New Leaf Organics

may crazy may

ok, so it’s been a little while. My grand plans for posting every week kind of went out the window with the arrival of May. Now that is halfway through this ridiculous month I will attempt to get back on the wagon. So, since I last spoke at you the farm stand opened for the season, the plants have all grown an inch or so, and about seven million weeds have popped out. I’ve really learned as a farmer that you’ve got to fully appreciate those five minutes of Spring; those moments right before the weeds start to come out. For those five minutes I am not behind on anything and it is all just beauty everywhere. You better have your cup of tea ready because when you miss that window, well, things just speed up. So, yes, we have begun fighting the weeds with all sorts of measures. Last year I bought a great new toy, an expensive one, for sure, but good fun. It is called a Williams Tool System (i think that is what it is called) and I will add in a photo when i head to the farm later today. At any rate, it allows me to drive over all the tiny seedlings we’ve transplanted outside with about 50 flexible tines that scratch out little weeds before they get a chance to thrive. It is satisfying. Though it does not like grasses, and we have grasses popping up this year quickly. Then there is always the good standby of hoeing. We are taking our hoes off their Winter hooks this week and bringing them back into action.

At the farm stand though, this is a fun time for all the tomato crazy people out there, like myself. This season we are growing over 75 types of tomato plants for people to try. (again, picture to follow). When I am ordering seeds over the Winter it seems like a great idea to try them all. Now it is literally a jungle of tomatoes in the greenhouse for people to wade through. We’ve got yellow ones, striped ones, spotted ones, huge ones, white ones, and even fuzzy ones. One of my favorite things about growing all of these types of tomatoes, besides eating them, is learning about people through how they choose their tomatoes. Some people come in and become entranced with the signs and the descriptions and you can see their minds begin to spin. Others come in and immediately look overwhelmed and gladly accept my help and recommendations. Then there are the people who just want what they grew last year ( and they saved the tag), or the ones who just want the best tomato, or the earliest, or the juciest, or the one that is not gonna get the blight…….. I could go on. It is a rare individual who is not tempted at all by all the variety possibilities. Truly fascinating social studies could happen around tomato buying (besides my own). Tomatoes are just one of the ultimate joys of growing a garden and gardening is of course, very personal.