The harvest season approaches here at the farm, and we are readying for the May 12 start to the CSA season. As is the case each Spring, there has been a lot of planting, growing, cleaning, painting, excitement and anxiety filling our days.

Below is a photo of Emily, Matt and Rebecca planting the cherry tomatoes in one of our no-till beds. They grew well in the greenhouse and are now covered with a heavy layer of row cover to keep them warm. We are a bit concerned that the over 300 tomato plants we have in the field right now won’t like the predicted 36 degree overnight temperatures on Saturday. We will do what needs to be done to protect them.

Other crops are growing well. Rebecca took the electric G through the onions on Saturday, cultivating 5 beds in a matter of minutes. Rocky later conducted an inspection and luckily decided not to nap on them.

The strawberries are LOADED with flowers. Our virtually weed-free organic bed looks great. This is the third year for these plants, so we are hoping that the berries they produce aren’t too small (slows down the picking). Expect these delights at the end of May.

The lettuce for the first week’s share is sizing up nicely. It has been covered for over a month, and will remain covered until the latest cold spell is over. On Monday we harvested the leeks for the first week’s shares. They have been in the ground since last May and about a third of them did not survive the bitter cold of last winter (but the rest did). As they are ready to form their flower/seed head, we needed to dig them up now while they are edible. We have about a pound per share. See you next week!