things are growing!

chard seedlings in the greenhouse

cabbage plant in the field

get mad, then feel better

Here's an inflammatory & bogus article in Foreign Policy on why organic food is elitist, contributes to world hunger, and generally ridiculous and a waste of your dollars.

And a nice rebuttal from Anna Lappe of the Small Planet Institute (her mother, Francis Moore Lappe, wrote Diet for a Small Planet in the 1971 - very important book in the food movement that connected eating to sustainability. AND she was a shareholder at the first farm where I apprenticed!).

Both are worth a read - checking up on the conversation people are having out there.

greenhouse work

Lots of time in the greenhouse in April. We planted flat trays of parsley in March, and now are transplanting them out into larger cell trays, so they can develop more roots before we put them in the field. Long process:

second week!

Lots going on - planting cabbage & beets this week, so I got to plow up some of the fields we'll be using. We put up the electric fence around the smaller field, and started baiting with peanut butter (delicious to the deer, we hope - sorry, animal lovers). Attended CPR & first aid training. In case. And working on putting up a hoop house to act as a cold frame for all the seedlings getting ready to be transplanted. Hoops are in the ground, doors are framed, and the plastic will go on tomorrow. These things come in a kit, it turns out. Neat-o.

Today's plowed field:













and the first spring greens!

spring

First day of the season today, and 86 degrees in Boston. Very odd for early April. Great day on the farm though! The greenhouse is full of seedlings, irrigation pipe is being installed, and we're plowing up some new land. We planted the spring peas in the pick-your-own section. Delightful.