Late March
The seeds we ordered last month have now arrived. Now comes the task of field cleanup and prep. Lifting last year’s plastic mulch, Mowing last year’s weeds, disking and laying new plastic. All this needs to be accomplished in the next month. Our onion seedlings, seed potatoes and new strawberry plants will be here by the end of April and we will have to be ready for them. As we do every year, we will be having our neighbor Steve Bogdanski of Bogdanski Greenhouses start all our tomatoes, eggplant and peppers from the seed we will provide him. The sets will be delivered back to us the end of May and all the new plastic mulch will have to ready and waiting.
This is repeated every year. We become part of the rhythm or a cycle of life and death if you will. I think we are fortunate to experience this. It gives us a greater understanding of this cycle and how much of it has been broken since the advent of industrialization.
As I state in many of my farm talks, before the industrial revolution, the city and the country both shared in this cycle because both their livelihoods depended on it. City folks provided the necessary goods to the country folks and country folks provided food for the city. Both understood the same rhythm. But with the advent of industrialization and the great migrations to the city, that rhythm is now broken. That is why so many city folk long for the country, or the Farmers Market or even visiting a farm. They are looking for a distant collective memory. I see this in all the faces at my Library and Garden Club Talks, people looking to return to or be a part of this memory, even if only for one day. Come visit us this season if you can and enjoy the farm even if its only for an hour or a day.
