Intense focus...get plants in the ground!

It was the week of planting. Emptying the Greenhouse. Getting things in the ground. One week ago, all the plants were in flats, protected from the wind, in a warm climate, becoming root bound.

Monday we kicked off the week by putting two rows of tomatoes and four rows of basil in the high tunnels. It was (at last!) a warm day. In the tunnels, 90 degrees, no breeze, and protection from the sun.

Tuesday we met Dan at the field north of the barn. Got the game plan. Loaded potatoes on the trailer, brought them to the field, pulled the quack grass, saturated the onions, loaded those on the trailer, brought them to a different field. Ready. Got introduced to the transplanter, the implement we will become quite familiar with. Planted one field of potatoes. 12 rows. Each row was 200 feet. 10 inch spacing. Thats nearly 3,000 potatoes we planted. Potential yield, 20,000 potatoes. Next up, bunching onions. 1,960 plants to be exact. For these, Margaret joined us on the 3 seater transplanter. As we are putting the plants in, we are so focused on not missing a beat that we are not able to look back on our row. When the pass is done, we look up and see a 200 foot row of little green onion tops poking up through the dark rich soil. To finish the day, we seeded peas and returned the empty flats to the greenhouse.

Introducing the transplanter

1 1/2 of these baskets will be used used for each row

If you look close you can see the little onion tops!

Seeding the peas

Wednesday. More potatoes. Total, one entire acre of spuds. More onions. Another 1,960 plants. Back to the tunnel. Two rows of eggplant. Two rows of cucumbers.

Thursday. It was cold and rainy. A great tunnel day. Beets. Four inches apart, two rows in one. So  really, four 200 foot rows. 2,000 beets.

To finish out the work week, Friday we put in 800 cabbage plants, 1,600 broccoli plants, and 800 lettuce plants. And to prepare for the upcoming cold weekend, we put row cover over the heat loving basil and cucumbers.

A satisfying week. Swinging between extremes. Monday, no plants in the ground. Friday, two tunnels and five fields full. Preparation for that first CSA box. Now, pray for steady temps and consistent moisture.

The Start.

Moving day came. We loaded the essentials into our car and hit the road out of the city. It was a gray, dismal day but the anticipation of what was just down the road for us lifted the gloom. We arrived. It had been months since the last time we visited this land, this time knowing a longer stay is ahead of us. We walked through each building, reacquainting ourselves. The items we recently packed into the car were now unloaded into our humble little cabin, home for the next seven months.

Our little farm cabin

Day one. The ground is still frozen which has caused a lake to form right up to our cabin. We walk across the temporary makeshift bridge to get to dry land. Twenty steps and we are to our kitchen. There is nothing like breakfast in 40 degrees to wake you up in the early morning. The words of Walter Brueggemann open our day in prayer, "We confess that we are set this day in the midst of your awesome, awful work." The prayer goes on to speak of God's imagining and forming and evoking and asking for our day to be full of joy and well being and newness. "In the name of your decisive newness, even Jesus. Amen."

Lakefront property! And our makeshift dock.

Welcome to the greenhouse! Like a one two punch our noses are hit with potent aromas of rich dark soil followed by moisture laden air; then the true hit, fragrant new plant life. The summerlike heat envelopes our clothing layered bodies, whisking away any chill that lingered on us from the outdoors. 

In the midst of a winter that is holding on tight, there is this haven protecting new growth...bunching onions, beets, parsley, leeks, basil, lettuce. It is beautiful.

We learn the process of seeding. For the next many hours we put one tiny seed into its temporary home, this is the start to become something larger and more successful, soon this seed will provide much fruit. A good picture of where we are at, a temporary holding ground full of education and experience, allowing us to grow and prosper, and someday have our own farm to provide food for many people.

It is amazing that so much can come from something so small. An itty-bitty seed will become a 3 foot plant and produce somewhere between 10-40 tomatoes. This half table of flats, nearly 4,000 seeds laid in dirt, translates into one acre of tomatoes. Our prayer this morning resonates in my mind, the works of our Creator really are awful, in the sense that what we were part of today truly caused me to be filled with awe. Our request of joy and well being and newness for this day actualized into something much more than we anticipated.

The flats which contain the nearly 4,000 tomato seeds.