Lafarmski: The First Week

The first thing I did this morning was to take out the five flats of tiny seedlings from my bedroom to the sun outside. Brian is almost finished constructing a mini-greenhouse, and since it's still freezing some nights, we've got the other eight flats in Olivia's bedroom on an old tablecloth until they germinate. The poor lettuce, broccoli, kale, and tatsoi are all getting pretty leggy, but the beets are just starting to pop out in all their pink glory. The tomatoes, eggplant, parsley, basil, dill, fennel, cilantro, and peppers have yet to emerge.

It was exquisitely exciting to unload the first bag of organic potting soil, mix it with water, and seed the first flats ever for the Lapinski Family Farm. Since early November, when Kristin, Brian, and Olivia moved into their new home on 2.5 acres of land, they, with a lot of help from parents and friends, have planted a cover crop of rye and clover; cleared some major brush and trees; bought a 19-horse-power Kubota complete with a disc harrow, cultivator, rototiller, and something that looks like a mini-moldboard plow; planted seven blueberry plants; ordered 35 varieties of seeds, 80 bags of potting soil, a few stacks of 72-cell seeding flats and trays; and generally given the place a facelift. When I arrived a week ago, I was, as Farmer Don at Caretaker would say, pumped.

I arrived on Thursday, January 17, and was immediately whisked away to a cabin at Fanning Springs State Park to see the manatees, a truly incredible sight. (All good farmers begin the season with a vacation.) On Saturday night, after we had mostly unpacked, we sat down in front of the fireplace (and I thought I wouldn't need my wool sweater here!) to dream up our seeding schedule. Over the next week we planned enough of the seeding schedule to know we needed 14 raised beds, each 100feet long; hauled two pick-up-truck loads of chicken manure from a farm about 10 miles north in exchange for a loaf of Swedish rye bread; bought oil-change materials for the Kubota; nearly finished transforming an old rabbit coop into a small cold frame; spread some of the chicken manure onto the field to be rototilled soon; picked up nine 50lb bags of dolomite lime; and acquired some free tools from a booth at the Jacksonville Tangerine Festival yesterday.

We're all still pretty pumped.