It's hard to believe we are at the Memorial Day Weekend already! This morning we had hard frost and 28F when I got up around 5:15 a.m. Tom had another long day with doctors and I was a bit under the weather so I didn't make it out to the field. Tom is down in Marshfield all day tomorrow, so I hope to be able to finish planting the high tunnel transplants at least over the weekend. We plan to have a bar-b-que as Tom is feeling up to it for our 33rd wedding anniversary on the 24th.
The other day Ed and I were able to get out to the field for a few hours. We straightened one of the apple trees that had blown down in the wind storm we had last week, and we checked all the trees we planted last year. I found a whole row of gooseberries that I forgot to transplant last fall growing well, and rhubarb was coming up where I thought I had dug up the whole plant. The asparagus bed is shot though, and I don't see any horseradish coming up although I expect the horseradish will show up sooner or later. As my uncle says, once you plant horseradish, you always have it. The raspberries that are still in the field are looking good, and most of the fruit trees are at least showing buds -- it's so cold even the woods are just leafing out so I expect to give everything a bit more time. The plums, juneberries, and hazelnuts are mostly alive and look good. (I moved the elderberries nearer the house last fall and this spring they and the rhubarb I also transplanted are happily thriving). My garlic looks great and I plan to give it some more compost. Our farmers market in Phillips opens this weekend, but as it has been so cold, I doubt that there will be many producers there. I don't expect to have anything to sell till the end of June. I think the Farmers Market Committee may need to reconsider our opening date for the market unless we can attract more producers.
In the high tunnel I tied down the zipper wall pulls and added some pvc pipe to brace the end walls, and the tunnel looks much better. I will have to get a roll of plastic though for a new cover next year. If I buy a whole roll and get 5 years out of each cover, the roll should last me 20 years. I managed to put in St. Valery carrots and curly parsley seed in one row. As soon as I can get the section next to the high tunnel turned over, I will plant the Southport Red Globe onions, shallots, onion sets, Chinese and Copenhagen market cabbages, collards, and several types of greens and herb seeds. In the high tunnel I will have the sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes will go overhead in grow bags hung from a 2x4 trellis, eggplants, and more okra will finish it out. I am keeping everything covered with Agribon for as long as possible, both in and out of the tunnel. I will need to get a roll of 9 guage wire to cut more wire hoops. Yesterday I took down the fence around the chicken coop so we can cut down a couple of storm damaged and cat-faced trees that are a hazard, and since I'm not having chickens this year, I think I'll put the wire around the section where I will plant the Mandan Bride flour corn; hopefully that will be enough to deter the deer until I can get out to work on fixing the big fence.
The 2008 PriceDirect Atlas will be going out in the Shopper on the 31st, so look for it. Just be aware that the cold spring has set all the farmers back so don't expect much produce to be available until probably around the end of June or early July.
We had an Iron County sheriff stop in the driveway the other day when Tom was walking out to the mail box. He told Tom that there was a moose down in our marsh to the west of the house. He had his camera out. Tom told him that I said I had seen a moose but that no one believed me. Well, I guess they'll believe me now!
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