On the day of the Equinox last week, it was like someone flipped a switch from the “Winter” setting to the “Spring”one. From one day to the next, we went from chilly, cloudy and showery to warm and sunny. The longer days and warmer temperatures were the cue for several of our crops to shift into overdrive. The Berry and Pea patches…sprang… into life last week. We plant strawberries in September, and they grow for only a month or two in the fall before going into their winter slumber. Peas get planted in November but don’t grow much over the winter.
Those plants are now in their accelerated growth period, doubling in size every week and putting on show of white blossoms that quickly drop their petals and turn into tiny green fruits. Over the next four weeks, those berries and pea pods will grow in size along with the plants and start to ripen.
In past years, we’ve had Peas ready in late March and ripe strawberries as early as mid-April, but this year the cooler weather in March put the brakes on the development of the plants. If the weather were to stay as warm as it was yesterday (86 degrees), they might be ready sooner, but with the cool and showery weather coming back into the equation I don’t see that happening. And honestly, we were not ready for summer yet.
With the berries coming a bit late, our earliest Peaches and Nectarines might give them a run for their money this year. I was very dubious that those varieties would survive at all this year, since they started blooming in January. If we had had any real cold weather in February or March, they would have been ruined. But with no hard freezes, the flowers developed into a nice crop of fruit and we may begin harvest as early as May 1st this year.
The lack of freezing temperatures is also good news for both Peas and Strawberries — which get damaged by frost during bloom — as well as our Table Grapes, whose emerging buds can get nipped by the cold. In the last few years, we’ve had several early-spring freezes that have impacted those crops. As I’ve mentioned before, we always set up frost protection for our early tomato planting, but we don’t have the capacity to do that for all the other sensitive crops.
Speaking of tomatoes…the little plants we set out almost three weeks ago now are doing well, and really enjoyed the short period of hot weather. This week, we’ll be planting another round of tomatoes as well as our first peppers and zucchini. We also sowed our first Sweet Corn field.
April is transitional month in your CSA boxes, as most of the winter items disappear and are gradually replaced by the fruits of Spring and eventually, summer. We appreciate your patience during this “remodelling”but think you’ll be pleased with the results.