The beginning of spring planting has begun.  This greenhouse is 24' wide x 48' long and is heated by propane.  The structure is metal pipe, covered by plastic.  We replace the plastic when it gets cloudy, which is usually every 4 years.  The metal pipes hanging down are called collar ties and are used to support the greenhouse under heavy snow load.  Being from Maine, I"m genetically programmed to have every structure on the farm able to withstand at least 22' of snow.  This makes it easier to sleep when we are having only 3'.  The circulation fans are essential.  They operate continually and function to move air, preventing disease.  The floor is covered with a weed-proof fabric and the strips on the floor are wooden slats to keep the flats elevated off the floor.  The white pipe with risers is the irrigation system.    Sitting on the wooden slats are the flats, which measure 11" x 22", and have 128 cells.  Each cell has one seed and the goal is to have 128 plants in each flat.

Monday, February 13 we begin seeding crops for the 2012 season.  We have about 650 flats to seed this spring for the CSA.  A flat is group of cells (128) hooked together that we fill with an organically approved potting mix and a seed.  Each cell grows one plant, which we will then put out in the field when the soil and air are warm enough for that specific plant.  This is what hand seeding flats looks like. 

This time of year, with the warm sun, the greenhouse will be sunny and 80 all day long.  Working inside, seeding flats is a glorious way to spend the day.  We have enough flats to seed, we have decided to purchase a vaccuum seeder which is rumored to be able to seed 3-4 flats/minute.  Currently, the ratio is reversed with it taking 4 minutes/flat to hand seed.  Check out this video of a vaccuum seeder.  We're thinking it will be a huge hit with Matt! 

Once the flats are planted, we will heat up the greenhouse to allow for germination of the seeds.  Once the seeds have germinated, it's vital our greenhouse maintains a steady temperature.  For example, it's lovely to have it 80 degrees when we're working in there, but we want it to be about 50 degrees for the spring crops.  After all, these are cool season crops we're planting.  This means we'll also keep it cool at night.  The worst thing for a plant is to have wild temperature swings.  Huge temperature swings make plants tall and spindly and weak.  We want short, stocky plants with strong stems so when they go outside in the field they can withstand the great outdoors with wind and rain. 

Heading to State College every February for the PASA conference is the beginning of spring on the farm.  This conference is full of info from Radical Homemakers to someone wanting to expand to a 2,000 member CSA.  Each session has something to offer. The PASA crowd "gets it" with sustainable ag.  Today, as I was sitting at the conference I was wondering how many people the PASA crowd feeds. If there are 2,000 attendees and 75% are farmers who feed at least 25 families (not hard to do - 1 ac. of vegetables will feed 25 families for a season), that is a LOT of people eating locally produced food.

We went to a session on using only biocontrol for our insect and disease pressure.  Peace Tree Farm 

is a USDA certified organic greenhouse operation relying totally on insects and nematodes to control their pest populations.  As an organic grower, there are organically approved pesticides we can use to control insects. Peace Tree Farm goes one step further and uses NOTHING but living organisms to control the bad bugs.  We learned a ton of info in this session and are motivated to keep pace with this philosophy.

I'm procrasinating and waiting for my turkey, kale, apple/cranberry pie breakfast to digest before I hit the workout routine. 

Today, our neighbor and friend, P.A. Keating is here doing our NASS CEAP survey.  This survey is a federally sponsored documentation/interview of every single farming and conservation practice we have on each and every field we farm!  It's a daunting process, but very, very important to agriculture.  Many, many environmental modelling programs are based on what we tell the NASS folks when the call/knock on our door.  This is important stuff folks.  Our TMDL for the Bay is based on the Bay model, which is such a freakishly flawed system.  EPA recognizes their model is flawed, but in a stunning display of heels being dug in, the EPA has locked down the model to any changes until 2017.  An example of the flaw is that Kent county Maryland is being recorded by the Bay model as having 10,000 more acres of crop land than actually exist. Kent County will have no chance of meeting the Bay TMDL, based on this flawed information.  Another shocking discovery was that agriculture is responsible, across the board, for being given a portion of the urban Waste Water Treatment Plant load because the WWTP's have no way of meeting their reductions.  So, we're doing such a good job of reducing nutrients in ag, the WWTP's want us to take up their load.