Wallowing in lettuce, spinach blues

It's June and the season is progressing along. Hopefully, we have seen the last of the late season frosts, making a final appearance here on the morning of June 1st. It didn't do any real damage to any crops, but did burn the fringes of some of our tomato plants we grew for sale. This was the latest frost we have had here since we started farming in 1999. The frosts may be over, but the nights have remained cool, generally dipping down into the 40's. This is not particularly great weather for tomatoes and peppers, but it has been great for the lettuce and greens.

All of a sudden we are wallowing in lettuce. We try to stagger the plantings to insure a steady supply all season long. The first three plantings, each planted a week apart, have all sized up at the same time. So, now we have three times as much lettuce than we can expect to sell - oh well. On the down side of the greens story, something strange is going on in the spinach patch. Some sort of disease is slowly spreading through the field, turning the entire patch yellow. At first I thought it was just a lack of nitrogen or perhaps just way to much water during our rainy spell, but recently, it appears to be spreading more like a disease problem. I'll have to do some research to see if we can figure it out. Unfortunately, we may be in short supply of spinach for some time.


Other crops on the farm are looking great. Potatoes are all up and growing well. We gave them their first cultivation and hilling this week.







The sugar snap peas are also doing well - shaping up to be perhaps one of our best crops ever. Germination this year was very good and the plants have thrived in this cool spring. We finished putting up the trellis net this week and cultivating between the rows. The first seeding has been flowering for a week or so, and is just starting to form pea pods. It won't be long before they are ready to pick, probably another two weeks. I can't wait for that first sweet snap, a sure sign that summer is really here.