Yesterday afternoon, while pruning blueberries, we heard the first spring peepers of the season. Spring must really be near. We’re hearing a whole lot more birds than when we started pruning in early February. The blueberry pruning is almost done. Next blackberry and raspberry pruning, then on to strawberry planting… We looking forward to a great season.

Cold weather in the forecast. We spent most of yesterday and today mulching the strawberries with straw. We had a big crew: Meg and Jim, Carlos and Erin, Neil, Matthew, David, Heather and Paul, Phillip, our new guests, Chris and his 7 year old Noah, and even a little help from our “competitors” from Coneflower Farm, Dennis and Ellen. And Tutuk and Louise provided snacks. We worked in sun, wind, rain, snow and sleet, got tired, but all in all had a good time. I figure we got 7 or 8 miles of strawberry rows covered, but haven’t finished yet. We might get snowed out tomorrow, but that will be OK, because the snow would serve as insulation from the cold Wednesday night.

The seedless watermelon plants are now up in our greenhouse. Seedless watermelons are strange, unatural kind of things. Seedless watermelons are a triploid plant - they have three sets of chromsomes. They are created by crossing a more standard diploid (2 sets of chromosomes) watermelon with a a tetraploid plant (having four sets of chromosomes), which itself was created by another crossing of two diploid plants. The seedless watermelon seeds are hard to germinate, needing special care for humidity and temperature. You have to plant a normal seeded watermelon to fertilize the seedless watermelon flowers so that they will produce fruit. That fruit will have few seeds, mostly soft and white that you can hardly notice when you eat. It’s convenient not to have to spit out seeds, but sometimes I wonder at the bother we go to for convenience! I even think the seeded watermelons have better flavor.

Years ago Plow Creek Farm had a greenhouse, but lately we have hired out the work and used a few cold frames. Now, both for convenience and to be able to follow organic standards, we have a new greenhouse in operation.

Earlier this week, we had announced a visit to the Thursday evening Farmer’s Market in Wyoming. Sadly, this will not be possible, as we are just too understaffed and worn out right now for the additional harvest, prep and staffing. I (Kevin) came down with a cold yesterday and no longer have the stamina to be out marketing until 9PM after being up since the 5:15AM strawberry picking. No one else is available to run the market. The early blueberry season has been a hardship as it arrived 3 weeks before the month-long staffers who were recruited largely to pick and sell blueberries. To make matters worse, five of our teen helpers are on vacation for a week.

The good news is that from yesterday afternoon until tomorrow afternoon, we have 6 helpers from Reba Place in Evanston. They heard our distress call and came to volunteer their time for picking and weeding. It was perfect timing; I really don’t know how we would have met this week’s market schedule and picking quota without them, and there is now light at the end of the tunnel in weeding the newly planted strawberries.

Friday night became Saturday morning as I and the Mazda rolled in, like wayward jet lag victims, for another flashlight flagging of the strawberry field. Like I said, it’s the berries’ fault. On Friday afternoon, the blue ones told us to add another big Saturday market. We scrambled to get them picked. Then there was a market staffer to recruit, transportation to arrange, a truck to pack, directions to give.

And so at 12:30 AM I arrive at the bottom of my list - flag the strawberry field for tomorrow morning’s picking. I know well enough it’s easier to get it done now that to beat the 5:30 picking crew out by half an hour. The properly aligned headlights on high beam are nearly enough to indicate the starting points of all 74 strawberry rows. But in a few steps away from the truck, those headlights are dwarfed by the other hundreds of lights in the field. I have to stop and stare.

This rattletrap of a truck and wreck of a schedule just stumbled onto a dazzling masterpiece of creation. Spread across 3 acres of strawberry field is a fireworks display second to none. Surely here is a crop of fireflies at peak production - lights too numerous and ever-changing to count, dancing in 3 dimensions to beyond my field of focus. For a moment I fancy that this flurry of activity is secretly operating, by some unknown biophysical interaction, to endow our late set of strawberries with crowd-pleasing, quart-filling size. Then I trudge back to the truck, placing flags by headlight every 3 feet. The gift of the firefly dance is now committed to memory. By God’s grace I will recall it at times when the physical, interpersonal and economic demands of this work dull my spirit.

We finally got the rain we so needed.  Praise God!  We had an inch of rain by last evening and I awakened to another downpour, so we've had plenty.  I know the garden is going to be full of happy mud. 
 
