A visit with Farmer Roger

I’m sitting at my desk on a Saturday afternoon, trying to work on the greenhouse starts planting schedule, and making no progress at all. It feels just like Spring Fever back in high school days, but it is still February.

For a couple of weeks now the urge to get out into the field has been growing stronger each day. We had almost two weeks with nothing more than a trace of rain, very unusual for February. Some of the fields started to look dry enough to start the spring fieldwork. Every day I watched the fields dry out some more and got the itch to get the tractor out. Every day I counseled myself to have patience. More rain and possibly even snow were sure to come. Since Sunday we have received almost 0.9 inches of rain (or snow melt), but the total for the month, 1.73 inches, is well under half of a normal February.

If we start when the fields are too wet, we compact the soil and it dries out in brick-like chunks. If we wait for things to be perfect, we probably won’t have time to get everything done before it is too late to plant. Spring fieldwork is a daily juggling act. Every day we check the field conditions against our list of the tasks we need to finish. There can be significant differences in conditions in different fields, so usually we can find some place we can move forward.

Finally, on Monday, we will be back on the ground at the farm. I talked with the guys yesterday and they are all ready to come back to work. Rob, Evert, Luis, and Juan will be here at 8 am. I have a list of tasks to accomplish while we watch for the right soil conditions for the fieldwork. Evert will be doing the greenhouse work again. We need to prune the blueberries. We’ll be preparing a couple of hoophouses for early greens production. We’ll be pulling out some old waterlines and setting up a new area for U-Pick vegetables. I’d like to expand the north animal paddock. We need to prepare for our new cooler. Other spring tasks include repairing the roads, turning the compost piles, and checking out the equipment. As soon as we can we’ll be spreading compost and lime on the fields so we can get to the tilling on time.

For the last few weeks now I’ve been watching the daffodils growing just outside my office. They haven’t bloomed yet, but they look just about ready.

Daffodil in bud

Officially, spring starts several weeks from now on March 20. This year I’m starting early.