Hello Farm Friends!  Happy Friday!  And H-E-L-L-O Spring!
The sun has been shining and things are starting to warm up!  And when things warm up, they SPEED up!  

The balmy days have been a blessing.  Hopefully Mother Nature put on her last Snow Show last Saturday.  We got about 2 inches or so of slushy snow here -- once it melted down, we had a total of 1.33 inches of water.   Very soggy fields... 

But with the winds helping to dry things off, we are able to start planting -- at least the covered spaces or beds with grass walkways.  Beets, salad turnips, spinach, swiss chard, bunching onions and pac choi all went into beds or bags this week.  Lots more things to be planted today -- more snap peas, lettuce, artichokes, .....  Feels SO good to get stuff in the ground!  Nothing beats the feel of soil in your hands!

And the strawberries are loving this weather -- they are LOADED with flowers and little green fruit!  We should start harvesting them in about 3 weeks.

Here are a few more projects that we checked off our to-do list:

For the first time ever, the blackberries got properly pruned and trellised before they leafed out!  Awesome job, Chris & Jonny!

Meanwhile in the Greenhouse....
The greenhouse continues to be a hive of busy-ness!  More seeding, lots of watering, tending and experimenting. Cheryl saw an Instagram post from a fellow farmer about how they transplant fava beans.  Given that our soil wasn't warming quickly enough, we decided to give it a try.  Voila!  Here's a picture of the beans (huge, aren't they?) at seeding last Tuesday and a shot of how they look today.  We'll probably be planting them in a week or so.

And we just can't help but share our first cucumber harvest picture with you -- 24 cukes!

And check out the little tomatoes on this Cherry Blossom plant!

PlumFresh Is Full!
All of our current slots for PlumFresh are now filled and we have started a waiting list.  We know we will have openings available later in the season so if you are still interested, please register online here.  By registering, we will have your name in the queue and can contact you when a slot becomes available.  If you'd still like more information about PlumFresh, click here or send us an email. 

Market Season is Almost Here!

This is NOT an April Fools joke!  The Cobblestone Farmers Market at Old Salem will start next Saturday (April 7) from 9-noon.  With market on the horizon, "vacation time" is over!!  It's time to step up our game even more to get everything ready for show-time -- markets are a lot like a theatre or musical performance!  More details next week!

That's all the news for now.  We wish you and your family a wonderful Easter and Passover season.  Take a moment to look around you and notice the beauty of Nature.  Even the tiniest things can bloom amid adversity.

Until next week,

Cheryl & Ray