Thinking warm thoughts. Covering all that we can. And spraying a blend of micronutrients and biostimulants that can enhance a plants resistance to cold. Hoping things stay a few degrees warmer than predicted and we can avoid any major crop losses overnight.🤞🏻#stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture

Cruising through a bunch of cultivation this afternoon. Vid. 1 broccoli/cabbage with the tine-weeder on Lyle our Farmall Super A and Vid. 2 onions/leeks with the basket weeder on Cubbie our Farmall Cub. Both implements are designed for early close cultivation with minimal soil disturbance against very small thread phase (just germinated) weeds. Both tractors are from the 1940s…that don’t make ‘‘em like that anymore😂. The pics are under belly views of the implements which are two of many indispensable cultivation tools that allow us to grow vegetables without herbicide and plastic mulch. #stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture #farmall

Queen bees and King blossoms. This time of year we make “early splits” from strong overwintered colonies. In doing so we pull five frames of bees, brood, and resources out of the strong colony and put them into a five frame “nuc box”. We could allow that group to raise its own Queen, hatch and have her openly bred in the local “flyway”. That takes about a months time until there is a laying Queen in the colony and tends to have greater risk of failure. It is however a good way to breed bees with local and existing genetics. We tend to do those types of “splits” a bit later in the season. The alternative is purchasing and installing a bred Queen. This time of year we tend to opt for that. This allows us to introduce and diversify genetics within our bee yard and also gain an entire month of egg laying and subsequent colony growth. The King blossom….is the first blossom in the cluster of apple blossoms to open. It’s evolutionary genius. In a cool damp stretch like this past week the secondary blossoms hang back a long time. This initially reduces the number of blossoms on a tree, but does so evenly across all of its fruit spurs and concentrates any early pollinator activity onto those blossoms this improving likelihood of good fruit set. The secondary blossoms when they arrive tend to do so into milder and more favorable flying weather with increased pollinator activity. The tree has seemed to evolve a means to essentially double the length of time it’s blossoms are available for pollination. It’s hedged itself against the vagaries of spring weather and optimized its likelihood of successfully setting fruit. It also has done so to the benefit of pollinators whom need consistent sources of nectar and pollen. The really profoundly interesting thing is that for the apple tree to do this with “intent” or even response, suggests that the apple tree has an “awareness” of the fact that it’s blossoms don’t just go forth and make fruit on their own but that they require visitation by pollinators. The reciprocity of the relationship is just remarkable and it’s the foundation of so much life. #stonesthrowfarm

Cover crops are functional and beautiful. The daikon radishes in this winter cover crop mix scavenge and sequester nitrogen. Their deep tap root breaks up compacted subsoil and draws minerals from deeper soil profiles to the surface in plant available forms. But possibly the coolest thing they do is leave behind these beautiful lace like remnants in spring after they’ve decomposed.😍 #stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture #covercrops #naturalfarming #regenerativeagriculture

This morning Augie🐾 said, “let’s get some onions in.” And so we did. About 7,000 onion plugs in today…everything from Japanese green onions, to Italian heirloom onions and plenty of old standby storage reds and yellows! The kitchen isn’t complete without onions and we like to cover all the bases from start to finish on this much appreciated crop! #stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture

It’s everyone’s favorite springtime greenhouse game, “What the heck kind of seed is that!?” #stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture

Saturday morning PeaSA. Darwin was only partially correct - “survival of the fittest” - is based on the premise of competition among species as a fundamental driving force in evolutionary biology. Time and further observation and analysis is teaching (or trying to teach us) that cooperation among species and the development of complex mutually beneficial communities is THE foundation of species health, the driver of species development, enhancement and evolution. One of the principle pioneer species of life that drove the planets evolutionary advancement from nearly lifeless rock to the beautifully diverse world we live in was lichen, a remarkably simple, and profoundly powerful symbiosis between alga and fungi. These types of microbial partnerships exist at all sorts of levels. The Sugar Snap Pea seed (pic) is being inoculated with rhizobia bacteria. The interaction of rhizobia and legume (peas, etc) roots develop a symbiotic relationship that enhances and enables the health of each species. The plant feeds the bacteria sugar and starch from sunlight and the rhizobia once colonized in the plants roots enable the plant to “breath” nitrogen from the atmosphere and feed itself this primary plant nutrient. Excess nitrogen accumulates in the soil and in this way not only has this symbiosis supported each primary partner but peripherally in the larger community has supported the further growth and enhancement of additional plant communities, and additional soil microbial communities and by extension ANYTHING that eats, breathes, makes homes amongst, etc etc all the “downstream communities”. This is just one itsy-bitsy but profoundly powerful example of the notion that cooperation and community are fundamental to health and vitality. PS - peas are planted! Sign up for Community Supported Agriculture shares in your communities now and be a good little symbiot. 😂 #stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture #sustainability #regenerativeagriculture

Obligatory first chisel plowing of the season pic. 4/10 earlier than some seasons, later than others…right on time. 😉 #stonesthrowfarm

An “Extra Winter Share” a “Hungry Season Share” a we don’t know what to call it share…but here it is in all its deliciousness! Thanks! #stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture

Potting up tomatoes destined for our hightunnel. These are the earliest tomatoes we seed and we do so into 98 cell flats that can be placed on bottom heat for germination in the greenhouse. After a few weeks they get moved to these 18 cell flats where they’ll spend a few more weeks before being planted into our hightunnel around the end of the month. Each step here is about a month earlier than it is for our field tomatoes….including the best part HARVEST!! Adding a month to our tomato season brings the gloriousness of fresh vine ripened tomatoes that much closer AND stretches our overall tomato season by about 33%. #stonesthrowfarm #communitysupportedagriculture #hightunnel #tomatoes #seasonextension