Brix Bounty Farm Invites You to:
invest in health…
invest in flavor…
invest in the joy of seasonal eating…
Join our 2016 Summertime CSA!
The seedling house on the farm is filling up fast…. time to start transplanting!
After a successions of cool springs, we are poised to make the most of our opportunities for a spring bounty in 2016. We’ve been placing our poker chips on the table, or in our case our seeds into the soil with a calm confidence. Every year the potential for bounty improves as we continue to make fertile investments in the fields on Bakerville Road. This spring we’ve started our growing season focusing our planting in the “Old North Pasture” which we’ve dubbed the “Reams Field – named in honor of visionary agronomist Carey Reams”. March tasks have included: rock picking aplenty, spreading foundational fertility, initial field preparation, and planting!
Given the opportunity to work the soil in early March, we decided this would be a good year to give Sugar Snap Peas focused attention. We tracked down organic seeds of the classic variety “Tall Vine Sugar Snap” and have hedged our plantings through 3 successions. Our first planting was seeded in the greenhouse on March 12th and split into two groups: one provided with a bit of bottom heat for germination and the other limited to the heat the sun provides. Of these two groups, the plants on heat germinated in just 72 hours and were off to the races, growing quickly and yielding field ready transplants by Thursday morning the 24th of March. We’ll set out the slower group later next week. The third succession was direct seeded into the fields on March 16th and is just germinating as we write. The hope is that these 3 successions will provide a nice harvest of peas for our planned Father’s Day CSA Pick Your Own Event on June 19th. Now that the tall vine peas are planted, we’ve turned our focus on our traditional planting of bush peas, direct seeding 3 beds of Sugar Ann Peas on Thursday afternoon. Depending on soil conditions we’ll plant a couple more rounds of bush peas by mid-April, ensuring our June pea crop yields an appreciated bounty of delicious snap peas for our CSA members.
This past week we seeded an astounding variety of summer crops in the greenhouse: beets, broccoli, cauliflower, celeriac, dill, eggplant, hot peppers, husk cherries, lettuce, peppers, spinach, tomatoes [Pictured above is Brix Bounty crew member Greg Veitch and workshare member Josh Louro, seeding the season’s third round of scallions]. In addition to the early planting of peas, this past week we transplanted our first crop of spring beets, early scallions, parsley, and dandelion greens for the die-hard greens lovers. We also direct seeded a very early round of Mokum carrots [Pictured below, is Brix Bounty crew member Matt Walsh spreading a bit of compost ahead on the to be planted carrot bed]. Next week we’ll be setting out early crops of swiss chard, spinach, russian kale, and pac choi. The transplants will be buffered against the cold nights ahead with a protective layer of row cover, which will accelerate their root growth and provide an early season boost so they can capture as much April solar energy as possible. Also slated for transplanting next week is an early round of tomatoes which will be planted in our fieldhouse.
With all the greenhouse activity on the farm and fieldwork proceeding on schedule, April is going to be a blast this season! We hope you’ll join us as we prepare to celebrate the health, flavor, and joy of the seasons ahead. Send along your 2016 Registration Form and secure your position in Brix Bounty Farm’s Summertime CSA.
With Gratitude,
Derek
