Ray brought the 1st ripe strawberries to  me today.  They came from the rows we  planted upon the black plastic,but it surprised me none the less because  the spring has  been pretty cool thusfar with the exception of a couple of scorchers back in  April. We may have a few to pick by next weekend but I dont see us wading in them for a couple of weeks. We got lots of things  planted out this week, thanks  in part to the arrival of our two jamaican workers and the arrival of the college help.This is their  8th year  they have been coming and they pretty well know the ropes at this point, such that they can work with the green college kids. Despite getting a frost three nights ago we were able to  put out the  peppers,tomatoes,cukes, and summer squash. We cultivated and  hand hoed  the onions(about an acres worth)  this week, but up  until two days ago  irrigation was  a major activity. Thanks to the 2″ of rain that we got, we can focus on weeding, which will really pop up  once we get some  heat after this rain. Field preparation is still an ongoing activity, but the intial heat of getting land prepared is behind us and George Cilley, our tractor operator who does the lions share of it, can take a well deserved break to mow his lawn and do a few  a few things on the list that has been growing while he has been up here the last month or so playing in the dirt and manure.

Memorial Day is behind us, and the weather has been kind to us such that greenhouse starter sales have been pretty good  despite the dimmed economy. It  hardly looks like we  sold much at all when you walk through the greenhouses, but Sarah assures me that the  plants that remain are just spaced a bit more apart because they are larger. The stuff looks really good, so if you are in need of  ornamentals please come down and give us a look as the selection is still very good.  We havent set a date to open the  route 12A farmstand yet…but I am sure Mike will tell us when we get close to harvesting  greens and lettuce and berries.