Hello Everyone:
Spring is arriving early - see below.
If you are perusing our site for the first time and are interested in becoming a customer, welcome.
The "Join our CSA" page and "2023 Crops" page will have a lot of info about what to expect.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Last week, I started half of the bulb onions - red Rossa de Milano and Red Marble cipollinis. They are just starting to sprout. In about a week, they will be old enough to promote to the cell packs. As the seed tray empties, the next round of seeds will start to go in: sweet and hot peppers, amaranth, and a bit of sage for the farm, a few more flowers for the bees, and catnip for the boss.
I've also done a few germination tests in the past month to see if any of my old seed is still viable. Usually, I use a peice of damp paper towel, but these dry out very quickly so I have simply used an old seed tray that still had soil in it from last year.
This particular tray had two types of pea and two types of bean. Twenty seeds of each variety to give me a decent sample size for calculating germination percentage.
I let them grow a bit and sent them on to the chickens for a treat.
Speedy variety green beans and Norli snow peas are good enough to go, though I will have to increase the quantity sown about 25 per cent. The Maxi green beans and the Cascadia snap peas will require replacing; the old seeds will be cast into the meadow. To make up for the lost snap peas, I'll be purchasing a variety of shelling peas that we trialed last year and sold to favourable reviews at the Farmers Market. I've already re-stocked the Maxi beans.
By the next time I write, we should be seeing more bulb onions, green onions, and our first amaranth flowers.