Over the first day jitters, now trying to keep warm.

Hello everyone!

Every year I get those nervous first date jitters on opening day. Will people come? Will they like the place? Will they remember that I'm here? What if I have spinach in my teeth? It's a little nerve wracking. This year upped the first date jitters to a new high as I really hoped that I had not been overselling the new building to anyone. I am so glad to now be in the swing of things again!

It's no news to anyone that the weather has not been the warmest lately. So far there have been no fiddlehead, morel mushroom or asparagus sightings. So when are things going to get rolling already??? Local produce runs on a schedule that considers daylight hours, ground temperature, air temperature and sunniness in much higher esteem than date. It may be May but as far as the first crops are concerned, it's still April. It's easy to forget here in high and dry Winnipeg, but some of our province's growers are still under water. One of my asparagus grower's plants are currently under 4 feet of Red river. Your back yard dries and warms up much faster than a farmer's field, so what the plants in your garden are doing is often not the best gauge of what plants in fields out in the open are doing.

The good news is that things can turn on a dime. Ten days of warm weather could catch us right back up to where we should be. Right now my growers are seeding corn and planting out onions and potatoes. Crops like cucumber and cantaloupe that they started in their greenhouses will have to wait until the risk of frost isn't so grave. This means late plantings of a lot of things, which means that unless we have a mighty hot June, many crops will be a little late in coming this year.

Last year we had a slightly cool spring and so the local strawberries only came in on July 7th, but in 2007, we had a cool May, then a really hot June and the strawberries were in on June 26th. I love the variation in timing, it's what makes local produce fun for me. It's one of the few things left that are still special. No matter who you are, what you do, or how much money or power you have, you can't eat field grown local produce until it's ready for you.

I will be bringing in organic herb and heritage tomato plants as soon as the weather turns. It's too cold for you to be planting them right now, and they will do better in a warm greenhouse than your garage. I also expect the quality of most greenhouse plants to be down this year. When the cloudy weather sets in like it has, greenhouse growers have to hold back on watering their plants for fear of mould and rot setting in. Right now greenhouses are watering their plants just enough to keep them alive so they look all sad and droopy. It's a tricky balance.

Current local produce count
Hydroponic Basil
Hothouse Cucumbers
Hothouse Tomatoes
Hothouse Cherry Tomatoes

Coming attractions....
Rhubarb, fiddleheads, morels, asparagus.....sun???

Take Care
Erin