Two Feet in the Dirt

I’ve been mentioning how up and down the weather has been over the past few months. Things like garlic (which has been in the ground since last autumn) are ahead of where they usually are given the warm winter. Other crops, especially those that were planted in April, are behind because of our unusually cold late April and early May. A perfect example of this is the potatoes (pictured above). Potatoes are one of the few crops that are not planted from seeds or seedlings. Rather, we put actually pieces of potatoes (like those you eat) in the ground. You may have noticed the “eyes” on potatoes you’ve had at home sending up a little white sprout. This is exactly what seed potatoes do once in the ground- the eyes send up sprouts which turn into the above ground portion of the plant. Once this is established, the tubers start growing under the soil!

Hilling is an important technique to maximize the number of potatoes that grow from each plant. When the plants are about 15-18 inches high, we come through with our walk-behind tractor and use a plow to toss soil onto and cover a large portion of the stem and foliage of each plant. Because potatoes can produce roots out of anywhere on their stem if it is underground, burying the stem provides the plants even more area to produce even more tubers for us to eat! The timing of hilling is one area where we are really seeing the effects of the colder temperatures this year. Although we did plant the seed potatoes a week later this year as we ordered them from a different company, we had a note in the calendar to hill the potatoes this week. As you can see in the pictures at the top of this post, the potato plants have only just popped above the soil this week, meaning that, even with the slight delay in planting, we certainly won’t be hilling until well after we did last year!

With the weather warming up by the end of last week, we were not only able to get all of our summer crops in the ground, but also many of the plants that have been stalling in their growth in the colder weather are finally getting near harvestable size. This week, I’ll be putting the harvest list below with items that will certainly be available through the store this week. I’ll also be putting a list of items “coming soon” that might be available this week and otherwise will be ready for harvest very soon.

Thank you as always for your support!

Farmers Katie & Mike

Harvest List:

• Hearty winter mix
• Lettuce salad mix
• Lettuce heads
• Arugula
• Radishes
• Hakurei turnips
• Red Russian kale
• Lacinato kale
• Curly green kale
• Spring Onions

Coming soon:

• Kohlrabi
• Rainbow Chard
• Collard Greens
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