The sunshine has been a welcome change this past week! With the snow in our fields mostly melted, we've begun moving implements out of the barn in preparation for seeding our first beets, carrots and peas. The improved weather has also allowed us to work on some outdoor projects like repairing and turning over the soil in our unheated hoophouse (see picture). Stephanie and Jon have been building some sturdy doors, while Ryan started turning over the soil to prepare us eventually for planting our first experimental crop of hoophouse tomatoes this spring.

Greenhouse seeding continues apace. This past Monday our greenhouse volunteers may have set a new Appleton Farms record for amount of work accomplished. They seeded 24 trays of fennel, 21 trays of lettuce, 35 trays of scallions, 12 trays of napa cabbage, 47 trays of mini cabbage, 36 trays of kohlrabi, and 17 trays of kale, plus they thinned all of our first fennel planting. Whew! Our crew could barely keep up with coming up with new tasks for our fabulous volunteers to work on!