Another week down, and I still feel way behind schedule.

Being at the mercy of Mother Earth is really hard to accept.

You would think that there is plenty of water to be had, but no, there is not. At least not easily accessible water.

And the fact that we are still building our beds and have not yet planted in our main field fills me with the feeling of failure.

I know there is still time to grow, but our circumstances are still frustrating nonetheless.

Anywho, enough moaning and groaning, here is what we have been up to the last week.

Let’s Talk Microgreens!

I started my microgreens. If you have not read last week’s update (for shame!), I have taken the lead on our microgreens operation since Jon is busy working his day job and working in the field in the evenings.

In order to help give me the best chance at success, I have enrolled in Curtis Stone’s (The Urban Farmer) microgreens course.

So now, much of my ‘spare’ time is filled with learning strategies on how to grow microgreens successfully.

I truly love growing microgreens (as well as eating them) so this is a good fit for me.

The Weekend

Jon and I divided and conquered this weekend.

Jon worked at the field tilling, tarping, and making beds.

While I tended to our home garden plot. We had a couple of failures for sure. Our radishes were a complete disaster. Only a handful of them actually had a radish at the end of the stem.

Pretty disappointing considering the work we put in at the beginning of the season.

Another disappointment was our arugula. While we had some to harvest, we had let it grow too long and I was cutting away a lot of tall leaves that ended up in the compost.

We are still enjoying some of it ourselves, but that wasn’t quite the goal.

Bed Prep

Also on my to-do list was to prep the beds that Jon had made a while ago. They were tarped in order to help kill the grass that will inevitably grow back.

Sheesh, I feel like a real complainer this week.

Anyways, I untarped the beds, flattened them out with a giant rake that I didn’t really know how to use, added compost, flattened again, and then mixed it in with the broadfork.

I ended up watching a YouTube video to figure out how to use a broadfork, and even then, not too sure that I did it properly.

When it was all said and done, we had beds that were (pretty much) ready for direct seeding.

Direct Seeding Our Beds

This may have been the highlight of our week, as we go to break out the Earthway seeder we had purchased a while ago.

Its former owner had named her ‘Bessie’ so we will carry on that proud name.

It was a lot of fun to use, even our 4-year-old daughter got in on the action!

We planted one bed of chard and one bed of kale. Can’t wait until they start growing!

More Microgreens

Besides pea shoots, I tried my hand at planting radish microgreens.

I am attempting to time them right so they are ready for the farmer’s market.

Let me tell you, it’s easier said than done, especially as a newbie.

Farmer’s Market

On to more disappointing news, we are not representing at the farmer’s market yet again this week.

I’m not going to lie, it’s getting pretty frustrating as this is the 3rd week in a row that we are absent.

I know this is our first year, and we are learning, well, everything, but it’s at the expense of having product to sell.

All we can really do is learn from our early mistakes and try not to repeat them.

To Sum Up

A busy, but a somewhat disappointing week was had.

These are the real trials and tribulations of new market farmers.

On the plus side, we have lots of arugula to add to our regular salads, which has been a  tasty addition.

I hope next week’s update will not be such a downer.

Until then,

Kathy & Jon