What’s been going on!

Well last night’s temperature forecast was an April Fool’s joke, we had been ready for mid 20’s but it was 32 degrees on the porch this morning and 27 degrees in the field.  Not complaining mind you but surprised it wasn’t colder.  Tonight they (the National Weather Service) are calling for 23 degrees for us, we will see but the second night is always the colder one.

Not nearly as bad as the April Easter Freeze in 2007 when we had five nights in the 20’s with the lowest 20 degrees, that one burned the tunnel tomatoes a bit but we survived.  We all know that the climate is changing and warming up but Betsy and I are slack jawed at maps we’ve seen recently with the last frost date around April 1^st!  We used to figure April 21^st was the safe date for us here on the farm.  I have climate maps from the 70’s that say April 11^th for the general area but we are always colder and more akin to Siler City whose date is now listed at April 14^th.  This interactive map has the most current info with Chapel Hill’s last frost on April 6th

It’s similar to the Plant Hardiness Zones, were we used to be zone 7A based on the average extreme low temperatures in the low single digits.  Officially they now have us in 7B but certainly the last few winters we have been in 8A or B, I think the lowest we have seen this past winter was 17 degrees.  No wonder the perennial plants are shaking their heads and moving north.

Picture of the week

Our 20 tomato plants well protected under two layers of row cover and inside the tunnel

What’s going to be at Market?

Do not forget that the hours now start at 7:00 a.m.  Don’t let the early birds beat you to market!

Hopefully enough flowers for Easter.  Still lots of the gem colored Anemones.  Plenty of Ranunculus this week too!

A good amount of Green Little Gem lettuce and the first of the Red Little Gem.  First the tender Green Boston Lettuce too!  Lots of crunchy Red Radishes.  Next week the first Red Leaf and Romaine lettuces!

As a reminder if there is anything that you would like for us to hold for you at market just let us know by e-mail, by the evening before, and we will be glad to put it aside for you.

Stay safe and well and we hope to see you all at the market soon!

Alex and Betsy

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