Welcome back to another season of nurturing at Green Earth Harvest. As I write this, I have the joy of doing so on the first traditional day of spring, the spring equinox. I say traditional because we’ve heard the weather folk talking about spring since March 1, meteorological spring. I prefer to stick to my roots and declare spring’s beginning when daylight and darkness once again fall into balance, leading us to longer days and shorter nights. It’s nice when things line up with a calendar date, but the seasons of this Earth are set by the calendar of the stars, rather than the calendars on our fridge, and we’re ok with that.
A year ago, our daughter was about to turn 1 and was just taking her first steps. Today, she is nearly 2, and wow, do those first steps seem distant! She is running, jumping, hopping, counting, and using 2-word
phrases, and we are grateful every day! The changes in a year, on the farm, in our lives, are really astounding upon reflection. Besides our growing girl, for whom I have an obvious bias, it is interesting looking back at our production a year ago. We had field beets, carrots, and spinach already planted. Now, with a cold winter and a wet spring, we’ve not been able to work our fields. No worries, though, we were ahead of schedule last season, and we hope to land right on when we dry down.
Moving indoors, our seedling work is right on track. Onions, scallions, leeks, and lettuce are up in their trays, while brassicas, plant sale peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant are on deck. Our greenhouse plantings are also on schedule. After clearing space with our winter spinach close-out, our first seedings of carrots and beets are starting to emerge. We are also back to work on our new seedling house. While our current house serves us well, we have been tight on space, often rigging up lights in coolers and folding tables in our greenhouses to make do. This new structure will double our available heated space for seedlings, whew!
We also have a new seasonal crew member in the ranks, and everyone else is returning for another season in the sun. Our new barn is still in the works, but we are very close to breaking ground and are very excited for all of the ways it will help our operation. Top of mind right now is a mouse-proof room for our seedlings! It’s not the worst year for mice, but they sure got hungry with the last freeze. The mice are ready to go, and we are ready for them to go! Equipment maintenance continues with Dan C keeping us running, and we shot our first GEH 
movie yesterday. No spoilers here, though, you will have to wait for the debut to find out more!
We hope your spring has been as fun and exciting as ours. There may be a lot of noise in the world, but it helps to remember our calm place where health and community are the focus, and our actions move towards good. So, as one of my new favorite artists Jesse Welles said, “Never underestimate the merit of a carrot, listen to the garden and it will tell you what it’s all about; Vegetable secrets.” Godspeed all, can’t wait to see you around!
~Farmer Russ