The unwanted visitor of the week is deer eating the lettuce and nibbling on the peas.  They just munch their way down the row and in short order can destroy quite a few lettuce plants.  We also have potato bugs, but last week when I visited a neighbor's garden I decided that the quantity of bugs we have a only just a few.  They really have an infestation.  We still have flea beetles making lace of our arugula and turnip tops and boc choi.  I know this rain is going to help with the bug issues because healthy plants tend to fend off pests better.  The good news is that I have not seen one cucumber beetle and that is almost a miracle. 
 
I think we'll pick the first peas in the coming week. 
 
And, that is what this sleepy valley gardener has to offer.
 
Erin

Reinvesting • CSA • Natural Fertilizer • Berry Prices Hold

One chilly afternoon last December, Neil drove off into the sunset with Plow Creek’s green ‘85 Ford pickup.

Our sometimes-trusty old mascot fetched $100 for its original artwork (and other parts). Is there life after big greenie? We hope you welcome its replacement, along with our other efforts to provide you with healthy and delicious food for years to come. … Read entire entry >

A few weeks ago, Neil initiated a project to replace our faulty water hydrant near the Valley garden. When I heard that Katie Piché was thrilled to dig the required three foot hole (because she had never dug a hole before), I knew that her enthusiasm and idealism had translated well into the practicalities of Plow Creek farming.

Katie joins us this year as gardening apprentice, in hopes that she will take newfound skills back to the city. For the past three years, Katie and husband Dan have lived in community with Church of the Sojourners.

“I came here with no idea what to expect, except working really hard, a lot. And that expectation has been fulfilled.” … Read Entire Entry > Yet she has found a lot to enjoy, naming mulching, compost pile management, manure transport and “anything involving a pitchfork” as favorites.

In the past, Katie’s greatest barrier to gardening was a struggle to believe that a tiny seed will actually turn into a plant. She hopes to end this harvest season with the faith that seeds do grow and God will provide food, now and for eternity: “My life goal is to live in the New Jerusalem or Heaven now on this earth. I believe food will be radically different in Heaven, and I think growing one’s own food is an expression of that which is to come.” < Show Less

On May 5, 2007, Paul Rohde and Heather Munn were married at Plow Creek. After years seeking God’s direction, they have heard the call to provide weekend retreats to those who desire spiritual growth but lack resources. Luke 14:12-15.

Paul and Heather have already done a lot of farm work this spring, and plan to be a seasonal fixture. In June, Heather will handle strawberry order pickup. We welcome their teamwork and kinship.

A brief update this week still includes no rain.  The field is set up with mostly adequate irrigation (it misses the sweet potatoes, some popcorn and perhaps a few other things.)  The Valley Garden, however is only set up to irrigate in order to pull a few things through a short dry spell.  It has been more than 3 weeks since we've had a real rain.  On Sunday a week ago we had a tenth of an inch, and that, when the vegetables are happy with an inch a week.  So all the plants are pretty stressed.  Katie and I are plugging ahead on weeding and mulching and we think we've covered a quarter of the garden with mulch now,  but it's not a fast project.  Moving the sprinkler every 2 hours all day has already gotten old, but the various constraints we have seem to dictate that continue.  We are praying hard for rain; for relief for the plants and for us.  … Read Entire Entry >
 
We had a medium frost the night before last.  The losses in the Valley Garden are small: a couple rows of beans and some frost burned leaves on the potatoes.  We had an emergency watering crew pouring water on the plants before the sun hit them yesterday and I think that had quite an impact.  Thankfully, last night was warmer and no such drastic measures were needed.  In the field, peppers and sweet potatoes were, I think, miraculously spared any damage from frost, thought they're struggling from the dryness and some deer and bug pests.  The strawberries were protected beneath an irrigation shower all night and are fine.  The potatoes also looked good and we are super delighted to see very few potatoe bugs.  Those audacious enough to be on the plants were picked off by Katie, Heather and I this week.  We also killed quite a few patches of their eggs, which should reduce our work later on, and their population. 
 
And, that is the View from the Vally for this week. 
 
Erin Kindy
Valley Gardener
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This afternoon our team made quick work of the sweet potato planting. They are south of the strawberries this year. We nestled them them into a raised bed, dug by tractor and then enhanced by hand with hoes. Meg is pictured in the foreground, with trowel in hand.

After finishing, we all put a couple hours of weeding into the strawberries. This year we are trying to get the entire farm team together once each week for a cooperative project. With so many different crops and customers to care for, even community farmers have to work at staying in touch.