We've a busy week planned at the farm!

Our inability to get into the fields last week because of the rain means we have a lot of field work to do. Transplanting tomatoes, corn, lettuce, herbs, celeriac and direct seeding of parsnips, carrots and radishes are a week overdue. Cultivating the fields with our lovely fleet of Farmall Cubs and brand new tine weeder are high on our list of priorities. Rain or shine, Amy, Rebekah, Kim and I will be in the fields nonstop this week attempting to catch up. It is far too early in the season to get behind schedule!

We've a lot of greenhouse work to do, also. Delicata squash, lettuce and our second planting of sweet corn need to be seeded last week and over 40 trays of eggplant and peppers are ready to be potted up this week -- that's 2000 seedlings!

As if that's not enough, we continue to put together the basic infrastructure our farm needs: We now have a working greenhouse, fully equipped with water, electricity and heat. Yay!!! Last week a small repair workshop was set up in the Ag barn. Now we should be able to repair and maintain our equipment, find our field supplies and locate our tools without a long search and conversations like this:

"I don't know where it is. Maybe it's in the Bean House." "No, I think it's in the office." "I thought I saw it in the farm truck." "Hey! Here it is! I found it in the third pile on the east side of the Ag barn, the pile with the carriage bolts. Remember, we put it there last week when we ...."

You get the picture. A working farm (with sane and happy farmers) needs a shop, as well as a number of other important things. We've yet to build a wash station, set up the CSA distribution area, construct a compost bin for shareholder's compost, build harvest bins for melons and winter squash, set up the cultivators on the Farmall Cubs, find mulch straw, set up storage for our cover crop seeds (mice love them!), build harvest wheelbarrows, create a parking area for the CSA, set up irrigation systems, complete our deer fencing and so much more.

As a CSA farmer I take my partnership with shareholders and the land seriously. I intend to grow fantastically healthy and delicious food for you.  I hope to offer opportunities throughout the season for you to visit and volunteer. I am committed to being an exceptional land steward. Compost and cover crops are used generously; weeds and pests are managed in ways that add to the health of our environment; plant and soil diseases are addressed with long term solutions that reflect the demands of nature. In addition, I'm very committed to sustainable agriculture that is economically viable. That means I try to manage Moraine Farm so that the sales of the vegetables produced here will pay for the cost of production.

All of this takes much thoughtful work, many people, a good deal of optimism, enthusiasm, coffee and just a bit of cooperation from Mother Nature. So far, all the necessary ingredients seem to be present. I'm still predicting that our first CSA distribution will be the week of June 6. The recent cold, overcast weather has definitely slowed our veggies down, but a burst of moderately warm days will change all that. I'll keep you posted!

We are still looking for shareholders who want to be part of this first year CSA. Please spread the word that we have CSA shares available. Information can be found on our website, <blocked::http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/csas/moraine-farm/moraine-csa-faqs.html> http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/csas/moraine-farm/moraine-csa-faqs.html, and/or I can be reached at 978.969.1738.