Greenjeans Farm

We’re busting out of the greenhouses this year!I’ve run out of trays, thanks to my dear friend across the valley Barbara who keeps giving me her saved seeds!We have more heirloom vegetables than ever and I’m busy trying to figure out how to mark them in the big garden so we really know who they are.The ornamentals are coming on strong.Gotta get stuff in the ground!

We are kind of in experimental mode this year!And it is WAY fun!That’s the way I like it!Jeff is still trying to deal with the rain and the cold and the soil but I am looking forward to that first fresh pea and potato salad with chives and sour cream dressing! I am also looking forward to the unusual that you can’t find in the grocery that have the taste that you could have had 100 years ago!Some of the great gourds from last year are turning into fairy houses with a little carving and paint!We are doing a fairy garden at the bottom of the bottle tree!Stay tuned for that one, I’m going to let the Morning Glory run its course there!

I think it’s going to be a great year, and we are really ready for it!We are going to take it as it comes, and if you wish, please give us your email address and we will let you know when things are ripe and ready!

I promised to go with the ebb and flow this year and not feel pressured and not feel like it had to be done, but the weather is really testing my patience.

I don’t think I’ve seen a more cold or rainy May in my life! Even growing up in Tacoma Washington!But this is Potter Valley CA, Farmer frustration! It’s time to plant tomatoes and cucumbers and melons.They are saying LET ME OUT OF THIS GREEN HOUSE!!!It’s in the low 40’s at night and I am not about to kill these beautiful babies. But I certainly do not want to drag around five gallon pots to plant in the ground and that is the way it seems to be going!

It’s 5 am and the sprinklers are grinding away in the vineyard across the way to protect the emerging fruit from frost. I can see the headlights of our neighbor’s truck diligently driving along the rows.

Yesterday it was my birthday, hung one more year on the line.We planted willows and hazelnuts Thank you my wonderful work friends for your generous gift certificate to Oak Valley!Today I planted lots of herbs and flowers in the greenhouse and more chives and walla walla onions! I also took the pruning cuttings from the willows and stuck them into the ground to see if they would grow.So we might have about 8 willow trees!It is cold and there is a promise of rain.First from the southwest and now from the north!Could be the perfect storm! This would be great as it has been way too dry.I am into experimenting this year and planted some of the broccoli starts out in the garden to see what they’ll do this early.I also planted poppies outside, it will be beautiful in a few weeks if they go! We have daffodils and robins so anything goes!

By the time I was done it was freezing cold and I didn’t have to ask Jeff to build a fire.I came in the house and started reading seed catalogues for things I have yet to purchase, (potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins).Territorial Seed is great and has a really comprehensive catalogue, but Peaceful Valley is just as organic and cheaper.I went with Peaceful Valley.They just seem a little bit more real and a little less yuppie.44 dollars for what I wanted to order as opposed to 150 dollars at Territorial.But without the two of them, I would be hard pressed as an organic farmer.