Another exciting day! The propane company came today and set two 100 gallon tanks down by the greenhouse and hooked it all up. I got home from work this afternoon and fired that puppy up…HEAT! Very exciting!! Don’t plan on turning it on yet, but its a relief to know its there.

Also started 40 cherry pepper plants today. Capperino. Excited to make some stuffed cherry peppers this fall. Hopefully they’ll grow!!

Big doings here…at least in our world! The spinach is happening, growing like crazy. Seems like its ready to harvest again a couple weeks after harvest. I’d say that’s pretty fast growth.  We started selling wholesale to the Plainfield Co-op. Fifteen pounds in the last couple weeks. Hopefully we’ll stay steady at 7 to 8 pounds a week for a good month or so. Nice to see a little money coming in.

I sowed the remainder of the spinach in between the current rows at the south end of the greenhouse a couple weeks ago. Just starting to see some emergence. Also put down some kale, chard and lettuce. We’ll see what happens.

Built my frame for the grow light a couple days ago and started tomatoes, peppers, onions, leeks and parsley today. Four flats under one bank of 4 lights. I have a lear plastic cover over the tomatoes and peppers in hopes to keep the temperature at close to 80 degrees, as recommended on the seed packet for those crops for germination. I guess we’ll see what we see. Exciting(wow! Its finally happening!), stressful(will they grow?), but ultimately fun, right? Its just a bunch of seeds. Granted, they weren’t given to me for my good looks, although they should have been…Anywho, another red letter day here at Friends and Neighbors Farm. Need to get the propane company here to hook up my greenhouse furnace. Just had the plumber here the other day hooking up the proper fittings for the gas company. Planning on getting a yard of compost mix this weekend. Man, there’s a lot going on!! But what’s the alternative? Sit around and watch tv? I guess I could play more piano…but I’ll find time for that. I always do!

Sold the first product out of the greenhouse today-6 pounds of spinach.  We’re certainly not quitting our jobs, but it was a landmark in our world.  I’m very excited!  Hopefully we  can sell 5-10lbs/week for the next month or so, and then a lot more come February.  Fun!

Been debating about when to harvest: is it ready?  is it big enough?  Had a local grower tell me today to harvest…this is what I’m doing this for!  Had another grower ask if I could send some pics.  So I decided to go out and harvest a bit and take some pictures.  Harvested a couple sparsely populated rows in about 20 minutes, yielding about one

and a half pounds of beautiful spinach.  I mean I don’t think I’ve ever seen spinach look this good.  Probably just because I’ve never grown it when it likes to be grown…in the cold weather.  And it tastes sweet!!  I’m scheduled to talk to the grower who requested the pictures sometime tonight.  He says he’s got some ideas for me.  Can’t wait!

Set up a watering system a couple days ago for the spinach.  Sprinklers called “mini-wobblers” on 3′ risers.  They were supposed to cover 15′ area.  They were a little shy of that so some hand watering was and will still be necessary, as long as watering is appropriate.  I’m thinking of setting up a different system next year.  Possibly using the same sprinklers, but rigging them to water overhead, with one row of sprinklers on each side.  I’m wondering if our water pressure is a factor in the coverage.  I thought we had pretty serious pressure, but maybe its not all I imagined.  Anywho, the spinach has been thoroughly soaked per recommendations from other growers, and I feel like the spinach is loving it!  Watering your plants seems obvious, but soaking them seemed to make a difference in this case. 

Oh yeah, the greenhouse gets pretty hot when the sun is out.  Its been in the 50’s and sunny the last couple days, and wow, the greenhouse really heats up in the sun.  My gander at this stage of limited experience, is that the difference in temperature from outside is about 10 degrees on a cloudy day and 20 or more sunny days.  Pretty wild!

Chilliest morning yet…7:30am, upper teens outside, 34 degrees in the greenhouse.  No sign of frost inside the greenhouse.  I feel like I can project at this early stage in my greenhouse experience, how the orientation can affect the light and heat in the greenhouse.  I feel I can imagine how it would be warmer in there if it were oriented East/West.  I’m thinking now that since this house is North/South, I should plant my winter crop earlier than October 2nd next fall.  We shall see.

This is a picture of the spinach at about 30 days.  It has certainly grown in the last week.  If anyone has any comments about the germination, I’d love to hear about it.  I’m not sure if this is par for the course or what.

First snow on the new greenhouse this morning! Thought it might melt off by mid-day but its still hanging on. Mid to high 30’s outside and around 50 in the greenhouse. Watered the spinach. Not sure if that was the right move or not in light of the cold, but I guess we’ll find out. Supposed to be coldest night of the season tonight, high teens low 20’s, then get warmer later into the week. Spinach looks good but I’m questioning the estimations of how much it will produce. Its just not looking like 900 lbs is going to come out of it.