The pace is picking up around here, and with it the heat! Holy moly, we have been in the 80s the last few days and our bodies are trying to acclimate. The heat feels good but seems a bit early?
We LOVED the storm that brought a little rain and cool temps to Southwest Colorado last week! The soil was wet for a day or two and we got to spend a couple days organizing, cleaning and catching up on emails.
I grew up with a father who always kept his garage and tools incredibly clean and organized. Every tool had a place. He knew (and still knows) where every tool was, and also if something was missing. I would borrow tools here and there and sometimes forget to return them. Within a day he would notice something missing and ask, 'Hey, did you borrow a wrench yesterday?'. I'm working on getting our tools organized like this, and find it so satisfying when we have the tool to fix or repair something AND I know exactly where it is.
Planting season is suddenly in full swing! The first round of tomatoes went in on Friday and Saturday. They're settling into their new spacious beds and already starting to put on new growth. We're hardening off the eggplant and peppers and hoping to transplant those in the next week or so, depending on what the 10-day forecast looks like. I feel like we should have one more cool/cold dip before the end of the month but we'll see, that might not be the case this year?
We have started planting the onions! The Sweet Walla Walla Onions and the red storage onions are. Today we're going to finish up planting with the yellow storage onions, leeks and scallions. The onions and the potatoes, which went in on Sunday, are both hopeful plantings. We will be able to get the onions established with irrigation water, but we will need rain to come this Summer to pull them through to the end of the season. Fingers crossed! It feels like a gamble but, it will help us learn and understand what we can produce on a season like this. We're going to learn a lot this season when it comes to crops and drought stress... We'll be taking lots of notes!
We transplanted the first round of head lettuce, more little gem lettuces, chard, bok choy and napa cabbage yesterday! We still have a prop house full of starts and are slowly working our way towards getting everything transplanted. I think we'll start in on the brassicas next week - the cabbages, kale, collards, cauliflower and broccoli! It feels good to see starts moving out of the propagation house and into the field.
The early carrots are looking great! They should be ready for the first CSA Harvest, which is only 4 weeks away! The beets are gorgeous as well, and need a good thinning so they can start to really bulb up.
OK. We need to head out and catch up on a couple weeding projects, shape beds and get the rest of these onions in the ground!
Have a beautiful day!
Your Famers,
Mindy & Mike