Monday, May 31, 2010

Early Spring

May 31, 2010....

What better time to update a blog than when you thought you'd be in the dry(er) by now and getting all the crops in according to schedule? We're entering our third week of pretty consistent wet, and cooler than average weather. So, time to reflect on very early spring. The garlic we planted last fall came up pretty well considering we didn't get a mulch on it and the farm endured some mighty cold weeks in winter. The fall planted onions are another story. Regardless, just one more reminder that even a light straw mulch can aid in keeping the topsoil from getting hammered. When we experienced our warmer weather in April, the soil dried smooth and firm, eventually cracking. We walked through hand weeding and scraping to get some more air into the soil. Garlic is pretty hardy stuff, especially the hardneck varieties we're growing this year. However, I could've saved some early spring soreness had a taken some time in the fall to mulch. This is our backfield parcel which is now home not only to a couple of 100 ft rows of garlic, but also to some fall planted onions (Walla Walla, Red Baron, Red Wing, Gladstone), and the majority of the rest of the field is now home to around 12,000 spring planted onions and shallots, and ~2000 Tadorna leeks. It's an increase from last year and we're hoping to sell them through the fall, and with any luck have some good keeper varieties that take some restaurants into the winter. In the far background of this picture is the new field that we've since broken. More pics of that soon.
Posted by Picasa

1 comment:

  1. Nice to see you at the FoFF meeting last night. Have you read Steve Solomons "Water Wise Vegetables"? Excellent reading for someone dry land farming. You might consider laying a temporary line and just watering narrow strips of the land based on Solomon's layouts. He considers this his most important book.

    ReplyDelete