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Bright aconite blooming in the garden
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We are doing it again! Our Pre-Order Plant Sale is now live on our website and runs through March 21. Reserve your plants and make sure you aren’t disappointed!
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Pre-order is available only for our tried and true summer seedling starts. This includes tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, summer squash, winter squash, okra, tomatillos, basil, culinary herbs, and flowers.
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Pick up days are Saturday, April 30th and Wednesday, May 4th. These dates are just little before our last frost date, but I know we are all anxious to get our gardens going. Just be prepared to cover your plant babies if a frost is in the forecast.
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Pick locations are, on Saturday, the North Asheville Tailgate Market, 8am until 12, Cecilia's Kitchen 9:30am to 11am and at the farm, 9am until dusk. On Wednesday pick locations are the River Arts District Farmers Market 3-6pm and at the farm from 9am until dusk. You can choose your pick up location when you check out.
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| Our regular selection of spring plant starts (kales, lettuces etc) will be available for sale on our website once the tailgate markets open for the season, April 2nd, and aren’t available for pre-order at this time. Like last year, we'll be offering the full range of our seedlings on our online store and bringing only a limited selection for in person shopping at the tailgate markets. |
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Below: Disassembled caterpillar tunnels
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What's happening on the farm right now?
After a solid break in January, we are back to a more set schedule and the pace is slowly picking up. Sam is back from his winter break and we are working on infrastructure projects. In fact, the whole place has a sort of disheveled look. The caterpillar tunnels where we'll plant our first lettuces and greens, have been disassembled, the beds amended with compost and reshaped. The tunnels will be re-assembled next week to be ready for a March 1 planting. The plastic is also off our hoop house and the ends of our heated greenhouse, giving them a naked look. Trees and invasives are being cut down and are in piles here there, waiting for the trip to the big burn pile behind the barn.
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For the first time, we have had substantial deer damage. As you can see below, they have developed a taste for strawberry leaves. The plants are protected with row cover now and have good strong roots, so we know that they will grow back. We will have to wait until May to see what effect the munching will have on strawberry yields. Fingers crossed on that.
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The hazelnuts are blooming. I think I post the same pictures every year but every year I am amazed again at how small the little female flowers are. It seems so unlikely that a cluster of hazelnuts will grown from that tiny little red bloom.The second photo below are the male hazelnut flowers. They are blooming too, releasing their pollen to fertilize the flowers but they are not on the same trees! You have to have two or more varieties to get hazelnuts. It seems like so much is left to chance and yet it's a pollination system that has developed over millennia and obviously works. There is a message for us all in there somewhere.
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Below are the male hazelnut flowers. They are blooming too, releasing their pollen to fertilize the flowers but they are not on the same trees! You have to have two or more varieties to get hazelnuts and it has to be windy. It seems like so much is left to chance and yet it's a pollination system that has developed over millennia and obviously works. There is a message for us all in there somewhere!
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Male catkins on the hazelnuts
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Your farmers, Vanessa and Alex
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Love the flowers. Honor the vegetables. Let the weeds go!
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- Cheri Huber and Ashwini Narayanan
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