Seedtime & Harvest Newsletter This week’s produce is bright, beautiful and delicious!
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March 20, 2014Sometimes it feels that spring will never arrive! Yet the snow is gone and the robins are back. Robins are the most wonderful harbinger of spring. I love them!The furnace tech started the greenhouse furnaces and checked for propane leaks. We have hung sheets of plastic to warm only a portion of this house. As the number of seedling trays increase, we will pull down the plastic and warm the entire house. By then, the sun will be stronger and the days longer.
The first seeds we planted, kohlrabi, kale, and lettuce, are starting to poke through the soil. About ten little tomato seeds have pushed up a speck of green. Welcome! Welcome! The heat mats are stacked with more germination trays as Alissa continues to plant flowers and herbs.
Yesterday, I sprayed fish, sugar, seaweed and microbes on the flower and tomato hoop house floor. All the leaves we collected and spread in the fall have been tilled in to continue the enrichment of our soil. Work lists are starting to appear as we plan what we must do each day.
On the farm, spring is here!!!!
Noah trudges around, meandering between Alissa and I. He cried yesterday when he was not allowed to ride with Grandma while she tilled the hoop houses. He also felt sad when Grandma said he was too close to the bee hives while she opened the hives and tucked in pollen and fondant patties. I walked him back to his mommy and he was ok again. The wash machine is kept busy with his muddy snow pants and coat. He decided to walk into the house with boots twice the normal size, loaded with mud! Grandma reprimanded Grandpa to take off his shoots and then Noah decided to walk around the house in Grandpa’s shoes! Grandpa told Grandma, “If your floor is dirty, I didn’t do it!”
All three bee hives are still alive. One looks very good as they have eaten last week’s pollen and fondant patties. Another is struggling. It seems they are refusing to cross the inch spacing from one box of honey comb to the next box of honey comb. So although there is plenty of food just above their heads, they are starving to death rather than break their keep-us-warm cluster and risk freezing. I tucked frames of honey next to the remaining small cluster and put pollen and fondant patties just above them. It breaks the heart to see them struggle so.
The national average of hive death is 30%. Iowa’s average loss is 50%. We all have work to do! Please, plant more flowers and blooming trees!!!!
Henry stopped at the local chiropractor for Formula 303, a homeopathic that helps with restless legs and cramps. Chiro’ complained, “There is nothing worth eating in the grocery story anymore. The fruits and veggies are missing their nutrients and the rest of the store is processed.” Henry will bring him a Seedtime brochure today. He has options! Local, living, nutrient dense options.
Note: We accept CSA subscriptions throughout the season. However, the deadline for two free weeks of veggies or one week of flowers expired March 15th. I guess the date flew right by us, too. We will extend the deadline to March 30.
Note: Molly at the Co-op says they have room for Seedtime’s CSA pick-up at the new location, 18th & Minnesota. Co-op’s produce refrigeration is very limited. In Molly’s words, “Our refrigeration at this new site is brutally tight!” So if you are planning to eat more veggies come spring, order a Seedtime CSA and insure that veggies are available to your family.
605-366-1056
harriet@seedtimeandharvest.net