The best way to start 2024 on the farm

There are so many ways to celebrate the start of the new year and for us our favorite way to do that is seeding our first spring crops in the greenhouse.

And that is what we did Monday morning on a sunny January 1, 2024.

We seeded just under 5,000 cells in trays full with lettuce, parsley, broccoli, broccolini, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, chard and collards.

For the bunching greens these will be the only plantings of them we do this spring so they are larger plantings and hopefully we will be able to transplant them in the field in early February.

The other veggies we will seed in the greenhouse more often including lettuce every two weeks throughout the spring.

Most of what we seeded won’t be ready until sometime in April but fortunately there are still a lot of crops we planted in the fall that are growing which will be ready to harvest for when we are back at market February 3.

After spending a good amount of time working on the spreadsheet for the crop plan of the spring and summer veggies it was so exciting to be able to start using it and executing the plan we have for 2024. Of course the plan will change but it is a good starting point.

One addition to the greenhouse we made this winter is getting a heat mat which we are able to put a few trays on and with a censor in the soil it will keep the trays at a more consistent temperature. That should help some of the veggies get more seeds to germinate or to germinate quicker than they do just being in the greenhouse which fluctuates in temperature.

With the rain that has been happening every couple of days on the farm including last night that has meant we have not been able to do much in the field.

It has been a nice break from the field work and given us the opportunity to get everything we possibly can prepared and organized for when we are able to work in the field.

Having the rain being followed by some sun has meant that lots of grass and weeds around the farm is growing quickly so once we are able to get into the fields without it being too muddy we will be weeding.

For some of the larger plants that are closer to harvest the small weeds don’t bother them that much. But for the small onion plants we transplanted in November and the final fall direct seeded crops that are still small those weeds need to be removed soon so that the plants can grow fast with the increasing sunlight.