Big Idea

• There are still a few more weeks of potential frost
• Days are warm, soil is a nice temperatures
• Peppers are being potted up
• Loads of plants for sale
• Read more…

If you plan to plant your garden on Mother’s Day, buy them now!

Well, it's been a busy week, to say the least. There are so many things happening simultaneously. A true sign of spring leading into summer.

We got about half of our dahlia tubers in the ground this week. Even though we have a few more weeks of potential frost at night, the days are warm and the soil is a nice temperature and it will take the tubers a while to sprout up out of the ground. So they are relatively safe. We are potting up all of our peppers (the ones we will plant ourselves) from smaller cells to bigger cells. They have a few more weeks to grow and get up to a nice size before planting them outside. With 15,000 peppers to pot up, it's a big job. We are flipping and planting tunnels with summer crops, getting tomato trellises set up, weeding and harvesting, making bouquets. And then all the things on the list we don't get to. But it's all good. Just one foot in front of the other.

We have loads of plants for sale this week. This is a great week to buy your plants if you plan to plant your garden on Mother's Day. As I mentioned previously, you will want to harden off your plants before planting by putting them outside for a few hours each day, bringing them in at night, then leaving them out for at least a full day and night before planting. Even after they are in the ground, keep an eye on the weather for a few weeks as we can get freaky late frosts at our high desert elevation. If the temps look low (like below 35) I would suggest covering any of your tender crops (tomatoes, peppers, basil, squash, cucumbers) with a sheet, or empty pots secured with a rock or whatever kind of protection you can devise. We use frost cloth, but really anything works in a pinch.

Market starts in Prescott at 7:30 this week, see you bright and early. Flagstaff Market starts this Sunday. We won't be in Flagstaff this week as we just don't have quite enough stuff to offer yet, but we hope to see you all there in two weeks.

with love from your farmers,
Shanti & the Whipstone Crew

What's going right - some gorgeous salanova

What's going wrong - cutworm damage on some overwintered calendula. Usually cut worms just eat the small new plants off at the base, but they are so bold this year they are munching on everything even the bigger plants.

The very first peony to bloom - don't get too excited but we hope to have more for Mother's Day next week.

chives with blossoms

This is Dave. He and his wife Karen are the ones who installed the kestrel nesting boxes at our farm and a bunch of other sites in the area. They come out periodically to monitor what's going on, which is good because I tend to have my head down and don't always notice what the birds are up to. Yesterday he found 5 warm eggs in the box and the female up in a tree nearby. American Kestrels are in decline, and they feed their young lots and lots of grasshoppers, so encouraging them to nest on our property is a win-win.

We are bumping up (that's a technical term) all of our peppers from really small cells to trays with larger cells to give the plants a little more room to grow before they hit the field. The pepper starts are looking really healthy this year and we are crossing our fingers for a bumper crop as last years peppers were pretty disappointing. We are also trying to revive the chilipeño (that's the one on the right). This is a hybrid pepper that was dropped from production by the seed company. We have been working to de-hybridize it for the last 5 years? 8 years? where does the time go? We don't really know what we are doing in this department, but we are determined to get the genetics to stable place on one of our favorite peppers of all time.

Marigolds for your garden

Plant sale babies ready for market. Hannah lovingly stamps and tags the plants each week. (and yes, Hannah and I do have matching overalls #farmfashionfridays)

Lots of pepper options . . .

Glorious mustard greens

Garrett getting all the trellising strings down, so we can move them over to the tomato section of the greenhouse. Never a dull moment on the farm.

WHAT'S FRESH THIS WEEK

Vegetables

salad mix
spinach
mesclun mix
salanova
head lettuce
mustard greens
bok choy
radishes
salad turnips
carrots (very limited!!)
green garlic
cilantro
dill
chives
mint
edible flowers
microgreens: radish, sunflower, pea shoots
eggs

Flowers

anemones
poppies
sweet peas
mixed bouquets
mason jar bouquets

Plant Sale

tomatoes - cherry, beefsteak, heirloom and Roma
peppers - so many kinds
squash
cucumbers
eggplant
basil
nasturtiums
cabbage
kale
scallions
beets
lettuce
perennial herbs
marigolds
lisianthus
delphinium

Recipes

WHERE TO FIND US

PRESCOTT FARMERS MARKET (winter hours) Saturdays 10am-1pm. YRMC Miller Valley Lot, 900 Iron Springs Rd.

FARM STAND - Open everyday sunup to sundown, self serve, honor system directions HERE