A strange and curious Spring. April's Farm work was largely accomplished in February and March---mainly tillage and field plantings. Early May Farm work was done, for the most part during April. So it is kind of interesting to enter May and not be behind schedule. We are now getting land ready for planting the last half of the month, and I find that I can take a few minutes for a newsletter.

This Spring is a curious one all right; Forsythia was in full bloom in March and gone by for my birthday---the very day it normally starts to bloom. (I was born the day after National Confiscation Day, by the way). The Lilacs are now at peak bloom and will shortly be done---when I was a youngster my family could depend on Lilacs for the cemetery on Memorial Day, then always on May 30th and not a more convenient Monday holiday. And at Shari Wilkinson's house downtown---Shari is our beloved and tireless Market Master at the Newburyport Farmers' Market----I notice that the June Iris are showing colored buds.

Fruit Trees have long since blossomed and set what fruit they will---this normally occurs around May 12th or so. We have been pretty lucky here along the coast and we have missed most freezes---so far. Inland, New York State and Michigan-Ohio fruit producing areas have already lost their entire crop for the year. I don't know if those Farms are financially viable enough to withstand a complete loss for a year (remember the trees must still be taken care of all year---just zero $ coming in. Mike Smolak of Smolak Orchard in North Andover tells me his folks lost the complete crop to freezes for three years running in the early 1950s---and survived. Today a Farm would be Bankrupt by June of the second year.

Our Fruit?  With the exception of Apricots :-(  all looks well---so far.

Early Spring CSA Share this week will likely include Green Onions, three kinds of lettuce, Swiss chard, Broccoli Sessantina, Bok Choy, a bit of Basil, a bit of Rhubarb and plenty of Herbs for cutting.  Also hope to have the last few Daffodils for that Share.

The next Beef Share will be ready for pick-up on Saturday May 12th. This cow will be very similar to the previous one we had butchered. This one, in fact, is her heifer calf. She is an all grass and hay fed Hereford and the beef should eat just as nicely as the last one. I would strongly advise signing up this week, based on how fast the last Beef, Lamb and Pork Shares sold out. Bring a check to the Farm tomorrow or to the Newburyport Farmers' Market on Sunday, or sign up through the website using PayPal. Sign-ups will be accepted on a first come/first served basis. Thanks.

And speaking of the Newburyport Farmers' Market, this Sunday will kick off the Summer Market season at the Tannery Marketplace on Water Street. Here you can find almost anything you need for the week: Vegetables, meat, seafood, honey, flowers, baked goods, poultry, eggs, herbs and plenty of other goodies. You can have breakfast fresh cooked to order by the farmer who grew the bacon and eggs; or go for hot coffee and fresh pastries. Or stop by at lunchtime for fresh roll-ups, homemade soups or pulled pork sandwiches from the folks who grew the hogs.

Arrowhead will be at the Market, of course, with plenty of fresh baby greens to choose from, heirloom lettuces, Swiss chard, fresh Basil from the Solar Greenhouses, first of the season Rhubarb and the first few greenhouse tomatoes. On the Farm Wagon will be a nice selection of Herb Plants, flowering plants hardy enough for your planters and beautiful, hardy Hanging Baskets. We will also have some Heirloom Tomato plants available for folks who want to take a chance and have the first tomatoes in their neighborhood!

Oh, and Arrowhead is sponsoring a tomato seedling transplanting for young folks of any age. CSA volunteers will help them pot up a Tomato transplant and take home to grow. Going to be an exciting Market Opening Day. For Goodness' sake don't miss out. Open EVERY SUNDAY 9a to 1p.

We have openings for a few more Volunteers this Spring. Volunteers put in about 4 and a half hours, on a regular basis, every week. As a volunteer you will take home a Share of the Farm's production each week, including vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs---enough for a family. You also will learn a bit about Farming and have a lot of fun with other CSA Volunteers. Please send me an email if you are interested. We can be somewhat flexible for time off, but you must commit to a time each week as other Volunteers and CSA Members will be counting on you.

Positions available include:

Newburyport Farmers' Market, Sundays 8:30 to 1:30

Point Shore Farmers' Market, Amesbury, Saturdays 8:30 to 1:30

At the Farm---planting, harvesting, cultivating, weeding etc.---almost any four hour time period on Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays.

At the Farm---greeting and helping fellow CSA Members select their Shares---Saturdays 11 to 3 or Sundays 3 to 5.

Please remember that this is a commitment and also that, at Arrowhead we "Eat Well and Have Fun". Again, send me an email if you are interested. Thanks.

The Banner Photo at the top of this newsletter shows two manure piles from cleaning the Barns late last winter. On the left is a pile of Hen Manure---with a little Turkey Manure mixed in. This is good stuff for our crops--arguably more valuable than our egg production, with an equivalent value to synthetic fertilizer of about $4,000.  On the right we see a pile of Cow Manure. Also nice stuff, but with an equivalent value of about $1,500. A marked difference, for sure, but none-the-less a great short-term asset for crop fertilizer---used by Humankind for millennia.

In the photo at the right we see the Farm's Compost being spread in the Solar Greenhouses where the Heirloom Tomatoes and Peppers will be grown. This is also good stuff. We use it in our growing beds in all the greenhouses as well as in containers where we start our vegetable transplants, and grow our Fruit Trees and Blueberries and Raspberries before planting in the fields. Long lasting, but not the quick crop response that we get from Manure.

Now, in the photo at the left is a planting of Rye Cover Crop I put in last February, taking advantage of the open Winter. We try to plant Cover Crops whenever we have a enough time for them to grow between vegetable crops that have been harvested. I will get into the value of Cover Crops another time. Right now I want you to notice the one spot where the Rye growth is much taller and greener. This is where a loose cow left behind some fresh Manure this past Fall, when we were loading livestock for market. This picture shows the value of manure to crops that I literally could not describe in a thousand words.

This past February was a good month. Not only did I get a lot of our fields tilled in advance of Spring, and plant the out-of-season Rye crop mentioned above, but I was lucky enough to attend a Ground Hog Day pot luck supper. You heard me right; a local charitable group in this area put on a fund raiser supper to celebrate Ground Hog Day. Most of you long time readers have figured out that this is among my favorite Holidays. Turns out my son Justin has taken a liking to Ground Hog Day as well. Maybe the apple didn't fall that far from the tree after all.

Anyway, at the Ground Hog Day Pot Luck Supper it was my pleasure to meet a nice, young Family from the area. The Husband is a 19 year career Navy Seabee, and the couple have a three year old daughter who owned a puppy. This is where the BIG BANKS come into the picture.

The biggest Bank in America held their home mortgage. And with the Mother out of work, the biggest Bank in America had foreclosed on them. A local charitable group had offered to bring the Family's payments up to date for them. But with the biggest Bank in America not agreeing to rewrite the mortgage to a longer term, this offer would have been fruitless. But, as you might have guessed, the biggest Bank in America simply refused to lengthen the term of the mortgage. So the biggest Bank in America foreclosed and evicted the Family from their modest home. The Family has since moved to an apartment in another town, and of course, the little girl had to give up her puppy.

As it turns out, this has been a treatise on relative value. Hen Manure on the top. Followed by Cow Manure. Followed by Compost. And the biggest Bank in America on the bottom of the heap.

If you happen to work for one of these BIG BANKS, please take no offense here, as these decisions are likely made far upstream from you. But it occurs to me that my tax money bailed out these banks from disaster four years ago. And if this is the best they can do in return-----well, then, it seems to me that they aren't worth Manure.