Whats with this weather.
Its a cold wet spring thats for sure. Farmers are behind at least two weeks even more in some areas. I was talking with Lee Rice of Rice Family Farms at the market this weekend and he was saying this is the coldest spring he has seen in 20 years of growing for market. When the ground is cold seeds don’t germinate and things don’t grow nearly as well. Greens and lettuce do OK, but tomatoes and peppers aren’t that happy. Tomatoes and peppers are transplanted from greenhouse stock, but things like cukes and melon are direct seeded into the ground. Seeds like a nice warm soil to get germinated and up and growing. In weather like this its pretty tough to warm up. So don’t look for melons any time soon. Lee Rice estimates some items to be 3-4 weeks behind schedule. Lets hope there are watermelon in July but maybe not. So get out there and do a sun dance if you want to support local agriculture. Don’t forget to come out to the market on Saturdays and get your certified organic plant starts at the Next Generation Organics stand. Its a perfect time to transplant tomatoes and peppers when the weather is nice and cloudy. We have been selling out on a lot of peppers but there are tons of toms still around. Also, all sorts of gourmet herbs, cukes, summer squash, melons, all sorts of great stuff ready to go out in the garden. Plus its the coolest place to be on a saturday morning.
Stop by Touch of Dutch. the Stroopwafel stand next to us, and have a waffle cookie with homemade carmel filling. THEY ARE SO GOOD. The gal Jeanne is a sweety who lived in Holland for 3 years. The Stroopwafel is like the dutch national cookie. My Saturday isn’t complete until I have at least one or five.
