Typical spring flavors and crops of course dominate your spring CSA share, however with the control we have over the environment in a greenhouse we are able to bring you some early fruiting crops such as the cucumber you will find in your share this week. Considering this mornings temperature here at the farm was down around a surprising (and scary) 36-37 degrees, the process to keep cucumber plants alive this winter and spring has definitely been quite exciting at times.
At the beginning of December, cucumbers were just an organized idea in our seeding spreadsheet. The crop line containing this GH3 succession of cucumbers included a seeding date, variety, how many, in what tray (32 cells, 72 cells, blocks, etc), potting up date, transplant date, and row spacing. Enjoy the journey down memory lane!
February 11, 2025 Colin and Evrald were working with the cherry tomato plants on the bottom shelf (Now just about producing ripe tomatoes in GH4). Check out the shelf above: Cucumbers had already been potted up, now time to get bigger!
February 20, 2025, they are growing greater root systems and greenery above. The yellow sticky trap helps us monitor pest pressure, in this case just a few fungas gnats.
Heating the air is crucial, however for roots and thus the cucumber plant to thrive soil temperatures above 60-ish degrees is critical. We use a wood boiler with radiant heat to heat the soil in GH3. We had a busy 4 days at the beginning of March when outside temperatures were consistently cold and we had to repair a hole in one of the radiant loops. a hole was dug, pex repaired and the entire system was refilled with glycol water mix.
March 11, 2025 cucumber are in the ground in GH3. Check out the snow bank outside the greenhouse!
March 16, 2025: This single cucumber was the first and led the way to maturity and eventual harvest. We are excited about the early cucumbers this season and hope the crop will continue to ramp up. In addition to slicing cucumbers we also have a greenhouse of snacking cukes this season!
Garlic tends to be one of the first crops to appear in the spring, marking the beginning of the season. We planted the garlic in three rows per bed, matching the spacing of our basket weeder. Our 1950’s Farmall Cub is the perfect tractor for the two rows of baskets on the basket weeder. If used when weeds are small, it disrupts their growth and provides space for the garlic to grow without competition. Check out the banner picture above of the garlic and the basket weeder at work in the video below. We have spring garlic for you in this weeks share. Yummy in soups, cut up and sautéed or even grilled.
Pickup is from 3:00 - 6:00
If you are unable to pickup Thursday, please let us know so we can put your share aside to be picked up at your earliest convenience.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING BAGS!
Woodland Community School children and parents may be still in and around the driveway when pickup begins, please be careful navigating the parking lot.
Check out our CSA recipe page for some yummy kitchen ideas!
CSA Recipes
Your Farmer, Sam (For Tim, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Evrald, Shawn, Jav, Jeb, Colin, Jaime, Ani, Sophie, and Jess)