New Customers

 This is inside the large greenhouse. These are rows M thru Y. It looks like a small jungle in there. We have had some very mild weather lately that has made it a perfect growing combination in there. The bed in the front of the picture is one of the arugula beds that I finished cutting after this picture was taken. It takes about 10 days after cutting before it is ready to be cut again.

These rows A thru L. The really lush part is radish beds. In the back of the picture is kale. We grow Red Russian Kale and Toscano Kale. