A visit with Farmer Roger

Today is a gray & chilly day, with rainstorms forecast for the next couple of days and a cold & wet couple of weeks coming up. The official start of spring was a week ago today. While most of March was cold and wet, we have had some beautiful days. The daffodil buds had been slowly turning yellow for weeks, but finally on the official first day of spring, March 20, the entire bed of flowers bloomed.

First daffodil of spring

I’m still enjoying the display every time I walk past. The massed yellow flowers are a constant reminder that the weather will eventually change.

Spinach Seedlings

We have a lot of work to get ready for the farm opening on May 13. The greenhouse is filling up with tiny plants.

Lettuce, spinach, frisee, bok choi, & salad turnips were transplanted into the hoophouses already by mid March. The first outdoor planting was leeks, planted on the first day of spring. Four of the crew started back at work four weeks ago. By the end of the day today, we’ll have spinach and kale planted outside, and the first peas will be planted soon.

Evert planting spinach

Rob

Evert has done all our greenhouse starts the last two years. This year he will be in charge of vegetable production from start to harvest, with Claire providing planning and expertise. Evert will have a small group who will focus entirely on vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Today Evert is focused on transplanting out the spinach & kale and setting up to start about 1300 tomato plants for Chef Brian. Rob is back in charge of the general field crew and all our equipment. Rob has been dealing with the spring equipment breakdowns, as well as a large number of projects around the farm and directing the field work. Today Rob is working on grading the potholes out of the gravel road.

Juan planting spinach

Luis with shovel

Juan (left) and Luis (right) are both back. They will be doing the general field work, pumpkins, winter squash, gourds, and the corn maze, and any special projects. This month they have also been helping Evert with the vegetables. Today, for example, they set up raised beds where Evert will plant peas in a few days, laid out two planting beds outside for spinach and kale and are heading down to finish changing the clear plastic over the big starts greenhouse. After lunch they will help Evert plant the spinach & kale.

Stewart on his first day at work

We hired Stewart to help Evert with the vegetables. I took this photo two days ago on his first day at work. Stewart is a chef starting over as a farmer, following his food passion to the source.

Chris is putting the final touches on the announcements of our brand new Free Choice CSA. We’re pretty excited to be finally offering a CSA at The South 47 Farm. We think giving our CSA members free choice will appeal to people who want to join a CSA and support a local farm but don’t want to be tied into a “box of the week” style CSA. We will still be working to surprise and delight you, but you get to choose which surprises you take home to supper.

There’s a lot more I haven’t talked about here. I do several microblogs a day on Twitter. Check them out at http://twitter.com/FarmerRoger.