While the market table suggests a season in its infancy, we’ve been sticking veggies in the ground for about a month and a half. The greenhouse, meanwhile, has been home to baby plants since the frigid days of February. Don’t let the harvest fool you–Spring’s decisions have already been made and the groundwork laid, warts and all. The farm is turning its attention to summer.
This past week, Landon planted our first 200′ of sweet potato slips. Slips are like sweet potato transplants–they sprout from a sweet potato buried in potting mix and, when planted, grow into big, beautiful plants. We start our own slips here on the farm (to baffling YouTube acclaim) and tweak the operation from season-to-season.
For our first few seasons, the trays of sweet potatoes took up residence in our guest bedroom. Like a house guest who had overstayed his welcome, they were both dirty and demanding. So, last season’s spuds got upgraded to the greenhouse. In an attempt to compensate for the colder nights, we upped the heat and baked most of the sweet potatoes into a useless mush. While we won’t really know how this batch compares to slips of seasons past until we dig the full-grown tubers in September, we’re at least off to a smoother start.