Holey spinach & delicious spring greens

Spring has truly sprung on the farm with all the veggies we have started harvesting the last couple of weeks.

It is always so exciting when the new veggies come in with their bright colors and showing how much they have been enjoying the weather.

For most of the spring veggies we are harvesting now we either direct seeded them at the end of January or transplanted them in mid-February.

It is a little bit early than expected and fully a result of the warm weather we have had. Luckily the plants don’t show signs of being stressed by the heat as we watered them enough.

Two weeks ago we harvest a small amount of spinach and last week the harvest tripled which is great to see the beds of spinach be mostly covered in plants.

Last fall we had some issues with germinating the spinach so we have had almost none at the farmers market until the last two weeks since last spring.

With the amount we have in the field we should have plenty for the next four to six weeks depending on the weather and if it makes the plants bolt.

It is such a great veggie to cook up simply and add to any meal or as a snack. The varieties we grow are very flavorful which are the savoyed leaf types that have the flavor edge over the smooth leaf varieties.

Many of the other heartier greens we planted this spring we are already starting to harvest including the dino kale and collard.

The chard and red russian kale are more tender than the other bunching greens but can be cooked for longer than spinach.

This weather the last few weeks has been ideal for the bunching greens with warm, sunny days combined with getting enough water.

Each leaf that grows on the plant speeds up the growth even more with the additional photosynthesis.

We have been focused on getting a weekly weeding of the bunching greens this spring and that appears to have helped them a lot as they have to spend way less of their energy fighting off other plants for the water and nutrients. They can just focus on growing big and healthy themselves.

In addition to harvesting lots of spring veggies we have been busy planting more cucumber and melons. At the same time we are direct seeding summer squash, okra and green beans.

The soil is warmer than usual at this time of the year with the warm March we had so hopefully that helps with the germination of the seeds.

Only a couple more plantings of lettuce is what remains of the spring veggies to plant so all of our planting attention is focused on summer veggies which we won’t begin to harvest for another couple of months.

Getting lots more summer veggies planted is starting to fill the fields on the farm especially after the next two weeks where we plant lots of onions, peppers and eggplant.

On the new property we have been getting it all ready and today we will be planting there for the first time this season.

It is in a slightly colder location so we wait a little bit longer to plant so that we are sure the transplants and seeds will be able to thrive.