April showers bring… wait what?
Spring is an amazing time of year on the farm! The wonder of new growth is all around us. Seed starting actually begins in January with onions and tomatoes, but it’s March when all this growth really ramps up.
This year March was rather warm so we took advantage by putting spinach in the ground early along with reaping the delicious crispness of our over wintered mixed lettuces. We enjoyed the bees coming out and exploring for the first time since fall. The peach trees started blooming in earnest, followed very closely by our plums, cherries, and apples. Then, like all things, life got in the way. We had plenty of seed starts in the house, but no time to put them in the ground, and you know what? It was a good thing! We had one more doozy of a frost the 3rd week of April (which really is our average last frost date). A low temperature of 26! Also, for almost the entirety of the month of April it did not RAIN! So what is a farmer to do?
We press on! The last 2 weeks of April, we planted almost our entire batch of seed starts. That was approximately 500 plants! This does not include the nearly 4,000 seeds we put in the ground. We only have another 1000 seeds to go between sunflowers, corn, and melons. We also have 3 calves on the ground (all bulls!!) and 2 more to come! Our meat chicks are out enjoying the pasture, and the layer chicks and turkey poults will soon be joining them outside. And guess what!? It’s raining! God’s timing is perfect in all things.
