Welcome back and welcome to Riverland Farm!

The spring of 2011 has been a rollercoaster!  After a winter heavy with snow storms, some so heavy we had to carefully clear snow off of our bowing greenhouse, spring arrived a little later than the last few years.  The ground was sloppy and we pushed back our compost spreading and plowing accordingly.  We had a short but sweet stretch of dry weather that enabled us to get a good amount of land prepped for planting and some early crops in the ground.  Then.... the rains came.  Over and again we were pounded by water.  Each morning I awoke and looked at the weather forecast in disbelief and found myself hitting the refresh button about 4 times hoping that maybe I'd get some different news.  When the news didn't change we had almost 2 weeks right in the thick of our busiest planting push that the fields were too wet to do anything.  We used the time to get caught up on some of the projects that we thought we'd never get to.  We busily cleaned and organized the deepest darkest corners of the farm always keeping an eye to the horizon just in case the forecast was wrong. 

When the weather finally broke we found ourselves about 2 weeks behind on our seeding and transplanting schedule (go figure).  The sun was shining and it was time to make some hay.  We worked early and we worked late pushing the limits of what daylight had to offer.  The new tractor that we bought this year came equipped with a full set of front and rear spotlights making tractor work possible even when the sun became tired and was no longer willing to shed light on our flurry of activities. 

In addition to delaying some of our plantings the cool wet weather had some negative effects on crops that we did get in on time.  Maggots of all varieties really flourish in those conditions.  Our peas were hit with seed corn maggots that ate some of  the germinating pea seed and made for poor germination in some of the rows.  We always seed our peas a little thicker than needed so overall we still expect an abundant pea year.  Unfortunately we can't say the same for our first bean planting which was completely wiped out.  We did reseed a doubly large planting two weeks ago that looks great and should more than make up for the loss.  Our first planting of broccoli, kale, and cabbage was hit with cabbage root maggots.  This has been a threat for us every year so over the last 2 years we developed a system to deal with cabbage root maggots which involves getting row cover on the crop the very same day we put it in the ground.  The row cover acts as a physical barrier preventing adult maggot flies from laying eggs on the plants that in turn hatch into maggot larvae and feed on the roots of the young seedlings.  After two years of great success using this row cover method this year we inexplicably were still hit hard with root maggots underneath the row cover.  They did kill a percentage of the plants despite our efforts of battling back with a release of beneficial nematodes given to us by the UMASS extension service.  We will, however, still have a good amount of broccoli for the first week and the second succession we planted faired a lot better so we have that to look forward to.  The last tale of woe I'll tell is of a maggot of yet another variety.  Spinach leaf miners, a pest we have never had a problem with, wreaked havoc on our spinach, beets, and swiss chard.  In the spring we do a transplanting of beets  and a direct seeding.  The leaf miners completely wiped out our direct seeding of beets, did major damage to our first 2 plantings of spinach, and did mainly cosmetic damage to our swiss chard and transplanted beets.  The spinach, chard, and beets that survived will be fine and perfectly edible but there is some leaf damage that makes them look a little less attractive

So while it hasn't been all wine and roses on the farm this spring there certainly have been flashes of each.  The first share of the year will be very abundant including salad greens, broccoli, head lettuce, radishes, turnips, kohlrabi, and cooking greens.  We found the first strawberry and pea of the year a couple of days ago meaning both crops should be in full swing for the second share week.  Our farm crew this year has grown and were happy to say that they are all wonderfully capable and enthusiastic people who are a joy to work with.

In other good news, we've improved the farm's infrastructure by leaps and bounds over the winter and spring.  Our barn renovation including our new washroom and cooler is now about 80% complete and looking really sharp.  We are looking forward to it's completion which will make for huge improvements in both the efficiency and efficacy of our post harvest handling techniques.  Our farm crew is now enjoying a newly renovated section of our other barn as a space to have our morning meetings, prepare and eat lunch, and store farm clothes for all weather conditions.  The new parking lot for the shareroom is nearly complete.  We'll be putting the finish touches on it by the end of the 1st share week which will include a dedicated entrance and exit, space for about 15 more cars, and the improvement of the small garden bed close to route 47 (allowing cars parking on that side to pull further into their respective spots).

On a personal note, amidst all the spring chaos Meghan and I are anticipating the arrival of our 1st baby any day now.  We are both very excited and a little nervous but have full confidence that our excellent farm crew will pull us through what I'm sure will be a very interesting and wonderful change in our lives.  The 2011 harvest is beginning!  We look forward to sharing the bounty will all of you!

On behalf of our terrific farm crew (Olivia, Ben, Max, Jason, Sarah, and Maryn)

Your Farmers,

Rob and Meghan