Spring news from the Veggie Patch

Wow! What a spring! It's been a very challenging start to the growing season with the wet conditions making work out on our clay soils very difficult.  Not to mention the odd hurricane or two to cause a bit of havoc also!

A large portion of our first plantings have been done mostly by hand tools to avoid damaging our soil with heavy machinery. This has been bloody hard work!  On the upside the regular rain has been great for the crops once in the ground and the following crops are looking good for spring boxes; spring onions, coriander, silver beet, spinach, stir-fry mix, luscious salad mix, radish, Japanese turnip, parsley, kohl rabi, kale. Crops that haven’t faired so well have been the first plantings of broad bean and peas (however we expect a decent harvest early summer.  Summer crops are going in this week and we are all looking forward (all going well), to an abundance of zucchini, tomato, eggplant, capsicum, celery, broccoli, cabbage, onions, pumpkin, cucumber, potato and leeks just to name a few!

We are very grateful to have a team of Market Gardening interns Monique, Tamzin and Justine who have put in some serious hard work battling wet clay to get our crops in. I figure if they still want to market garden after a spring with us then they will be unstoppable to fulfill their dream of running their own enterprise!  We are also grateful for the help of our work exchange crew and active members for your help in getting the crops in the ground.

 

Spring onions and greens doing well in the ground

From a business perspective we really are at the make or break time this season. We must make enough return this year in order to justify the labor and expense in growing food the way we do- by hand and with love and respect for our mother earth.  You have to be very passionate about this type of farming. Luckily I am, which is why I’m having another go this season.  Behind the scenes of the hard work, I have a solid belief that by changing our food eating behavior and supporting local farms directly by both purchasing and participating we meet ALL the challenges of our times; climate change, reigniting our local economy and building a strong and connect community where together we meet our fundamental human needs.

Remember when you participate in our CSA your not just buying veggies, your actually part of an environmental,  social and spiritual transformation.  

We are almost at capacity with the first few weeks of boxes and we hope to take on another 10-15 more members as the season progresses. If you’re interested please fill out our online form.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/171DpCvURiW-q5jx4WrX6qJzc77LVIBzqI1SNyr6XC-w/viewform?edit_requested=true

Thanks to all our existing members for your ongoing support and feedback. If anyone has any testimonials we would love to hear from you and share your story with potential new members.

With gratitude,

Farmer Trav and the PEACE Farm growing team!