A lot happening all of a sudden on the farm this week. Probably due to the weather since it seems everything in farming is due to the weather. The weather and the pests. Anyway, read all about the first week of the outdoor farming season right after these brief announcements.
Still taking orders for VeggieShares. Keep spreading the word. Not sure why there has been a sudden slowdown in orders. Must have something to do with the weather.
Potatoe (spelling according to Jack Kennedy wanna be Dan Quayle) planting is scheduled for Saturday May 2nd from 1:00 until done — weather permitting. Pencil it in on your calendar and cross your fingers that we get some dry weather prior to and on the day of the planting! Let me know if you can make it and check the website prior to coming out it there is a chance of rain or there has been recent rain that makes the soil too wet.
Still taking orders for other shares like Eggs, Cheese, Fruit, Coffee, ‘Shrooms, Winter and Flower shares. We’re down to our last case of eggs so if you want to purchase EggShare please do so soon.
Looking for a host for our Eagan drop site. If you live near Eagan and can provide a place out of the weather for other members to pick-up their veggies let me know. It is an easy gig and you get your share delivered directly to your door! How convenient.
We are still accepting final payments from those of you who put down a deposit but haven’t made your final payment yet. Feel free to send in a check, use Zelle or PayPal. Let me know if you have any questions like “How much do I owe?”
Farm News
This week was our first week working outdoors and it was a doozy! Our main project was the installation of the plastic on our hoop house. For those new to farming in MN, a hoop house is a metal (usually), unheated hoop structure used to extend the growing season. It provides protection to the plants from cold weather (but not necessarily really cold degree weather). It is a nice way to get early tomatoes and other warm season crops.
As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, about two years ago a bad storm ripped the plastic off the hoop house and damaged some of the structural components. Last week we replaced the broken structural parts and this week we finally found the time to replace the plastic. We originally scheduled the install for Monday the 20th but the forecast called for winds of 10-15 mph. Not good installation weather (see, everything in farming revolves around weather!) So we rescheduled for the 21st.
We had a crew of around seven with about half of us being a Christopher. Guess that makes sense somehow. Overall the process went well but there are always challenges. I had hoped to get it all finished by the end of day Tuesday (well, actually Monday but you know, the weather…) but it was not to be. We purchased the hoop house around 12 years ago and this is only the second time we replaced the plastic. This explains why I don’t recall how long it takes to do the install though the PTSD I got from prior installations makes me fully aware of how challenging it is.
Anyway, we installed the roof and side walls by the end of day Tuesday. We finished up the end walls on the more windy Wednesday (made it a bit more challenging). Then wrapped up the installation of the doors on Thursday. We also planted the lettuce and the tomatoes in the hoop house so that was a nice start to the planting season!
We still have two end wall vents to install to help cool the house in the summer. Since it isn’t too hot yet we postponed that part of the project so that we could focus on getting the outside ground ready for planting. However with the rain last night we’ll have to wait a bit for the ground to dry before proceeding. But as I’ve said in prior newsletters, getting crops in early doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll harvest the crops early. Often it means you won’t get any crops due to them expiring due to the cold weather. So as long as we get some crops in the ground this coming week we should be on track for the season.
As always, do not hesitate to send in questions, comments, suggestions, share orders, etc. (I did get one person to send in questions last week so we increased our questions by an undefined percent!)
Joke of the Week
Why did the potato go to the doctor?
It wasn’t peeling well.