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Welcome Spring...LPO Style

Ok. So I am still buzzing from the Lobo-BYU game on Saturday, so bear with me a little. March madness started in February this year. I hope that many of you got to see it. Probably one of the best college games I have ever seen.

Anyway, off the hardwood and back to the farm. We unfortunately had a late sub for our broccoli and have added baby bok choi instead. It was subbed after our labels were made so accept my apology if you have bok choi as a sub item.

But today I want to touch on the fields and on the start of spring for LPO. March 1st is the first day of spring as far as I’m concerned. At least here in sunny NM. I know on the calendar it is not for another 3 weeks, but at LPO, it is March 1st.

Now I am not saying that the cold weather is gone, or that we will not have another frost, because we will have plenty more of both. But what I am saying is that we start to get some really nice days in March. The nurseries start to get crowded on the weekends. Tree buds start to swell. And overall we can get some awesome days.

Well a handful of these awesome days are all you need to get the seeds going. So we start doing a lot of ground work and planting cool season crops (salad, beets, spinach, turnips, radishes) starting this week. Then we hope for a few warm sunny days to get these seeds germinated. We know they will not grow as quickly as they will in April/May, but it is ok. We just want them started.

Then as the days continue to warm this March and April, those sleepy little plants take off and rock n roll. So they are in the ground a little longer than main season crops, but we harvest earlier which is the goal. I cannot stress enough how important every single week of season extension is to/for LPO and our CSA.

The cooperative CSA model is brilliant (which I did not invent, so I can tout it without bragging). We do not have to worry about finding a home for our produce because it is already presold. We just have to figure out how to grow more of it. And that is in season extension.

It is easy to have tomatoes in August. Anyone can do that. The real trick is trying to have enough tomatoes for 1,200 members by the 4th of July (that we did last year). Or having all farm fresh lettuce and greens through the month of February even though it is in the teens at night.

So these are the games that we play as a farm—figure out what our members get excited about and try and extend those crops into times of the year when no one else has them. And I must say, it is a ridiculously fun game to play. Better than Monopoly or Twister.

I am also a very happy camper right now because March 1st marks the start of another “class” of interns for the season. I know that they are not actually in school, but interns learn so much over a season at LPO that it is hard not to look at it like a degree. I hope that you all will get a chance to meet them at the pick ups and through classes/events that we host on the farm.

And now is a good time to throw in my thoughts on why we engage in an internship program at LPO. Why train farmers every year?

Honestly, I do not look at LPO as just a farm. We are at the epicenter of the small farm movement here in NM. I never have liked the bumper sticker reminding us to “Think Globally, Act Locally.” We should think locally and act locally. Then as we construct better communities, the globe will be a better place too.

So our interns manifest this goal. Right now we have 4 past interns all running farms here in the ABQ area. In addition, we have been fortunate enough to keep 4 of them employed with LPO. So that as good things (and people) come out of our intern program, hopefully they stick around and keep building the movement here.

In NM, our demand is bigger than the supply. Our horses are running a mile in front of the cart. So LPO has an obligation (I feel) to promote this farming lifestyle. To train cutting-edge farmers. And to expand the marketplace.

Happy Spring folks, Farmer Monte