WOW!  Everything out at Cornman Farm is a different shade of green.  The carrot tops, tomatoes and potatoes are deep green.  The parsnips and peas are a lighter shade and the alliums have their own dusky verdant shade.  4000 tomato plant and 3500 pepper plants are finally in the ground and last week has been about doing battle with the weeds, a row at a time.  We’ll continue to clean the weeds from all the beds and begin putting up trellissing for the tomatoes.  This involves pounding several thousand metal gate posts into all the rows and stringing baling twine up and down the rows at least five times.  The idea is to make a continuous cage to keep the plants from sprawling on the ground and growing upright.  I’ll post some pictures when the job is complete.  We’ve been picking some great salad greens for the Roadhouse along with Sugar Ann peas and Easter Egg radishes and some turnips.  The beets are sizing up nicely and the broccoli has small buttons forming.  There are cherry tomatoes that should be ready by the beginning of July and the garlic is sending up a scape, a good sign that bulbs are forming below the ground. 

    As we weed the beds its amazing to witness the quality of the soil.  Its dark and has a rich smell that relates to the compost spread on the beds and the green manure crops incorporated into the soil.  Plants want to grow in this rich soil, and the flavor of the veggies reflects this.  I’m just a garden geek so forgive me but even the weeds look a little bit better than they did last year.