The Start of Big Spring Harvests

We are glad to see the first harvests from all the hoophouse and tunnel plantings we did earlier this year.  We seeded and planted all of these structures (2 hoophouses, 4 tunnels) over the course of 5 weeks to spread out the planting work and yield regular harvests.  Well... it feels like everything is ready at the same time!

Light is the main driver of plant growth, so it makes sense that since we have longer days, crops are ready.  The earlier successions (planted in lower light) needed a longer growth period than the later-planted ones.  We are familiar with this, and do factor daylight hours into our crop planning process.  Though it feels surprising that so many plantings are reaching harvest stage at the same time, this exact situation happens every year, and every year we feel a little shocked by it.  After months of winter weather and running tight on leafy greens, we finally have them again, and lots!

Realistically, we can still separate successions and will have consistent harvests over the next few weeks, but it's a shift in mentality.  Over the winter season, we look at our small successions of greens, cut every possible leaf in the hope of having enough to go around, and hope we didn't take too much of these slow-growing crops so that we won't be short come next harvest time.  Now, suddenly, the season has shifted, and we have to keep a close eye on everything so nothing overmatures.  We also have to work with our sales channels carefully to ensure we have an outlet for all these early crops.  

This is a moment when our CSA subscription shines in supporting the farm.  Having a foundation of households that have signed up to receive our vegetables regularly, means that we are resilient to situations like this, when a crop suddenly picks up.  We love our farmers' markets (and certainly know and appreciate you if you are a regular there!), but the reality is that farmers' markets aren't consistent.  This time of year, market traffic hasn't always picked up enough to help mitigate a sudden overproduction.  Our subscription is a key way we make sure of all those greens and herbs we invested so much into, find homes.  And if you're wondering - this is still true even though we offer customization in our CSA boxes.  We just have to make sure we grow the delicious-tasting produce that our community wants to eat!