Sweet, sweet peas

We’ve been very, very busy in the greenhouse. And we still have shares for 2005, so anyone who is interested in applying should absolutely not hesitate!

We’ve done about 60 trays of transplants in the last week or so (look to the left -- click it to see it bigger), and we've gotten our first plantings in the field  -- the peas and the fava beans. As for the peas, we've got sugar snap, snow peas and shell peas this year. We also planted some of the slow-growing fall stuff, the parsnips and salsify.

With the weather warming up and our working outside, if people come to work now, they could find that we're asking them to do it in the field or the greenhouse.

One of the differences between organic and conventional farming came this week. I was talking to a friend of mine who farms conventionally, and I mentioned that I planted the pea seeds a little early. He said, "Oh yeah, you don’t use treated seed." I don’t use any kind of product on my peas to reduce the likelihood that they will rot. That means I might have to replant, which is one of the reasons that organic food can sometimes cost more than conventionally grown food.

Snow peas didn’t germinate well last season, so we're trying them in a new part of the field this year. This picture shows a family picking green beans last year; that's where the snow peas are this year.

One thing that's good about planting peas, and is also responsible farming, is that they enrich the soil where you plant them for other crops the next year. We seed at the same time a low clover that won't interfere with the peas and will also enrich the soil (peas and clover are pretty closely related, as you can see if you ever take a really close look at clover blossoms and compare them to pea blossoms).