Waiting for Spring

This winter seems to be an especially long one with a few lovely  spring days sprinkled between the cold and rainy ones.  The soil has been too wet to work with so we have been channeling all of our energy into greenhouse planting and hoophouse preparation.

So far we have had some luck with transplanting bok choy, kohlrabi, collards, broccoli, and kale and have direct seeded a first succession of roots and greens.

The cover crops are thriving (as is Maxwell!).

I'll soon post some pictures of the strawberry plants, which seem to be the best yet, and fava beans, onions, and garlic.  We hope to plant potatoes and fill up the hoophouse with tomatoes before too long.  Slowly but surely spring will come and bring with it delicious new flavors we have been anxiously awaiting.

One of interns from 2011, Ted Wolfe, is now a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay and he is working on an agricultural project there that he describes best:
"I'm working right now with a womens committee building durable and sustainable gardens using chainlink fencing to keep out cows and pigs and chickens. People here usually make garden fences out of bamboo and they are just laughable after
  a few months and never last more then a year. To buy the chain link fencing I filled out a petition through peace corps to raise money from people, organizations, and businesses in the states. Building the gardens is the first step of my project, the main focus is on saving all those seeds you sent me and   teaching the people how to save seeds."

Here is a link if you would like to donate:

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=526-245