this beautiful, all-wooden bowed frame greenhouse. With help from an incredible angel named Jeff (who has been frequenting the farm and donating his wildly energetic work), it was raised on Monday. In coming days, windows and vents will be installed, then plastic covering the whole thing, and last, but not least, 80 tomato plants will find their home in this brilliant little structure. they can't wait!

meanwhile, the beds are being prepped for the big "frost-free" plantings of peppers, eggplants, beans, corn, squash, celery, etc. it has warmed up, and warmed up fast- predictions are in the high 80s for this weekend. luckily, our irrigation is installed and functioning well, not to mention our clay soils hold a lot of moisture on their own.

looking forward to first real harvests soon.......

2009-05-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

A rufus hummingbird flew repeatedly into the greenhouse this week. Dave caught it with his bare hands to set it free, and we caught it on video....
Spring is just lovely. I had a chance today to just take a half and hour and walk around the woods by the cabin, and the wildflowers and spring birds are just jaw-dropping. I got a bit jealous of the dark, rich, earth-scented organic matter on the forest floor, but I got over it. It seems that the application of manure, kelp meal, lime, rock phosphate and other amendments is lightening up our heavy clay soils quite well. growing heartily in our rows include: head lettuces, salad greens, kale, chard, spinach, carrots, beets, onions, and mustard greens. We're getting ready to plant potatoes tomorrow, yippee!! Now we just have to figure out how to price everything (I want to give it all away, but I know I can't).

In other exciting news, Dave is halfway done building our 14'x50' wooden bowed-arch greenhouse. It should be beautiful when its done- "just a big upside down boat", he said. Our plastic is in the mail- look for photos next week!

2009-05-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

a lovely day, one full of planting, digging, weeding, seeding, tilling, amending, bird-watching, sun, rain, and drifting clouds. we got half of our onions in the ground today. this one here was just so damn nice i had to share it with the world...sturdy and strong, full of color and vigor, clearly ready to enter the world of onion-adolescence in its neat little prepared row.

i've been really enjoying spending so much time in such a little space. i went to a lecture tonight and the speaker said that if we imagine the world of knowledge as a pie chart, we can divide it thus: less than 1% would comprise "what we know"; another 1% would comprise "what we don't know"; and the remaining 98% would comprise "what we don't know we don't know".

this garden has entered me into a small chunk of the latter- spending so much time (and i mean a LOT) in one place demands an intense knowledge of the micro and macro systems involved in that area.

i know the routine of the momma and papa gooses that are nesting in the nearby pond; the hour at which a deer may appear at the edge of the field, munching the grass and eyeing the fence; the low spots, the high spots, the wet spots, the dry spots; the hour at which onions stand up tall and straight (midnight) and the hour at which they droop lowest (2pm); the thistle patches; the evolving smell of the compost pile; the combined efforts of propped vents, fans on high or low, heaters whirring, sun shining, and screen doors open to keep the greenhouse at the right temperature for optimal growth; the spots within the greenhouse that are cooler, moister, shadier, or brighter, and which plants are at which point in their life cycles and how they correlate to those aforementioned greenhouse spaces; and the number of wheelbarrows full of manure that it takes to cover one 3'x100' row (4 1/2).

and i know that 11:30 is way past my bedtime. tomorrow is the farm-warming party, and there is much to do to prepare....

2009-05-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

just when we thought we had it all figured out...

the hoophouse went for a ride on tuesday, blown by the southern wind right up and (luckily) over out newly erected fence.

it's back in place now, better "rooted" this time...come late may, we'll be planting warm-weather crops there...

2009-05-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

MayDay-
the soil has been worked. lettuce and kale sleep tonight under a frost cover, tucked away now in their summer homes. they always look so far apart and lonely when they first go in, and my instinct always pushes me to squish them together. but i know by now that they will grow up and one day be tall and handsome, and mmmm, tasty too. it's really quite incredible how resilient plants are, that their roots can be ripped up, man-handled, and plopped in some foreign soil....and flourish there (hopefully).

on the left....our garlic is rockin'!

