Currently viewing the tag: "spring"
It’s about as busy as it can get around here. The ground finally dried out enough to get into most areas of the farm and we’ve been planting like crazy. You’ll notice we are depending a lot on our friends at other local farms these past few weeks. The heavy prolonged rains definitely put us quite a bit behind schedule.
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The barn swallows are back, which means spring is right around the corner! The greenhouse has a new roof and is filling with starts. There is still some rain in the forecast, but with enough days like today the ground will be dried out enough to get the tractors in soon (using the new 72 inch spacing), so these little lettuces and other greens can get out there in the real world.
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One of the consequences of a prolonged, wet winter is that our cover crops can get out of hand. Because the soils are too wet to drive the tractor on, we simply have to wait while the cover crops get taller and taller before things are dry enough for us to mow them down. 
I’ve always been very fond of swallows. They are hard-working, industrious birds who are a joy to watch fly. When we first moved onto our farm here on Harkins Slough, almost all of the outbuildings, long in disuse, had innumerable mud nests about their eaves. 
This first day of spring is being ushered in with yet more rain, making for a wet harvest day. Steve was on the tractor dawn to dusk through the weekend getting ground worked up and compost spread in advance of the storm. He wasn’t the only one. Some nearby farms have had tractors working through the night.
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The National Weather Service reminds us that winter is not over—they are calling for a pattern change and chance of showers after the upcoming weekend. But it has sure felt like Spring the last few days. We are in full production mode. 
I hope you have all weathered the storms in your homes or are at least getting the relief you need at this point with a little sunny weather. It was a frosty morning here, maybe the coldest night of the year so far. We are seeing dry-ish weather in the near-term forecast and are jumping on the chance to knock down some of the cover crops at our Lewis Road property to prepare more ground to plant into.
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This light soup celebrates spring. If you have asparagus, add some 1/8th inch bias cut slices and you have all the local vegetable harbingers of the season. This recipe is more of a guideline, really. Feel free to play with it. You could just add the chard stems to the liquid, but the sautéing brings out sweetness in the stems, and wilting the chard in a separate pan gives a lighter, cleaner flavor to the broth. The fava greens are the tips of the plants, including some of the flowers. Add mushrooms, carrot shreds, whatever you find.
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