It's the first day of spring 2022!
It's been about 4-5 weeks since we started our first round of seeds and they are doing amazingly well. This year we made the decision to grow a greater variety of the foods we regularly use, such as peppers and tomatoes and less or none of the foods that only one or two of us will actually eat.
Seed starting is one of my favorite times of year as I look forward to summer, primarily known here as growing and beekeeping season! I've found a real passion for growing peppers and this year, I decided to grow a bigger variety: jalapeños, habaneros, poblanos, pimientos, and bell. I can't wait to see how everything turns out! (I also can't wait to make more pepper jams!)
As for tomatoes... a staple in my garden is always Amish Paste as they are my favorite paste tomato and I make a lot of sauce. This year, I decided to grow a couple of cherry varieties for the first time, as well as Black Beauty and Cherokee Purple. One of the more interesting things I notice about Amish Paste tomatoes is the number of seedling anomalies there are (in my experience)! For example, this year, I have four seedlings with 3 cotyledons and one with 4!
But, I digress...
Rounding out this year's garden are onions, carrots, garlic, wheat, corn, sunflowers, cucumbers, and strawberries. The 10 blueberry bushes are still growing and producing as well. I'm hoping to add blackberries and raspberries to the garden soon too!
Also on the spring agenda are swarm traps and hives! We've been busy all winter preparing for this year's beekeeping season. We've made (and sold!) a number of layens frames. We are hoping to add hives and swarm traps to our line up of items for sale in the near future!
The hives we've built this year are nearly finished. The swarm traps are ready to go. All we need now is the right time to set them up and we'll be ready to start beekeeping season 2022!
Happy Spring!! We are SO ready for summer!
