Week 8: In Kalamazoo, On the Farm, In Lansing

Weather Forecast: Tuesday, 50% chance of rain, high of 77 degrees F. Wednesday, cloudy, high of 69 degrees F.

Whew, Week 8 already! This quarter is flying by, as is the spring. Hard to believe that our first CSA harvest is scheduled to take place in just two weeks. I hope we're ready! This past week's cold snap sure hasn't helped things any--as you know, a few of our crops got set back by frost and those that didn't haven't done much growing over the past couple of days.

This weeks sounds like it should be a good growing week, though, with temperature highs in the 60s & 70s and lows in the 50s. We'll take advantage of it as much as possible and get as many plants in the ground as we can. First on our agenda are those potatoes we'd hoped to plant last week, followed by carrots, golden beets, cilantro, scallions, and second plantings of radishes and salad greens. Also on our list for the week is to finish thinning, weeding, and mulching the crops we've already got in the ground and to do a little weed control around our fencelines with the flame weeder. We also need to get all of our vine crops started in soil blocks--those are the cucumbers, melons, and squashes. Among other things!

This Monday, Eric & Lola will be leading our class exploration of food justice, access and security. I'm looking forward to that! I'm going to suggest that we spend the first half hour inspecting and evaluating your garden. You've watched me do this with my gardens--looking to see what's doing well and what's not and then making decisions about how to proceed. Let's take a look at what's growing in your plot and talk about what you'd like to do with it over the next 3 weeks.

I suspect that Wednesday may be DOGL. If that's the case, the Wednesday lab group will obviously not be coming out to the farm. Wednesday folks, if you would like to schedule another day to come hang out with us, we're happy to accommodate that--your choice.

I'm excited about our MSU trip on Thursday! It's been awhile since I've been to the organic farm and I'm looking forward to seeing what changes they've made. Here's their website so that you can get a preview: http://www.msuorganicfarm.com/.  See you all soon!