Easing into my first full week

That was a short work day! Or at least it went fast because it was only a half day. Andy started today. He'll be here through the rest of the season. So first on the agenda was for Eric to give the two of us a more detailed orientation to the greenhouse and hoop house. I'm not sure if I remember all of the numbers precisely, but I think Eric said:

• small plants/starts make up 20% of their sales for the year
• they sell about 25,000 plants (for people to start their own garden) each year!
• they raise about 50,000 more plants to raise on the farm
• they will be growing 36 varieties of tomatoes this year (yesssssssss!)
  
• some farmers markets charge a flat rate fee and some markets charge a percentage of your income in order to have a stand there
• the plants/starts are a lot less work and are more reliable than planting in the field

We seeded melons, cucumbers, and squash today. They are all hot weather plants, so they go into Eric and Rachel's basement into the warm 85 degree germination room until they germinate. Once they germinate we will be back at spotting again. The picture on the left is a seeding and spotting station. The picture on the right is the soil mixing truck bed.






After we got done seeding and moving the plants to the basement, we moved some pallets into the hoop house. Then we moved rocks! Basically we were filling in ruts in the roads around the farm so that when it rains and floods (the majority of the fields are in a flood plain of sorts) the road is not too mucky to drive through. Basically, I'm a mason now in addition to being a farmer. Ha! There are a couple trucks that are used here on the farm. Eric said that at least one of them averages about 500 miles per year just driving around the farm!

Last, here are some piggy pictures:




Good night!