2009-04-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

everyone said that you have to be crazy to be a farmer. i don't know yet if i'm crazy, but i'm sure glad i'm still young.

it hasn't even really started yet, but my lists are lengthening with the daylight, my greenhouse is full to the brim, and i'm ITCHIN to plant something in the GROUND, but haven't yet found the needed time. instead, thank goodness, i witnessed the most incredible moments of my life this week: the birth OF my first nephew, BY my powerful and phenomenal sister. what a blessing, at the start of undertaking a passion, to be placed gently in perspective. what a gorgeous thing life is, how miniscule my 2-day root-bound tomatoes are, how massive my opportunity on this planet to create, give, and nuture LIFE (be it in plant or human form). i am humbled this week, by all of the life around me, and am grateful in this moment for it all.

p.s. it snowed this morning.

2009-04-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

ahhh...a whole WEEK of sunshine. spring came in a jiffy to sandpoint this year. it's beautiful, but, i admit, a bit overwhelming to suddenly have my 18 spring projects pop out of winter hibernation all at once. on the list are: installing our fencing (the posts are up) and gates; erecting our new, donated 10x20 hoophouse (thanks Darcy!) for spillover starts and hardening off plants; building a wood-framed gothic-arch hoophouse for tomatoes+; planting a perennial garden with berries, asparagus, and flowers.....the list goes on.

The poofy bright clouds (and the weather forecast online) are indicating a week of sun coming up, so things should dry out. Our garlic is UP and reaching skyward, and it's almost time to put out onions, kale, cabbage, chard, spinach, ahhh!

the melt

2009-04-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

the snow is melting off the farm field today. it sounds like a bit of an exaggeration- doesn't it take many weeks for four feet of snow to turn into water? It does, but today is THE DAY. Like the day a seed germinates, and you can actually WATCH it push away the soil and rise to attention over the course of mere hours. At sunrise, there was just a patch of brown in the row where I planted and mulched in my garlic this fall. Having seen signs of gophers outside of the garden, I was eager to investigate the state of my first bare ground. My attempt, however, was plainly thwarted by the mud, which sucked me up like a child does a chocolate milkshake (or at least like I did as a child). New rule: no walking in the garden until its (mostly) dried up, or in the early mornings when it is frozen over. The glimpse of six square feet of sopping wet ground is not worth the gaping post holes.

The sun came up in a cloudy sky, but at about 10:00am, the poofs parted ways and it's been blue sky and almost sixty all day. I went for a bike ride and found myself surprisingly warm. The air is fresh, and it is, perhaps, the first day of spring. By 4:00, the two entire 100ft rows of garlic were bare of snow, plus most of the first row, where we had mulched with leaves and straw in november just to see what would happen. That was on the last day of fall. The next day it started snowing and didn't stop for three weeks. Perhaps this year spring will be as thorough as its preceeding season. Along with the melted rows, a new body of water has formed in the farm field. Let's call it Red Wheelbarrow Creek. It looks as though it originates on the northwest side of the garden, and travels downstream (south) until about the garlic rows. There it cuts east and makes its way to the dead center of the garden, where it has pooled up and now gushes its way toward the cabin. Perhaps I should intervene....dig some trenches at the origin, leading it around the beds? But most of the water is coming from on TOP of the beds, so they are just going to have to go somewhere to get out. I think the damage will be quite minimal, a half a days' rake work next week.
Also today, I transplanted some brassicas out of their tiny little cells into four-packs. I know that the rule of thumb is to wait until true leaves have formed, but my were those cabbages getting spindly. A few sources confirmed that early transplanting is better than gangly plants, so there it is...I also left a few more stable ones in their cells, so later I can compare which do better. Some of the tomatoes have a full set of leaves, the Stupice being the farthest along so far.
Back to pruning the apple trees.

2009-03-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

Our first seeds have sprouted in the greenhouse. The process of a sedentary seed coming ALIVE is absolutely astounding and gorgeous to me. Above, our onions grow into little starts, still months away from maturity, but already miles from where they began.