Apparently we have a radish crop. We didn’t meant to. We didn’t order any radish seed. Yet here we are … We have two acres of them. Last fall during our annual what-are-we-going-to-do different review, Fran and I decided to start cutting back on the field crops that require time and energy. I knew we were going to cut back on potatoes. It takes us three days to plant them in the spring, and days to weed them and hill them up, fight the potato beetles, and in late summer through the fall, go down the rows on my hands and knees and dig them up — often in a cold rain. My knees hurt, my back hurts, my hands hurt, in the meantime I’d be doing the math and figured out we were making about $40 dollars per row. I had enough fun. Love them, but not going to miss them. We also are cutting back on our tomatoes. Rough on us in a different fashion, but still time to cut back. The next question of course is what to do with the bare fields? Fields of weeds are abhorrent to vegetable farmers, and although I am not a lawn purest by any means, I do at least like to have the green stuff about the same color and height. I also didn’t want to be one of those old guys who ride around on their riding mower all the time. I have other things to do. We finally hit upon creating a wildflower meadow.
At the end of the season in October the engineer in me got busy and I got my tape measure out and actually measured the square feet we were going to convert. Smiling to myself as I imagined the surprise the neighbors are going to have in the spring when they observe that our normally neat and orderly vegetable rows have morphed into a burst of unruly wildflowers I gleefully ordered the seed. I needed five pounds. Then we added most of the tomato patch. Need another five pounds. Problem — sold out in that size. No problem, order five, one-pound packs. It was time to get the fields prepared. Our guy that does the big tilling jobs for us is also a landscaper. He has created the meadows before. Essentially the ground must be super tilled and then smoothed out by pulling his bucket backwards over the ground making it look like you just put sheets on the bed and pulled them tight. OK, time to sow the seeds.
We put the five-pound bag out first and Fran is really good at using the wind and her throwing skills to try and cover the ground as evenly as possible. Pretty much grabbing a handful of fluff and throwing them up and where they land is where they land. We were inviting chaos into our world. Then I gave the next field a try with the one-pound packs. Huh. These are different. What to do? The field was prepared, I had the seeds clearly marked as wildflowers, and the weather was closing in. To make maters worse, now all the seeds were sold out. Decision made, I decided to sow first and ask questions later. I was hoping the seed guys changed their process between the five-pound bags and the one-pound packs.
After a few months the seed difference started to bother me, and I contacted the seed guys. Long story short we have been going at each other for months, so far a draw. They want order numbers, seed lot numbers and the bags the seeds came in, and all I can offer is the date purchased, packing slips and a suspicion that something is not right. In April, Fran and I gave up on the second field and tilled it and planted our onion rows. After lunch today the boss said it was time to weed the onions as they were looking kind of weedy, and it’s too cold to plant anything. Um, OK. I grabbed my trusty hoe and set off for the onion patch. Huh. That’s funny. I’m pulling up itty bitty radishes. A LOT of itty bitty radishes. OMG!!!! I took a good look around and found out I’m standing in a field of radishes! This is bad enough, but they are also covering the onion rows. Onions need space between the seedlings so they can expand and develop, and if they are crowded out with radishes, they will deform and we can’t sell them. ALL HANDS ON DECK! Fran and I did battle all afternoon hoeing and then getting down on our hands and knees and pinching out radishes as fast as we could. We wound up eating late, but we got the job done. Time to talk to the seed guys again. Sore back, sore knees, and throbbing hands:1 relaxing farm life: 0. So far this isn’t what I had in mind when we decided to dial it back a few.
It will all work out. Perhaps this is the year we start a radish festival at market. Always something.
All the best from Alan and Fran and the critters from Greenrock Farm