Kyle's update: Ramping up in our greenhouses, garden center, and fields

Lately, when I run into an acquaintance, whether it's someone I know from around town or a colleague in the New Hampshire agricultural community, I have been asked, "Are you starting to get into the full swing of farming as the weather improves?"

I generally reply, "Yes, things are starting to ramp up as we get ready for a busy garden center season and the fields are starting to become workable." But then I realize that we have been "ramping up" since February, getting all three of our hydroponic greenhouses ready for crop production … and now that early season work is starting to come to fruition!

We've been picking lettuce and spinach for over a month now for our farm market and the salads our farm kitchen team makes. We also just started harvesting our greenhouse cucumbers.

The first of our hydroponic greenhouse tomatoes are starting to get plump and look to be on track for a mid-May harvest. Our second crop of greenhouse tomatoes is underway and growing. They should be ready in June.

As far as the field work goes, our field crew recently took all of the straw mulch off the strawberry plants to let them start growing again. Wes has also started to prep our first corn field. By the time you're reading this, we hope to have our early season corn in the ground!

Along with our early season crop production, we have also been busy growing vegetable plants and flowers for our garden center. We've been tending to the fruit trees and perennials we overwintered and they look great. By our open house on May 2, we should have the perennial area of our garden center fully stocked with a large variety of different plants.

But don't wait until May to visit our garden center! We've got pansies and other early spring flowers for you, as well as seeds, soils, and garden amendments.

We've also been planning some great gardening workshops. John is teaching several workshops on vegetable gardening. Sue will be teaching a workshop about growing herbs on April 25. On May 2, she'll be doing a hands-on workshop on planting container gardens and window boxes. JP Swift, who's a beekeeper and a 30 year + member of our field crew, is also giving a workshop on pollinators and gardens on May 2. Many of these workshops are free, but you need to pre-register for most of them due to limited space. Visit our events page for the details.

So as far as "ramping up at the farm"…I think we are there! Come visit us to see and taste what we've been working on.

Kyle and the field crew