We just wanted to take a moment to fill you in on some of the things that have been happening on the farm over the past few weeks.
The biggest addition is that we have finally finished putting up a new high tunnel! It took a little blood, a lot of sweat, and even a few tears to get this up! It is the future home of A LOT of tomatoes! Now that it’s up we’ll add some soil amendments and a lot of compost and get those tomatoes in the ground! This is a very exciting and big change on the farm. For years we have never had enough space in our greenhouses for everything that we wanted to plant in them. This new tunnel is 30’x96′, BIG.
The picture below is the new tunnel on Friday as we were putting the plastic on. We were really lucky to have some worker members come out and help, and mother nature cooperated with a windless morning.
Our heated greenhouse is totally full of little plants waiting to go into the ground outside. It looks like it’s finally going to warm up enough to plant them. It has been a hard winter, and challenging spring with really low temperatures. This year we planted some early kale, lettuces, and other crops in the hopes of having produce by this time. All those plants are still quite small because of the cold, but the coming week looks to be perfect weather to get them growing.
Everyone worries about the strawberry crop, so I’ll mention them here. The plants are looking very strong this year. If you remember last season, all the plants had a virus that stunted them (this was true for many, many strawberries up and down the East coast). This year they are virus free and full of blossoms. A few were killed by this last cold snap, but the vast majority are fine. There are many little green berries on the plants now. It will be 2-3 weeks before they ripen.
Vanessa is at the North Asheville Tailgate on Saturdays with what little produce we have along with some beautiful flowers, and lots of vegetable and flower starts.
Our crew is here working away with us. We have Susanna from NY state, Drea from Seattle, April from Arkansas, and Dianna, who has been working with us for a few years now. They are a lively bunch.
CSA boxes won’t stat until mid-May, but you’ll be hearing more from us before then.
Go by UNCA and say hello to Vanessa!