What a beautiful set of weather we have had this week! Giving me the ability the plant 300 crowns of asparagus, 200 strawberry plants, 3 types of onions and 1000 peas. Shew digging those asparagus trenches was a workout. I had to use a handheld aerator and then dig them about 8 inches deep with a shovel. Fortunately for me, once established after one year, sometimes two years, asparagus grows for about 20 years without being replanted. Hooray! I'm all for making it a bit easier sometimes. I rather enjoyed planting the strawberries knowing they are the everbearing variety which means instead of a large amount of them in June they will continue to produce all the way into September in smaller amounts but continuous providing the variety at the farmer's market that I'm looking for. The onions weren't a large amount (maybe 100 each variety), of red, yellow and white varieties. And 1000 peas wasn't too time consuming considering how much is done by hand, I will be putting up the stakes by them in the morning along with a fence along the length of the field to deter the chickens from roaming on the field. I don't have the heart to clip their wings and pen them up too drastically, I would rather just let them roam the yard and laugh at the things they get into. They find all kinds of bugs and worms around, it's amazing how quick those chickens can move, but those are the tastiest eggs I have ever had in my life these last two years.

     The hoophouse is looking great, the weeds are starting to come up as well as the parsley,lettuce,mustard,pak choi, radishes (two kinds Red Satin and Short Top Icicle), spinach, green bunching onions, kale, beets and swiss Chard.

     It looks to be about 3 more weeks and I will be at Springville and Arcade farmer's markets with baby greens, radishes and dandelion jelly. Also will have starter plants....lots of tomatoes, onions and marigold flowers. If you are looking to have some plants of other varieties started just give me a call and I will see what I have available. Hope you all enjoyed your holiday. And hey, send me tried and true recipes you might have with dandelions as an ingredient other than dandelion jelly/jam. Thanks!