We pulled quite a few radishes today, we planted the radish seeds thick and close together with the intention to thin them for the radish greens. Radish greens can be very tender and are an excellent hearty green used in stir-frys and soups. Unfortunately, the million other things going on at the farm made thinning radishes less of a priority. Radishes do not like to be near each other, there needs to be at least an inch between each radish, if they are planted to thick they will bolt. Bolting is when a plant goes straight to seed, so you end up with tall tough greens and no radishes. While I was pulling radishes out of the hoop house a hummingbird flew in and got trapped. The hummingbird eventually got out but not before I got a few pictures with my camera.
I also checked the compost thermometer and in just a few short days it has heated up another 20 degrees. With some more warm weather on the way it won't be long till it is up another 20 degrees. We covered the compost pile with hay which will act as a natural "biofilter" which prevents odor and traps air in the compost pile. Adding the hay makes it unnecessary to physically turn the pile, which is awesome cause that sounds like a gross job the intern would have to do.
I woke up early this morning to plant the eggplants, they were started about a month ago and are very anxious to get in the ground. We were waiting for some space in the first hoop house, I planted about 4 varities and a total of 80 eggplants.
Everything is planted, veggies are growing, and the first CSA delivery is just around the corner. John and Lissa have built an extra room off of their garage, it is a kitchen that Lissa uses for her catering jobs as well as the staging area for the CSA. When the vegetables are planted they will all be taken to the staging area to be divided into bins and the bins will be loaded into cars where they will be taken to the appropriate drop off points in Longville, Walker, Remer, and Hackensack.
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| The staging area |
There is only one problem...the catering kitchen/CSA staging area has been used for storage all winter. It has been filled to the brim with odds and ends from around the farm. It is like the junk drawer in your kitchen, you know the drawer with pens, rubber bands, a deck of cards, takeout menus, etc but on a much bigger scale. It has been holding lawn chairs and boxes of jars for canning and about a billion other things. John and I set up 8 tables and started hauling everything out; I mean everything. John then scrubbed the floors, I would have done it but I had to go up to Grand Rapids for another class at the radio station. When I got back the floor was sparkling so I did what I do best, organize. I did a good chunk of it but we had a dinner date a Joan's house to get to. Joan is a friend and 91.7 KAXE programmer, she invited us over for some Indian food which she learned to make in India and it was delicious.
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| John built a rack for all of our Minnesota Grown stickers |
We pulled quite a few radishes today, we planted the radish seeds thick and close together with the intention to thin them for the radish greens. Radish greens can be very tender and are an excellent hearty green used in stir-frys and soups. Unfortunately, the million other things going on at the farm made thinning radishes less of a priority. Radishes do not like to be near each other, there needs to be at least an inch between each radish, if they are planted to thick they will bolt. Bolting is when a plant goes straight to seed, so you end up with tall tough greens and no radishes. While I was pulling radishes out of the hoop house a hummingbird flew in and got trapped. The hummingbird eventually got out but not before I got a few pictures with my camera.
I also checked the compost thermometer and in just a few short days it has heated up another 20 degrees. With some more warm weather on the way it won't be long till it is up another 20 degrees. We covered the compost pile with hay which will act as a natural "biofilter" which prevents odor and traps air in the compost pile. Adding the hay makes it unnecessary to physically turn the pile, which is awesome cause that sounds like a gross job the intern would have to do. 
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