On the first day of Spring, Carrie and I met up at the farm to get organized for volunteers coming later in the week.

We had to shovel our way into the garden shed but otherwise our paths were clear. There was an abundant amount of sunshine accompanied by an abundant amount of wind. We will call it invigorating, to put a positive spin on the wind chill. A lady in line at the grocery store summed it up perfectly for me today. “I don’t care if it still feels like winter, the word Spring just lifts my spirits and gives me hope!” Mainers tend to be optimists.

Our friend and Elderberry Mentor, Abbie Sewall, came to help prune our ever expanding Elderberry and Aronia collection. I would call it an orchard but they seem to be in multiple locations all over the farm now. This coming Earth Day we plan to share cuttings and slips from this years’ prunings. Details will follow.

Watching Abbie select which canes to prune and at what point on each branch is like signing up for a Master Class. We feel fortunate she found us and wants to share her expertise. Thanks Abbie!

What else did we find on Monday? Well, the garlic is sprouting and the pussy willows are budding. We are wondering if this is the year we will be able to create the willow arch.

While Cathy was checking out the spinach through a peephole in tunnel 3, I was practicing my QiGong for farmers in my Black Ninja disguise.

We were excited to be back!

Carrie led the volunteers the rest of the week so this is her report:

Thank you to the folks who came this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to help get things started. Everyone took to soil blocking like experts, even our new volunteers! We sowed 400 lettuce blocks, 200 blocks of fennel, 265 cabbage blocks, 600 chard blocks, 200 blocks of kale, 78 parsley blocks, and a flat of onions. The seedling trailer is starting to fill up already.

On Saturday, we also put down more native wildflower seeds in our future jelly-bean-shaped wildflower field. It all feels like a bit of a shot in the dark, but we hope at least some of them will germinate.

While volunteers rolled more paper pots, others finished weeding the entire spinach tunnel, which contains overwintered spinach from last fall. It will probably bolt before too long, but we hope to get a harvest out of it. It sure is tasty!

Thank you to everyone who came and helped get things going!

 

Theda and Carrie