May Farm Tour Photos / Farm Work Day Info

Spring Silence

With the exception of the citrus trees, all of the trees and vines on the farm are giving birth to their first leaves of the year. The citrus is shooting out some new buds to add to the collection of leaves that have been grown over the past years. The colors of the leaves just emerging from the branches are a fresh green color. This phase of green will cover the trees for a couple more weeks, until the sun has had a chance to beat the fresh green color out of them.

While the trees are sending out their leaves for the year we are beginning to transplant the first of our tomato plants into the ground. Next to that field is where Ricardo is seeding spinach, kale, bok choy and beets. Next to that field is the first field of green beans that was planted about a week ago.

Everything has been going well with the exception of the green beans. We seeded and watered the beans and with the sunny weather I was expecting a quick and health germination. After a few days passed I was concerned that I had seen nothing and began digging around the field. The seeds that I had found were mush, some of them had started to send out a little root but it too was mush. Finding a few more of the bean seeds uncovered the culprit – a little worm. The field had fallen victim to field seed maggot. These little guys live in the soil and found my bean seeds to be a perfect place to grow up. The result is that I have not seen a single bean germinate. Our efforts to grow beans on that field resulted in little more than feeding the worms!

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. I am getting the seeds to try again but I cannot decide if I should try again in the same field hoping that the warmer weather has relieved the field from this little problem or if I should adjust the planting order to put the beans in another field. While this would make more sense for the insuring a successful bean crop it will mean that the melons will have to go down by the creek where they may be heavily hassled by the deer. These are the problems that organic farms deal with.

The farm will move on, the beans will get grown and the melons will too. The dance of giving, taking and trying again will never end. Enjoy your box this week. - Thaddeus