Coming up!

With the recent tornadoes in the south in mind, we often look around at the sky and realize how vulnerable and small we are.  We try to respect the natural world as much as possible with our actions. Thank you, Nature, for sparing us your violence this month.

So what's coming up?  Below, row covers protect arugula and spicy greens from flea beetles.

 A couple hundred feet of mixed greens grow in rainbow alignment.   

Tomatoes and peppers are all over the place, including some cherry tomatoes already planted in the fields.  Elsewhere, garlic is almost ready to start sending out its long curly scape. Those of us lucky enough to live on the farm are harvesting some of the early herbs such as oregano and lemon balm.

Girly

Merley

Girly and Merly help us keep perspective.

Aww gee!

Beautiful!

The cold, wet spring has shifted disturbingly (today 95 degrees and rising).  But look at that beautiful baby chard!  

What is Green Manure?

The soil fertility on our farm comes from three main sources:

1. Composted horse manure that we get from a neighbor's farm
2. Green manure
3. Fish emulsion as foliar spray to keep plants healthy throughout their lifespan

So, if you are wondering, green manure has nothing to do with animal waste.  

Green manure crops are planted for the purpose of adding nutrients (legumes fix nitrogen in the soil) and/or organic matter (after getting plowed down in the early spring, like rye for example) which helps the overall structure of the soil.   We do not harvest these crops, so they are one of our farm's expenses.  Some cover crop comes up perennially, such as alfalfa, others get replanted in strategic ways every season.
It's a complicated matter.  Todd could talk your ear off about this subject if you were really interested.

Above is a picture of hairy vetch coming back from a planting last fall (in old carrot beds).  It is a nitrogen-fixing legume.  The grass is actually what will become a path between rows, the lighter colored stuff is the vetch, coming in strong.  And below are newly plowed beds for all kinds of vegetables.  We are lucky in Illinois to have such dark loamy soil.

All for now!  -Julia

 We had one glorious morning that was wind-free enough to put the plastic on our tomato tunnel.  The instructions say it requires eight people but The Peasants did it with four!  And some swearing...

 Welcome Titus from Vermont!   He has been spending time with drip tape this week.  He and our other intern Ethan (not pictured here) have spent a good many hours either rolling up last year's drip tape or installing drip tape into new beds.  It is the most efficient irrigation system for growing our vegetables.  The water goes right to the base of each plant or along a seeded row.  Our other intern Merley (pictured here) is helpful in ways we cannot quantify.

Todd made me sit on our newly acquired cultivating tractor because he doesn't like cameras.  He will be the main captain of this fire engine spider.  Adjusted for our bed widths and ready to do a day's work in minutes!  What should we name her?   -Julia