We’re nearing the end of what is shaping up to be an uncommonly dry spring, to say the least-we rarely have had our pumps up and running quite so early, and we’ve seen more attrition of recently planted crops than is usual. Nonetheless we persevere, with a fine coating of dust deepening our fashionable farmer’s tans, and an added crunch to our meals. In the past, I have glibly spoken of the many benefits of dry weather to the farmer, with the dramatic reduction in disease pressure being foremost-but of course desiccated, dead plants aren’t particularly disease prone. When I made those now seemingly ill-considered and hasty statements, I was foresighted enough to reserve the right to complain during dry periods when it seems like all we can do to keep our crops alive-so consider this my complaint.
On a more positive note, the dry weather has allowed us to enter fields weeks and months ahead of usual. Areas that have been underutilized because they lay wet for much of the growing season are now open to us-new and exciting rotational possibilities beckon; fields of grass underlay with rich, black earth feel the unaccustomed bite of the plow and are planted to crops that are generally relegated to our more tired, overtaxed upland fields which we can now allow to rest and rejuvenate under a cover crop until we need them again.
The real reason for this note, however is to announce our opening for the 2015 season: We will open with limited hours on Saturday and Sunday (the 30th and 31st) 11 AM – 4 PM. We’ll be closed on Monday June 1st (and all subsequent Mondays), but on Tuesday our regular schedule will resume: Open Tuesdays – Sundays 11am – 6pm. Self-serve sales of produce will discontinue this weekend, but self-serve seedling sales will continue.
Often our opening coincides with the first strawberries of the season, but I don’t expect to have any until perhaps the first weekend in June. We will continue to harvest asparagus at least through the first week of June (possibly longer) and our growing roster of other vegetable crops include: lettuce, spinach, arugula, radishes, cilantro, dill, Japanese turnips and endive. We’re also experimenting with some new crops this season, some of which are available now, including: sorrel, Italian dandelion (aka Catalogna), and ‘Braising Mix’ (composed of a variety of mustards, Asian greens and kale). We should also begin harvesting kale and possibly chard by our opening weekend, and we’re well supplied with Pete and Jen’s pastured eggs.
We hope to see you this weekend or shortly thereafter, and if you think of it, please bring some rain with you.
Brian Cramer
Farm Manager
Hutchins Farm