The past couple weeks have been transplant mania on the farm. It is starting to look less like spring and more like summer with every passing day. Many of the first rotations are approaching harvest time – I started to harvest this pac choi a few days ago for the restaurant kitchen. It will be followed by either cucumbers or yellow wax beans, whichever strikes my fancy when the row is empty.

Different people connect with different parts of field work – it’s part of what makes working on a field crew so interesting. I’ve worked with people who dream all winter of transplanting. I’m not one of them. It’s not in my top three, it’s not in my top ten. It’s something I do because in order to harvest, which I love and could do all day, I have to get out there and plant. Non-negotiable.

I have five or so rows – about a quarter of my field space at the bakehouse – under plastic mulch. Burying plastic mulch by hand is pretty bad. I always feel like an ant while i’m doing it, I don’t know why. I think it’s worth it – the mulch conserves soar heat and soil moisture, and heat-loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash do much better in a bed of it, especially in our climate. And looking the the completed row is pretty great. But if i ever hit the big time, i’m buying a mulch laying implement for my little tiller, post haste. that’ll be the day my friends. that’ll be the day.