Welcome to the 2012 CSA Season! The spring season for us has been consistently inconsistent. Our best spring was 2010, cool to mild and fairly wet. This is by far the warmest late winter and early spring that we have had so far, and despite the storms, the first spring that we have had to irrigate. Due to dry spells and warm temperatures, we have irrigated off and on since our first plants went in the ground in early February. We even lost some of our earliest (coldest weather) crops to the heat.
However, this spring has allowed earlier plantings of many crops and our earliest CSA yet. The chard, beets, lettuces, and spinach all look vibrant, and the strawberries are covered in thousands upon thousands of early blooms and developing fruit. Because of the heat, we are also trying a few new herbs, vegetables, and varieties (new to us). We have expanded our herb selection to include cutting celery, cumin seed, chamomile, epazote, purslane, holy basil, thai basil, chives, and garlic chives in addition to our most popular herbs (basil, cilantro, dill, parsley, thyme, rosemary, and oregano). We switched green pea varieties to Green Arrow peas, which are supposed to be more heat tolerant, and are trying fava beans (in case they aren't!). We are also trialing several new to us lettuce varieties - all of which seem to be doing really well. We have already taste-tested two varieties (buttery Tennis Ball and crispy Red Sails), and we really liked both of them. Also, because our arugula was struggling so much (first knocked out by a heavy storm and then toasted in the 85 degree heat), we have added a brassica mix to our spring selection as well as Yukina Savoy - a spoon mustard that is used a little bit like spinach. We wish there were more varieties and vegetables that we could experiment with in the spring. Our spring temperatures tend to be too warm for many traditional spring vegetables, and yet we have just enough cold nights to keep us from planting frost-sensitive crops. After our really warm winter, it is tempting to think about planting some crops in the fall for spring harvest as is done in more temperate climates. We definitely still have much to learn about growing early spring crops here in east TN!
The summer offers a lot more flexibility, especially in terms of the diversity of varieties available for each crop. In addition to our standard varieties, we are trialing a lot of new summer varieties (mostly heirlooms), as well as more grain crops. We are growing four heirloom dent corn varieties this season, including TN Red Cob (our standard), Cherokee White Flour, Bloody Butcher, and Black Aztec. We are also growing several green bean and dry bean varieties, in search of varieties that produce well in hot, dry summers. Similarly, we are planting a variety of heirloom tomato varieties throughout the season, looking for varieties that do well in our hot, dry summers and ones that continue to produce once it cools off in the fall. Oh and melons...we were really frustrated last summer watching most of the Little Baby Flower watermelons we planted be eaten by skunks. Although they are much loved and the perfect size for CSA bins, their rinds are just too thin. Instead, we have planned to plant several new cantaloupe and watermelon varieties, as well as the other varieties that we planted last season. After you all received last season’s pumpkins and rare winter squash varieties with such enthusiasm, we have also expanded our pumpkin and winter squash planting to include 8 heirloom varieties.
The fall in TN, unlike our springs, tends to be bountiful and accommodates an enormous variety of vegetables and a significant number of varieties within those vegetables. We are particularly excited about Romanesco cauliflower/broccoli, two heirloom varieties of cabbage, and several storage crops (an heirloom storage beet, as well as rutabagas, turnips, and parsnips). Hopefully this season will be as abundant as the last!
No comments:
Post a Comment