What a weather roller coaster we've been on lately! We have been fluctuating from shielding our seedlings from excessive heat and sunshine while they're still young and tender to protecting them from freezing temperatures and snow...some days several times back and forth throughout the day! With the record warmth in early April, our plants got a great start much earlier than normal. But this cold snap has stalled out their growth and damaged some plants, so we're hoping the weatherman's prediction that this is the end of winter holds true.
Farm News
Glacial Till Farm: Weeds. They never stop. I do a shallow stirrup hoe cultivation 2 times between almost all my crops. The importance of crop spacing is paramount for making this work economically viable. Here's a video of Farmer Derek cultivating. Then a couple of days later, we have snowy cover crops and row cover on our lettuce beds.
Yellow Creek Farm: What a difference 9 days makes in the high tunnel. Radishes, Japanese turnips and Napa cabbages are taking off. We will start harvesting the radishes and turnips within a week or so. We even started planting the tomatoes in the tunnel this week. Hoping to pick the first tomatoes in June. Some of these radishes will be in CSA boxes this week!
Bushel and a Peck Farm: We received our first shipment of poultry last week, just as the weather changed. It's a challenge to keep the chick brooders at a comfortable temperature. Too hot and the chicks are stressed and can pile up away from the heat lamps. Too cold and the chicks all huddle together to stay warm. Huddling leads to days-old chicks being smothered by the pile on top. This batch of chicks kept climbing into their water dispensers for some reason, so we kept bringing batches into the bathroom with a space heater to warm up. That night we had someone checking on them every 30 minutes or so until we modified their waterers the next morning to keep them from climbing in. But there's nothing like cute baby chicks and ducks with all their fluff chasing each other around the pen!
We will be offering an extra delivery May 5 with a special Farm Stand Mother's Day box. This is not included in your Spring CSA, so if you want the extra box, watch your email and our Facebook page for info coming soon!
Webstore will be incorporated into Harvie soon, but for now we have chicken, beef, pork, cheese, milk, and lots more on our old website. Check it out here.
Remember to customize your share early and then check back periodically throughout the weekend to see if there's anything that has been returned to inventory that you want to add. Customization ends Sunday afternoon, and then we will move remaining products over to the Webstore until Monday morning.
Looking forward to warm sunny days!
Amy Philson and your NWPA Growers Farmers
