After a brief conversation about how we both are not at all competitive when it comes to games or sports, Carrie declared the peas in tunnel 5 are “her” peas! So suddenly there has become a pea competition. “My” peas in tunnel 3 are a sad reminder of how not to plant peas. I want to share what I have learned.
Don’t leave clover growing even when it is so green in the early Spring and looks SO pretty. It has been cut back by hand twice and once with the weed wacker. It is in direct competition with the peas. I soaked the pea seeds, but we had very poor germination, probably due to the ground being too cold, so the volunteers planted them twice. This was a tunnel where we could not seal it up to contain any warmth, and it stayed almost the same temperature as outside. The irrigation could not be turned on at this point, so it was all hand watering. Alas poor peas!
The peas in tunnel 5 went in a couple of weeks later and were planted after they sprouted. This was Carrie’s suggestion. They are absolutely flourishing!
So which peas were harvested first? Well, here is Silvo picking the first peas. I won’t divulge where he found them, because I am not competitive! 🙂 The real winner here is all of us because we learned so much about the do’s and don’ts of planting peas in Maine in March. I can’t wait to get a tarp on all that clover.
On to other news. We are trying to get the rest of the seedlings planted and out of the greenhouse so it too will be in production. The last of the tomatoes and amaranth went in a tunnel that had some heavy soil and weed issues. We used cardboard cut-outs around the tomatoes and mulched heavily with straw. The other plots where cardboard has been used are lighter and obviously healthier. The tape has to be removed and only black ink used to print on the cardboard to pass MOFGA certification.
This was the week for sweet potatoes according to our biodynamic calendar, which we have such good intentions to follow, but weather conditions often alter our schedule. Hopefully this timely planting will be a banner year for our sweet potatoes. We also harvest these tender leaves for a couple of our pantries.
This was also the week to push for the last of the seedlings to be planted. Luckily it coincided with two more interns starting up at G2G. Here is Annie harvesting basil, and Sophia shoveling compost! Now we have 4 strong energetic young women to help us with our to-do list. They have already been extremely helpful with gleaning, broadforking, weeding, and planting, even when the rain is blowing sideways! We are so grateful.
Now that most of the plants are in the ground, we start with round two–Winter Squash. Here in Maine it has to get planted by the end of June to have enough time to ripen before frost in October. BJ and Carol started 100 Tuffy Acorn Squash seeds. Three more varieties of winter squash have also been started, as well as a few Hubbard to be trap plants. We had such an issue with striped cucumber beetles last year, we are delaying the cucumber and summer squash plantings until July, hoping to skip the worst of the beetles. No one truly enjoys morning bug patrol.
The winter rye was crimped last week and after a day of drying out we tarped it all. Zoey’s favorite farm job is to help with the tarping by racing around on top of it. We say she is helping to hold it down in the wind–mostly she is just making us laugh. Some of these plots will get the squash seedlings planted directly into the dried rye, benefiting from all the mulch.
We had lots of people take us up on our invitation to pick rhubarb for a donation. These folks came from Elmhurst in Bath and want to come back and volunteer. Great! We will have it until next week, then we are going to finish it off with a big glean for MCHPP to put in their freezer.
So that was what was going on with us this week. Thank you, Carmen, for driving up from Boston to volunteer and to Emma from Amsterdam, who came several times while she stayed with friends who are volunteers. Our volunteers are the best, except for this volunteer/friend of Adelle’s who is outgrowing her welcome. Sandy, you are starting to become a nuisance!
To everyone else, a sincere thank you, and please pass the peas. 🙂 Theda
