Farm update, in photos

I took these photos nearly two weeks ago now, on one of those rare, sunny days we've been having. It's been a slow spring so far since the weather has been mostly overcast, cool, and rainy. Many of the direct-seeded spring crops have had poor germination rates, and those that made it have been slow to grow. We just harvested our first spring crop this past Friday - French Breakfast Radishes - and even those could have been a bit bigger had we waited another week.

Since I took these photographs though, we've had enough dry days to plant all the brassicas, another round of lettuces, the celeriac, the leeks... and today we were lucky to be able to plant all the peppers (bell, sweet, and hot), all the eggplants, the squashes, and the cucumbers. Now we just need some warm sunny days to get these plants revved up for summer!

Here are the pictures I took in the second week of May. Much has changed since then, but I think the photos are pretty enough to post. Enjoy!

 A local beekeeper recently placed two hives on the farm. 

 The large greenhouses, from right to left, are #1 and #2. Notice the metal frame all the way to the left in the photo? That's a greenhouse too. Since this photo was taken, we dug up all the weeds, sod, and left-over black plastic from this greenhouse, turned under the beds with compost, and planted herbs and heirloom tomatoes. We secured a large sheet of  plastic to the frame to create the greenhouse effect and keep the plants toasty. Although the tomatoes are inside and planted on black plastic, we still covered them with floating row cover to insulate them even more.

The heirloom tomatoes, basil, and flowers of Greenhouse #2.

 Section #1 in the field. The closest bed in the picture holds the scallions. Since this photo was taken, this section has been filled with leeks, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and celeriac. 

Hot house tomatoes in Greenhouse #1.  These babies should be ripe in June!

 Plant starts for sale. We sold lots of plants at the farmer's market this Saturday.

 Aww, look at those baby cucumbers. Aren't they cute?

Violets are growing wild on the hill near the farmhouse. Such a treat to have gorgeous flowers on the farm that we didn't even have to plant!