Winter CSA 13

January 21

Believe it or not, growing carrots is not the easiest thing to do.  Nearly everything we grow goes in as a transplant ...even beets. However, this is not possible with carrots and so germinating a 50 foot row x 10 of carrots in August's heat is challenging, especially when carrots can take from 14 to 21 days to germinate and need to stay damp the whole time. Add to this task our clay soil and weed issues and your up for a challenge!  Carrots have often been a disappointment for us.  After years of experimenting, we finally found a technique that works  and this years carrot haul has been exceptional!  We pulled our last 3 rows this week.  Ideally, they should have been out much earlier and we are lucky that we were still able.  It was an ugly job considering the state of muckiness going on out there and I have never heard my husband complain about a job the way he did Thurday night. Him and our employee spent the whole day and got the last 3 rows out!  They are mostly purple and they are gorgeous and so sweet!

In your baskets this week:

Spinach
Napa Cabbage
Hakurei Turnips ( the last)
Purple Carrots
Baby Swiss Chard ( must try a piece raw... so sweet!)

X-tra Greens: Salad Mix and Kale

We have 5 baskets left to this program and ask that you read your emails as in the upcoming weeks we may need to skip a basket or two to allow for a growth.  As the days get longer and the sun starts to shine a little more, growth should take off significantly. Now that we have two greenhouses we are also planting our smaller one to Spring Crops this year.

Carrot Beds...

So full!

Here is the Spinach House at the moment. The sides were planted too late and never produced... The large row to the left is just starting. We have only been able to harvest from two rows on the right and the gardens at the back.  Next year should be much better!  We plan to fill this house with Spring greens shortly.

Here's a cool shot from Google Earth we found this week. It was taken in the Fall. You can see construction of the greenhouse on the bottom right. The nice green beds near middle top are the carrots.  Our empty chicken moat surrounding farm which also has the moveable chicken house still sitting in it.  We have 9 gardens, 2 greenhouses. There is a long garden at the top left on photo, this was created to have the small hoophouse move back and forth along it but proved to be too difficult.  The hoophouse is there but has no plastic on it at the moment.  We plan to cover that hoophouse for extra winter growing next year.  

 Thanks
Have a great week!
Shirley