Green Manure

Tilling in a cover crop of rye, peas and vetch to add nitrogen and organic matter to the soil. The organic matter creates food resources for the soil's micro flora and fauna, in return creating humus in the soil. We build soil in order to produce nutrient dense foods.

L'il Helper

The moon was in the watery constellation of the Fishes yesterday...good time to sow leaf crops. Thanks, Violet, for being a great little helper!

Awake

After a winter of sleep, the garlic is awake.

June 25

Nice pleasant cloudy morning to harvest for CSA and tomorrow's farmer's market in PC. It might officially be summer but we've still had several decent frosts in the last couple of weeks. It's not atypical for us to freeze this time of the year but we most likely will be frost free now until sometime in late August to early September; a whopping 60+ days frost free...not a tomato grower's paradise. For the most part the temps have not been extreme one way or the other. The wind, however, has been wreaking havoc and thrashing the greens a bit. Speaking of thrashing the greens, we battle a soil dwelling insect called the flea beetle. Flea beetles love to dine on all the spicy greens we grow: arugula, mustard greens plus radish and turnips. We combat them by using "floating row-covers", a spun polyester fabric that acts as a barrier and covers the crop needing protection. Sometime the little buggers still find there way under the covers though! It is purely cosmetic damage to the greens in your box. There are a host of chemical insecticides we could use but who wants to eat poison?!?

Here are a few photos from this morning on the farm in Hoytsville (Dog Holler).

Spring In The Holler

Weeding Carrots

Oakley Pano