Production Note, Veggies, WP Migration

It’s Official… Our 2012 growing season is underway!

Posted on by Farmer
The last couple weeks in February Danielle and Justin cleaned and sterilized a few hundred flats and flat inserts, made a lot of soil mix, filled most all of these flats with soil mix, and then put a seed in each cell of each flat. This is the first time that Carl and I weren’t involved in the bulk of the seeding and we must say, they did an excellent job, because it looks like we have a high germination rate of most everything seeded.
Although January is spent finalizing our seed order which means evaluating all 230 cultivars we grow and then figuring out many ounces of each seed is needed to feed our CSA and tailgate market customers. After that, February is spent preparing our production schedule for the entire season; which is making our “dream plan” in deciding for each of the 230 cultivars we grow, where in our growing areas they will be planted, when they will be seeded, and how much will be seeded to meet our sales goals. That also means trying to decide which cultivars we want to cut back on when our “dream plan” requires an extra 1/4 acre of land that we don’t have allocated for production. Cutting back is the hard part for us because we want to grow a lot of everything!
But you know, to us, the season officially begins when we see the first sprout appear. Even after 12 years of farming it is exciting to see the first seed sprout for the season. We place seeds in the soil and most of the time we cover the seed with soil, water the seeds daily (I must admit, we water several times daily.), then finally a sprout appears out of the soil. It is a miracle.  We think of the seed sprouting like a birth so to us this is the birth of a new season and we are all excited of the possibilities.
Look at all these flats that Justin and Danielle sterilized. Then they made soil mix and filled the flats with soil mix. Finally, they labeled the flat and placed a seed in each cell of all those flats. Photograph by Danielle Keeter.
Look at all these flats that Justin and Danielle sterilized. Then they made soil mix and filled the flats with the soil mix. Finally, they labeled the flat and placed a seed in each cell of all those flats.
Our first sprout of 2012 signifying that our season is now underway! A sprout is kind of like a birth if you were to think of it in those terms. Photograph by Danielle Keeter.
Our first sprout of 2012 signifying that our season is now underway! A sprout is kind of like a birth if you were to think of it in those terms so it is the "Birth of a new season". Photograph by Danielle Keeter.
Gus the adventurer found a crawdad eating an earthworm. Photograph taken by Danielle Keeter.
Gus the adventurer found a crawdad eating an earthworm. Photograph taken by Danielle Keeter.
Production Note to Self: Seeded onions and first brassicas 2/23 and 2/24. Justin and Danielle filled trays 2/22 for the first pass of seeding.
Farmer

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