Opening Day

Welcome to the 2009 fresh vegetable season, as Rock Spring Farm begins its tenth year providing great, organic vegetables in the Upper Midwest. Everybody here hopes that all of you will enjoy the coming bounty of the seasons in the Upper Midwest.

It has been an interesting spring again this year (I could go for a really boring spring one of these years), with cold temperatures and bone-dry soil conditions until last weekend, when we received several inches of rain in an oddly-gentle drizzle. In some ways, the cold, dry weather has been a blessing, giving us ample opportunities to get ahead of some troublesome perennial weeds by dragging their roots out to desiccate in the wind – and then doing it again. The entire farm was seeded down to cover crops, and we spread fertilizer in all of the right places. On the other hand, we were nervous about putting crops in the field, and we are a little behind with planting despite ample time to work in the field.

Sarah Noecker, our packing coordinator, stayed with the farm all winter, and has proven herself a capable and attentive assistant in the greenhouse; she is looking forward anxiously to asparagus harvest, when she will “get to do things I already know how to do instead of learning new things all of the time.” In March, we were joined by a new production coordinator, Ben Kreuter, who moved with his family to Spring Grove after several years of farming experience in Wisconsin; he’s been managing transplant production and learning his way around our tractors, implements, and fields. I am blessed to have such a great crew working with me this year, and I look forward to their continually expanding expertise.

Now that spring training has gone by, the heart of the season will soon be upon us. Like any opening day, it is full of the promise of good things to come.