Early season activity on the farm is born from the previous years' results. Paperwork in many forms is probably the catalyst for me. I do summaries of produce sales to determine what went well and what did not. This year I did a summary to see what our Hothouse produced versus our Greenhouse versus our field. What I recognized from that summary; buying a greenhouse is worth it. Several weeks of extra time on both beginning and end of the growing season are realized. More mature produce can be gathered and the extra effort in combination with buying fans, drip-line, twine, poly and manure to keep the greenhouse operating is worth it!
The next lot of paperwork I do is to browse seed catalogues on the chilly days in February and compare that to what we have grown before and measure both successes and failures, leading to a product decision...do I buy more Spaghetti Squash seeds? (as an example). Here is the failure story. We had 9 plants in the field, hiding in the shelter of some extra Roma Tomato plants. All of 7, maybe it was 8 squash had developed, very late (September maturity) but showing promise. Picked 3 or 4 for market and they were popular. While waiting for the balance of them to mature, we had frost and they were damaged badly...so those went to become chicken food. Do we try again? Yes. They can be companion planted and are good ground cover. We also recognized the popularity of the item at the market, so, we will buy more seeds and start over.
Meanwhile, in the South-facing window, we have some Mesclun type lettuce. Growing plants and produce early is a way to remind us that winter isn't a complete barrier to fresh produce. The growing is slow, but steady. Typically we water these with warm water rather than setting them on a warming pad. Germination was 6 to 8 days in the limited sunlight, so in the photo is almost 3 week old lettuce. Slower than summer, but a glimmer of hope!
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