Apr 4, 20222 min read

April showers bring May flowers

"April showers bring May flowers" needs to be changed to "April snow" for Northern MN!

Once again we wake up to a beautiful covering of snow, but we aren't going to let it get us down. Spring will show up in its own time, even though we are all so desperately ready, and will be glorious as always. :)

It was a very busy weekend here and this farmer is tired. I'm also feeling excited and super happy with the progress being made! In April everything kicks into high gear and we learn to perfect the art of multitasking. Tunnels are being prepped, in ground planting has begun, the adult chickens are being moved, baby chicks are being cared for, potting up seedlings in the greenhouse for sale and transplant is in full force, and weekly seeding continues for 2nd/3rd/4th successions of plantings. Somedays it's hard to know what task to tackle first because it feels like each one is a priority!

The first, and largest, tunnel has been prepped and plants are in the ground!

Lettuce, Swiss chard, Kohlrabi, Kale, & Broccoli are all snug in the soil. Since we continue to have cold and snowy weather, the soil is much colder than normal. That means we will hold off on direct seeding for a bit yet to avoid the potential for poor germination. By next week, if we get some sun, we hope to move on to prepping the next tunnel, which will be home to all the onions!

The first batch of tomatoes and peppers are sizing up really nicely. We will need to replant the peppers into bigger pots very soon. The middle picture shows the seeds getting started in our germinator. We start all the heat loving veggies in this hot "fridge" to speed up the process, which can take a very long time if a warm temperature can't be maintained. Peppers ideally like to be 80-90 degrees F to sprout. That can be really hard to reach in most growing environments!