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

Welcome Nicky and Nick!

Nick and Nicky came to us a couple of weeks ago from Southern California. They are staying on the farm in their own luxurious motor home.  Their positive attitudes and energy are great additions to the Midwestern prairie.  If the wind doesn't chase them away, they plan on working the whole season with us. If you come to the farm, you will get the pleasure of meeting them and their 140-lb Great Pyrenees dog named appropriately Girlie.

Swampy swamp.

Tomatoes growing in the shop, swampy fields, garlic coming up.  We are definitely ready for the rain to stop.  Thankfully, Todd did most of the plowing early in April before the rain came so that we don't have to do any "questionable tilling," as another farmer friend put it.  After speaking with a number of worker shareholders today, I have a great feeling about this season and the bounty in store.  No matter what the weather brings.

Spinach, plowing, potatoes, smile.

On the Plot this week, Todd is working with our newly-arrived interns Nick and Nicky to continue the soil blocking madness.  Last week, before the rain, Todd was able to plow the potato field and has prepared the seed potatoes for planting.  This just requires cutting the potatoes into smaller pieces, halves or quarters, so that each piece has one or two sprouts ready to go.  We get our seed potatoes mostly from an organic Wisconsin farm mysteriously named Vermont Valley.  Some potatoes are arriving from Maine from our favorite organic seed source High Mowing.  
We are enjoying the greens that are just coming up, overwintered spinach (above) and, of course, our endless supply of dandelion greens.  Next up, "wild spinach" otherwise known as lambsquarter.
New cultivating tractor and seeders have been ordered and are on their way!  Thank you, Frontera Foundation for the funds to improve our infrastructure!
Above, worker shareholder Dani smiles for me.  Can't wait for market in June.
-Julia