I’m back, after a couple month hiatus. No, I wasn’t hibernating like a fall-sown carrot, just making some changes in life. Nameably, a cross-country move to Fairfield, Idaho, where two of my favorite farmers reside on beautiful Fair Mountain Farm. This year I’ll be a useful third wheel to Clarence and Tona Stilwill’s typical work horse pair.
At over 5,000 feet in elevation, Fair Mountain Farm experiences vastly different growing conditions and climates, compared to my previous year’s farming experiences in southeastern Pennsylvania. Yet upon my arrival on February 10, two un-heated greenhouses were sporting vibrant green cotyledons of sprouted arugula, spinach and salad greens. Preliminary hand weeding of aggressive mallow has me in a t-shirt and sweating already. Despite the toasty interior conditions, nighttime temperatures fall drastically outside, and only these hardy greens are fit to survive for the moment without additional help.
Spinach left in the greenhouse ground over the winter began throwing up large new leaves just a couple days ago. This crop is generally covered with Remay rowcover to give an additional 10 degrees or so of protection. Watering this and the other greens crops every other day or so seems to be sufficient. New leaves will be offered to customers starting next week; while some could be offered now, we’d rather be able to provide many bags to salad hungry folks, rather than make them fight over several bags from this week.
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