Week 3 at Harvest of Joy Farm LLC

Weather forecast: Monday, 70% chance of rain, high of 58 degrees F; Tuesday, mostly sunny, high of 53 degrees F.

Well, folks, you are certainly getting a taste of one of the most challenging aspects of farming life--the weather! For the third Monday in a row rain and chilly temps are predicted. And it sounds like the wet, cold weather is going to follow us through most of the week. If it doesn't warm and dry up soon, this weather is going to make it very challenging for us to get our spring crops in the ground in time to begin our scheduled CSA harvests at the end of May.

If it's not actually raining while you're out here, I may have you help us lay cardboard sheets around the perimeter of a couple of our growing areas as a quack grass control measure. (Since we don't use herbicides, we have to rely on physical means to keep weeds out of our growing beds.) If it is raining, however, I think we'll work inside the hoophouse. We got the new plastic put on this afternoon, so it will give us some shelter. I've reserved one bed for you to play with, so you can practice using my favorite tool of all time, the broadfork, to work it up. You'll probably want to work in some compost and fertilizer and then you can decide what you want to plant.

We've got a small amount of soil-blocking to do this week (broccoli), so if any of you want a little more practice with the soil-blocker, you can work on that as well.

See you all soon!