Modern Soothsaying

The decision to try to accomplish a first planting can be hair-trigger some seasons. One just scours the changes in the forecast, as if they might be any more accurate than tea leaves or a bag full of bones. There have been multiple days this spring where I’ve wondered, “crap…should we be out there planting right now?”. To which I usually reply “Damn, I just don’t know. Let’s shake the bag of bones again”. That is to say, I click the refresh button on the browser.  

 If you go for it and it’s bad timing for whatever reason; not enough time to actually get it all done before a rain, super freeze that can stress even cold hardy stuff, too windy and cold to cover things…well then, you’ve wasted more than a day of work for nothing, or half of nothing anyway.

 And then there is the other side of the coin: what if this less than optimal window of opportunity is the only window of opportunity for the next 3 weeks? What if things get really dry and we miss the only chance we have to plant without watering in. And then the one that I rarely mention…what if we don’t plant now, and have to wait for weeks to get in the field, and then we miss 1 or 2… maybe 3 weeks of potential market all because we were waiting for conditions to be too close to perfect? As much as I would like to live in a world without this last woe, we are, after all, probably living in the purest of capitalist eras. My actions are not an endorsement of this, only a capitulation. It cost dough to make this thing run, and we need to be cash flowing as soon as possible. 

 All these thoughts , as the browser refreshes and the forecast with it. 

 Well, this last week, everything looked like it would line up to plant well enough that it seemed worth the risk. Pull the trigger. I prepped the beds. Chris came up, special request reinforcement. Mar planted in a first round of arugula, radishes, salad, kale and spinach, and it all got their appropriate covers for the weather, pests and moisture retention. Round one done! Whew!! And in the first (I think) realistic window that we have had! I’ll be reading them bones like a goddamn soothsayer. Maybe some markets in May are not a daydream after all. I won’t score one for capitalism, but I’m happy to get this going. 

 So round one is done too much relief. Round 2 is on the calendar for the last week of April. From there, the plantings become frequent and frantic, Wish us luck!

 In another good turn, that have nothing to do with soothsaying, we have hired on the rest of the full time crew for the 2026 season! I mentioned in the last post that we will have Ally joining us, from Texas by way of Minneapolis. Add to the crew Isabelle, coming to us from Tennessee and Nondumiso coming to us from South Africa. That’s right! Some embassy interviewing officer had pity on us and granted Nondumiso, our last J1 applicant, her visa. All will be starting with us the first of May. 

 Crops planted, crew hired, longer days, warmer weather. I won’t be counting eggs until November, but it’s a nice way to start.