Several months ago, the farmer that we have been working so closely with helped us to build our own miniature greenhouse for our garden using all items that we found around his farm. We took 4 hay bails and placed them in a rectangle next to one of our high tunnels. Next, we filled the bails with a mixture of broken down cow manure and some beautiful dirt. In January, we got off to an early start and planted a bunch of broccoli, green and red cabbage, and Brussels sprouts in our new hot bed. On top, we placed two glass shower doors, and let the plants marinate in that beautiful mixture of dirt and manure.

 

Volunteers plant seedlings into the "hot box"

Volunteers plant seedlings into the “hot box”

In just a short amount of time the seeds sprouted and have grown and grown throughout the winter months. Now, they are thriving, strong plants that are ready to transplant (perhaps even long overdue). Yesterday, three volunteers came down to the gardens and helped to plant some of the cabbages, broccoli and Brussels sprouts along the fence at our garden. We are soon going to run out of room in the high tunnels so we are trying to maximize space at the gardens. We also planted along the fence a bunch of scarlet runner beans and melons. The scarlet runner beans were planted a few weeks ago and have already shot up! They are looking beautiful in such a short time and have not even flowered yet.  We hope to have some more color soon to spice thins up a little.

 

During the end of this week and into next we plan to finish planting in the high tunnels. We put some pepper plants in yesterday, but still have a long way to go.

 

Finally, our market was originally scheduled close this weekend for Memorial Day since our market manager as well as several of our primary volunteers is going to be out of town. However, our dedicated and enthusiastic farmers are planning to set up anyway! They have asked for signage and a portapotty key, and are excited and ready to go. I hope they have another great weekend! Things have been flowing so smoothly at the market that it is hard not to be excited to go full steam ahead!