Planting

We’ve finally got some crops put in. The usual spring things: lettuce, peas, spinach, beets, peas, beans, fava beans, did I mention peas? We’re having a terrible time trying to get our row covers. They have been back-ordered for two months now. Very frustrating, to say the least. Our warmer weather starts are slow to come up this year. I’m not sure why. Well, ok. This year we switched over to starting seeds with soil blockers. It has not been easy. If we can get it to work, I will be very happy to no longer be using peat pots or plastic ones. I’m sure that having a proper greenhouse would greatly help the situation, but until we can afford such, we’ll limp along.

Most of the peaches have finished flowering and the cherries are getting ready to finish their stint too. If the camera is working, maybe I will get a photo put up. The new sheep will be arriving soon too. I hope to get pics of them as well.

Tilling the soil

Whilst I have been posting quite a lot on news and such, I have neglected all that has been happening locally. I mean locally, as in on the farm. I’ve been anxious to get things planted – the fridge has been a little sparse of recent. Although we did venture out to the Saturday farmers market in Bakersfield. It was our first time. There were all of maybe five vegg-mongers. The largest and busiest of which, was selling produce bought at the LA Wholesale Produce Market. At least they had a sign stating such. We bought some produce from two of the other vendors, one a Hmong farm from Fresno, and the second a local farm from Bakersfield.

Since we do not live in Bakersfield or the valley, our weather is slightly different. We are in the mountains just south and because of that, we still have nights with freezing temperatures. I could plant some of the frost hardy greens and other things, but they would get such a slow start right now that it would be better to wait a couple of more weeks. Everything has been tilled and is ready for planting. We’re also waiting for the soil tests.

It also happens that the new chickens are going to be delayed this year. We decided to get some Keets this year. They will not be ready until the beginning of May. Since we want them all shipped together, we are waiting.

We’ve also had some seed rot in our seed starts, so we are starting some of those over again. It is definitely a learning process using the soil blockers. I would rather spend a season figuring out how to use them versus using any more plastic.