Over the past 20 years of growing one thing remains the same and that is planning is the key to a successful CSA season. There is a lot of prep that goes into farming before the batch of seeds are happily planted in the seed trays. The first I have to do is consult my crop rotation plan which is a 3 year plan I use to move crops around the field to help keep our soil healthy and not having the same family of crops year after year in the same beds keep the pest guessing as well. Next is the crop plan for that years CSA shares. We bounce between how many CSA Shareholder we can supply each year by our crop rotation plan. Some years we can add a few shares more and some years we have to reduce how many shares will have available that season. It is all about moving things around.
Now that we have all the information we know how many seeds and plants we will need to get our season started because we know what our target harvest amounts will be. Our seeds get planted in their cell trays and popped into our germination chamber and into the greenhouse once they come up. Other seeds will get directly planted into the ground. Our first crops to be planting in the early spring are carrots, onions and peas. Once the temperature gets a little more suitable for growing spinach, lettuces and greens get planted our..we will continue planting every week there after until early July. We take a little planting break for a couple of week than back at weekly planting until early October.
With these really cold days and nights here in February my farmhouse turns into my heated greenhouse. I have seed trays going under lights all over the place. In a couple of weeks a lot of those cool season babies can make their way to the protection of the tunnel green house. But they are still too small for those really cold nights. For now I am enjoying walking by my baby heirloom tomato plants and catching the slightest scent of summer coming from them..I am in my element.
Cheers,
Peggy
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