Langwater Farm

Despite the torrential rains, the past few weeks have been busy and very exciting here at Langwater Farm.   Our biggest news is… we have babies! Baby seedlings, that is.  We are absolutely delighted to have flats and flats of little green sprouts poking their heads up out of the potting soil.

Alida sows lettuce seeds

The first seeds went into their flats just a few weeks ago.  We carefully fill each tray with organic potting soil, push a tiny seed into each tiny cell, top the whole thing off with a little more soil and vermiculite (a lightweight potting mixture) and put it in our germination chamber, a box that we built to keep the seedlings warm and moist.  We’ve planted lettuce, broccoli, herbs, eggplant, and onions, to name a few.

Baby Blue Lake and Arcadia broccoli

The broccoli were the first to emerge.  Just three days after we planted them, they popped out of the soil in full force.  This caused a small bout of panic amongst us farmers, as we’ve never seen broccoli germinate in under 7 days.  Since our greenhouse isn’t all the way complete yet, we’re currently seed-starting in Kevin & Rory’s mom’s sun porch.  The early broccoli caused a mad dash of shuffling seed trays around and making a light box. We used our wits (and a few wine boxes) to make a nifty setup.

Happy seedlings soaking up the light

Now, while we wait for the sun to come out and the ground to dry up, our seedlings are totally oblivious to the nasty weather the rest of us are experiencing.  They’re warm and happy in their little tanning beds, getting bigger and stronger every day.