This week is spring break for the farm. We're taking a scheduled two week break from harvest in order to give the plants some time to recover from winter, and also to give us some time to catch up on planting and preparing for the spring season.
Preparation is taking many forms this week. We finally got the lime buggy out into the fields which was a huge relief. I don't know when the last time the field was limed but typical of soil around here that's been farmed hard for a long time we were very lacking in Calcium and have an extremely low starting pH. This is the only time we'll ever have an almost entirely open field so the buggy can get on, and it's cheaper to have the buggy spread lime than to buy the material ourselves. As long as the buggy was out we took advantage with a huge load, 70 tons of the stuff and a 4.5 ton/acre rate which was based on soil testing. That's much heavier than I've done in the past but I'm hoping that'll give us a good start to improving the soil for years to come. Based on last year's experiences putting down less than half that rate in a different spot it seemed like a good thing to do.
We managed to get a bunch of planting done before the rain returned on Tuesday. Lettuce and other greens, beets and carrots, and some radishes. In the hoop house we prepared beds for strawberries! Even though it's slated to rain Thursday we should be able to get our berries planted with no problems. Unfortunately we don't have a way to put them in CSA shares, but we'll have them at markets and at the farm stand with a little luck, right along side the blueberries.
Preparation is taking many forms this week. We finally got the lime buggy out into the fields which was a huge relief. I don't know when the last time the field was limed but typical of soil around here that's been farmed hard for a long time we were very lacking in Calcium and have an extremely low starting pH. This is the only time we'll ever have an almost entirely open field so the buggy can get on, and it's cheaper to have the buggy spread lime than to buy the material ourselves. As long as the buggy was out we took advantage with a huge load, 70 tons of the stuff and a 4.5 ton/acre rate which was based on soil testing. That's much heavier than I've done in the past but I'm hoping that'll give us a good start to improving the soil for years to come. Based on last year's experiences putting down less than half that rate in a different spot it seemed like a good thing to do.
We managed to get a bunch of planting done before the rain returned on Tuesday. Lettuce and other greens, beets and carrots, and some radishes. In the hoop house we prepared beds for strawberries! Even though it's slated to rain Thursday we should be able to get our berries planted with no problems. Unfortunately we don't have a way to put them in CSA shares, but we'll have them at markets and at the farm stand with a little luck, right along side the blueberries.
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