Off to do deliveries today. Lot's of salad and spinach. Downey Mildew is showing itself in the lettuce again. Will have to treat again. Temperatures look good so am going to start putting tomatoes into the greenhouses inside my walls o water with remay. Should be an interesting experiment. Tomatoes 2 months early without supplemental heat. Still waiting on soil tests to come back. Need to get the packing shed cleaned out and my walk in cooler up and running for the season. Going to purchases a "cool bot". It's a gizmo that allows me to use a home window A/C unit to cool my cooler instead of a huge A/C unit and compressor $$$$$. Ditch digging starts this week. Oh boy. Just about 4 CSA shares left and I will be sold out for the season. Only taking 15 full shares this season. Going to also try and do meat chickens and ducks this summer on a small experimental scale. Well gotta go.

Good Morning Vegetable fans, today is looking to be a high of 60 degrees and sunny. Wow we are way ahead of last year. Hoping it stays that way too! So what's up on the farm? Well finally connected my underground water pipe to the greenhouse and starting to get the eletrical hooked up as well. No more extension cords and garden hoses running everywhere.  The chickens are into everything and hiding eggs all over the place. Who needs the Easter bunny. Seriously; it reminds me why I keep them free range in a fenced area with thier coops. The amount of damage they can do is amazing.  Soil samples finally were sent for the greenhouses. Getting ready to plant tomatoes. Need to get out there and sell some salad mix. The claytonia is starting to flower and looks great but need to harvest it. New plug trays are taking some getting used to. I have lost quite a bit of seed to them. I have another type that seems to be doing better so far but I am still apprehensive about how they are going to work when I need to pull the plugs from them.  The "big dig" on the farm starts next week. Alot of drainage trenching going in during the month of April. Drier greenhouses results in a better growing environment and hopefully alot less fungus etc. Just think digging ditches at my age........take care Joe

50 and sunny forecast for today. Going to try and get some stuff planted and weeds pulled. Beds prepped for tomatoes, all the trellis strings are hung. Need a few more.

Just in case.......my twitter account is under Vermontfarmerjoe

Well it was bound to happen, it's only March and it is snowing. Supposed to rain this afternoon. Makes me feel better about being in a dark basement seeding flats next to the furnace.  One of the last fires in the fireplace today.  I just posted a bunch of NY Times articles on my twitter acount. They are all about the state of nutrition, politicol nutrtition, organics etc. I thought they were pretty interesting. Here are some of the links.  

The 3rd article does an excellant job of articulating my thoughts and beliefs about why I am not certified organic.  It is a question that I have been struggling to form an answer to for this last week.  I had a customer who really needed 3rd party certification and I could not offer it to him. Instead I offered an open tour of the farm and honestly answered questions.  While I understand and see the need for 3rd party certification. I also see it becoming a crutch and an easy way out of the responsibility individuals need to take for the source and condition of thier food.   Convenience has priority, slow down, stop and participate in your lives. I really think we need to be looking at microcommunities. Let's pick a number and say that 75% of food should be sourced within 5 miles of your home. Imagine the economics of this as well as the benefits to the community, environment, and the quality of what you eat. Prices would/should come down.  I am going to think about this idea some more. Enough for today. Thanks Joe

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/dining/21sugar.html?scp=1&sq=sugar&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/business/22food.html?hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/weekinreview/22bittman.html?ref=business

Wonderful day at market. Girls are in training to learn how to run the farm. Well going to go relax, lot's of bed prep tomorrow, planting tomatoes in about 2 weeks. Very exciting. Joe

Sun is out again.....what a first official day of Spring. On quite a run of nice weather. Things are growing well in the greenhouses. Regrowth is spectacular. Joe

Well the sun is taking a break so I get to catch up on paperwork.  Just got some new plug trays that look to be real promising, very robust and reusable. Supposed to be real good for air pruning to have better tranplants. Just got done washing 30 dozen eggs. I am guessing the chickens are happy.........Joe

So the salad season is going full tilt. Harvested 80lbs this weekend and need to harvest another 60lbs today. Farmer's market this Saturday. Have three of them left then summer markets start at the end of May.  The patch of lawn keeps getting bigger. Warm weather and rain this week so I am thinking I will be able to start repairing the deer fence soon. Tomatoes are ready to transplant into the greenhouses, it's just a little too cold still. Grafting was a partial success, I have about 20 more plants to try it on. Went and got a grafting lesson on Friday so hopefully my success rate will be higher. Radishes and turnips look good, I think (once again) that I have lost all my onion starts. Cannot figure out why I have so much trouble with onions..........talk to you soon.

Ok so I gotta ask....is anyone out there? Is anyone reading this thing? Curiosity is killing me...just a bit. So I just finished getting the trellis cables run in the new Greenhouse. Going to clip and trellis everything this year. Even going to prune my pepper and eggplants and see what happens. 6 CSA shares left for the summer. Usually this goes quick. Greens are really taking off in the houses, new peeps made the transisition to the chicken greenhouse (heat lamps still) just fine. Next few days are looking to be warm and sunny! Feels great to be outside working again. Woodpile has few logs left in it. Will probably burn them just to save the heating oil.  Keep watching the economy and listening to the doom and gloom coming out of the urban areas. Real happy I chose to become a self-employed vegetable grower. A much better investment than that midlife crisis porcshe. Well take care and go get some of that Vitamin D.  Joe  Hey how many of you twitter? Signed myself up but am still trying to decide if it's just a fun waste of my time.............

Sun is out, sun is supposed to be out the next 4 days with temps in the mid 40's. Ahhhhh. 

Ugh! what a wet nasty day. Great day to work in the greenhouses and also seed flats in the basement. Tomatoes are looking great. My second atempt at grafting tomatoes seems to be taking, so this could be real interesting. Going to graft a few other varieties also and see what happens. Johnny's just started offering grafting stock for cucumbers also. May have to try that as well......well at least the snow is melting......

Good morning vegetable fans. Well it's snowing........spring is trying to make an early go of it and I am pulling for it to make it. Market went very well this past saturday and things continue to speed up in the greenhouses. So much to get done before the real season starts.  CSA is doing well with only a few shares left to sell. Have a great week.  Joe

Damn it's been Cold!! Plenty of sun though. Amazing that when it's 5 degrees in the morning and the sun is shining the big greenhouses are at 65 degrees already. Things continue to pop up in there. Direct seeded some stuff on Sunday and it was up by Wend.!  Montpelier market this Saturday. Spinach, Salad, and eggs. Will have fresh herbs for the next one. Last day of sun today before we head into somemore of this bipolar March weather......Joe

Well this time of year the weather and the sun offer the promise of spring and another growing season. Then it goes nuts and we get a nor'easter. Waiting for 4-8 inches of blowing snow they are promising today. At least I did not see any of the 50mph winds they were talking about last week. I have to drive to boston to pick up my oldest daughter this evening becuase her flight was cancelled yesterday due to this now behind schedule storm. Ahh well..... Chives look like some will be ready for market this Saturday. The chickens are wondering farther from the coop each day eating the grass that has been exposed....man are they laying alot of eggs right now. Flats of plants all over the place sprouting and growing. Lot's of new tomatoes to try and attempting some grafting.  Going to graft a few of my cherry tomato plants next.  All my onion starts look good (for once) and a bunch of lettuce survived the transisition out to the greenhouses.  Thinking I have figured out how to harden the stuff off correctly for a change.  Four flats of mesclun plugs have all germinated and should be ready to go into the ground in 2-3 weeks. Peeps are doing well and I have another 26 replacements that are supposed to show up in the storm today.  Well take care all and I am going to sit in the office today doing paperwork for the farm.