I think we can safely say that it's Spring now! It has been an especially long winter (in case you didn't notice) and there are good and bad things that come out of that. On the bright side, there is plenty of moisture in the ground to get the season started. Last year we were planting very early but the ground was fairly dry and we ended up dealing with a drought pretty early on. This year we had a lot of late precipitation but it also has delayed planting a bit.
We finally were able to get some things in the ground yesterday and as long as it doesn't rain today we should be able to get quite a bit more planted. Our seedlings are strong and healthy and those crops should be on time as long as we can get them in the ground in the next week. The only crops we are concerned about being later than planned are the very early direct seed crops such as our snap peas, carrots and radishes. We will still have them (don't worry!) but they may be a week or two later than we planned so the first few boxes may have a lot of greens in them. We are anticipating that our first box will be the second week of June. We will let everyone know for sure as soon as we get more plants in the ground and have a better idea of this years timeline.
We will also be EXTREMELY BUSY over the next few weeks as long as the weather cooperates. On top of planting, this is also the time of year when we are inoculating shiitake mushroom logs. We are shooting for around 1000 logs this year. We had a good start last weekend and got 275 done. We generally try to inoculate logs when the weather doesn't allow for planting in the fields. If anyone would like to help with field plantings or shiitake inoculation please let us know. We could really use the extra help this spring!
Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far this season! We are really looking forward to this season despite the late start and are excited about some of the new things we have in the works. We still have a few spots left so those of you who would still like to sign up let us know soon!
Your Farmers,
Bryan and Katelyn
Herbal Turtle Farms
