Two Feet in the Dirt

Springs in the mid-Atlantic are always a bit of a roller coaster, but the last couple of weeks have been even wilder than usual. For the past month, we’ve experienced highs from the 70s down to the 30s and last week was probably the best example of this. On Easter Monday, we received several inches of snow and the following Sunday, we ate dinner outside enjoying temperatures in the 80s! What a shift. While April snow is not unheard of, it definitely threw an unexpected wrench in our farm work. Once we accepted that the snow did not seem likely to stop, we had to hurry outside in order to pull the fabric row cover off of all of the kale, cabbage, bok choi, and rainbow chard beds. The weight of the heavy snow on top of the fabric had weighed down the row cover to such an extent that the plants were in danger of being crushed. Fortunately, all of these are cold-tolerant plants, so it was safer to expose them to the snow than to have them damaged under the weight of the sodden row cover.

Luckily, everything seems to have made it through the snow and through to overall ups and downs of weather and our harvest list continues to expand week by week. See below for this week’s list and we’ll look forward to seeing everyone at Burke on Saturday!

Farmers Katie & Mike

Harvest List:

• Lettuce salad mix
• Arugula
• Hearty Winter Mix
• Lettuce heads
• Radishes
• Spinach
• Green Garlic
• Hakurei Turnips