Rainy Market

The end of May. Or is it? This season has been all over the place, but for the most part just late. luckily a few warm sunny breaks over May has helped to dry things out and give the crops a boost of sunshine and warmth. Today however, was not one of those days...

Today was wet and rainy. We started by gathering the various things for harvest; bins, scales, hoses, bags and knives. Then we found out that the tap we normally attach our hose to was broken, leading us to relocate to the covered bike parking area. We found a tap, set up our tent to give us a bit more dry space to work under and got to work. We quickly realized that this tap did not have the same water pressure of our old tap, meaning filling of bins for washing would take much longer to do. We also realized that there was no electrical outlet to plug in our large scale! After much searching and strategizing (maybe 5 extension cords could work... or put the scale in the rain... or...) we realized that the scale has a rechargeable battery and does not need to be plugged in while you use it!

We then went on our weekly walk-about to see what crops were ready for harvest. We found that leaf miners had made a home amongst the Swiss chard. Leaf miners are larva that hatch on leaves and tunnel their way between the layers of leaves, eating to their heart's content.

After much washing of bins, we began harvest for the market. Salad greens, Swiss chard, kale, scallions, arugula... on and on, yummy, fresh and diverse! And the rain continued to fall, and fall.

"Please," we cried, "lettuce just have a few moments of sunshine!"

While harvesting, we found that a lot of the lettuce had started to go bitter, and was no longer good to be eaten. So we spent some time ripping it all out of the beds to plant new lettuce transplants in their place. A whole wheel barrow full was taken out and sent to the compost.

The Terraces tend to have a quick turnover of plantings, so usually every week we're planting something new! Two varieties of lettuce, and three varieties of peppers were transplanted onto the terrace. One variety of lettuce and one variety of arugula were direct seeded on the terrace as well.











Unlike the Terraces, the Orchard has not been the most productive... mostly because we have yet been able to get in the fields to start planting because it's been soooo wet. However, last week we were finally able to get on the field to spread compost and prep the field. So a few of us headed out to the orchard to plant the brassica transplants that have been jumping at the chance to get out of their little trays and into the field.

Once we arrived at the orchard, we got into high gear trying to get the plants in the ground as quickly as possible, as we were quickly getting wetter and wetter. First we popped the transplants out of their pots and laid them nicely into trays so we could quickly place them in the ground as we went down the row.

The cabbages we planted 40cm apart in the row and 55cm between rows. The cauliflower and brussels sprouts were planted 60cm between plants and 80cm between rows.

















It took a while to get all the brassicas in the ground, and every step we took more mud would stick to our boots... it felt like walking in heavy snowshoes. But we got it done eventually! And so ended a very long and wet day.