Yesterday we had the exciting task of direct seeding our first crops out in the field.

Monday was the end of the Persephone Period which are days with less than 10 hours of sunlight. During those days crops don’t really grow and won’t germinate so we waited until days reached 10 hours of sunlight.

Carrots were the biggest thing we direct seeded but we also planted some beets, bok choy, spinach, radishes and turnips. Additionally we planted five beds of peas including one of sweet peas and two of snap peas.

Before we could seed the crops we had to prep the beds with the tractor using a disc and then a tiller to break up the soil so that the seeder could pass through smoother.

Fortunately there is a lot of drip tape on the farm which we are able to use and we sorted through most of it Monday and then put it on the beds we direct seeded. The onions that were planted last December also got drip tape since they haven’t got any water since the last rain just before the new year.

Even though most of our seeding was outside we still managed to seed 4,000 leeks and our first planting of eggplants in the greenhouse. With those plants in the greenhouse we have most of our tables full but we fortunately have a few extra tables we can make.

Hopefully in two weeks we will be able to plant our first transplants which will open up some space in the greenhouse.

A big task for the rest of this week is tractor work mowing and preparing a lot of soil for the coming weeks. There is a chance of rain Sunday and Monday so we want to do the necessary soil work before the rain and we have to wait a week or two to get the tractor back in the field.