April, Come She Will

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It takes a great deal of energy to overcome winter’s inertia; a farm cannot spring into its own on its own. 

 

So much has happened since the end of March. 

 

We have many new friends around the farm: 2 Welsh Harlequin ducks and 60 chickens you may have already noticed as you made your way past 480 Hempstead Avenue.

 

Our Farm Store is open for business, back to provide local, organic produce to nourish our community. 

 

The Crossroads Education Team has already begun stoking curiosity about the out-of-doors in the minds of our community’s children, welcoming visitors young and old from Long Island and New York City to experience something new.

 

The sounds of tractors and music can be heard once again emanating from our fields. This is a telltale sign that our farmers and dedicated volunteers are out there doing their thing.  Tidy beds have been raked free of last year’s debris and yards and yards of mulch have already been spread across them (with yards and yards to go judging by the vast blank canvas one witnesses when standing on the cusp of field 3) in anticipation of receiving transplants. 

 

These silently mature in the heat of our greenhouse. So much depends on them and their health. It’s some humor that ultimately, the success of such small things as the seedlings in those trays should be the greatest determining factor in establishing the farm’s productivity; if the seedlings don’t emerge, nor will the farm. One can’t help but be affected by a detour through the greenhouse. The potential energy in that space could be cut with a knife. 

 

Sharp-eyed visitors may notice our fields have already begun to be populated. Lettuce, non-heading cabbage, and Asian greens made up the first succession of plantings in the high tunnel, the last of which will be harvested by the first week of May. Brassicas like kale and broccolini, as well as our chard varieties were the first to make their way out into the open air of the fields. Next came the zucchini and squash.  After that last cold snap that occurred so late in the month, we decided it was finally safe to put lettuce, bok choy, and spring onions into the field. In the final days of the month, tomatoes and cucumbers went into the high tunnel to gradually take the place occupied by the waning first round of greens.

 

Six months ago, when the farm was in the process of winding down for a long winter’s nap, the high tunnel’s first succession of greens that now resides comfortably in recent memory was only a pleasant idea just barely visible on the horizon. I imagine the next time I blink I’ll be greeted by the red of our first tomato, or by the flourishing of our flower field ready to sweeten the air of our CSA members’ homes.  

 

To say April has been productive would be the understatement of the year.

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Farmer Pat