I know, you read the blog and you look at the pictures and you think, where are the vegetables? Seems like all we are doing is tinkering with the tractor and driving it around in circles (I understand, sometimes it feels that way to me, too). So I wanted to be sure to post a couple pictures of what we have growing that you can actually eat.
On Saturday, Peter Gathje and Kathleen Kruczek came out to help us plant some leeks. Randy and I had started them back in July with the instructions to plant them out in mid-November when they are “pencil sized”. Our leeks were not pencil sized, but we decided it was time to go anyway. These suckers had some ROOTS on them!
We are grateful for friends like Peter and Kathleen whose idea of a fun thing to do on Saturday is go crawl around in the dirt. It was, in fact, a gorgeous day to crawl around in the dirt, and it was much more fun to do it with friends.
We planted about 200 row feet of leeks, which I figure is about 800 of them. Leeks are supposed to be able to withstand temperatures down to 5 degrees, so hopefully these ones will be growing strong come spring and ready for our CSA boxes around May.
Not only do we have photographic proof of the leeks, but carrots, too! While we were planting leeks, Randy diligently finished hoeing the carrots with his new favorite tool – our 6″ stirrup hoe from Johnny’s.
(The average reader may not know this, but hoes are as diverse and distinctive as fine wines – are you familiar with the co-linear hoe, diamond hoe, or swan neck hoe? Many small farmers may take pride in the distinction of being a hoe connoisseur)
So there you have it, we actually are growing vegetables! Although they haven’t had their photo shoot yet, the spinach is up and growing strong, along with mustard and turnips.
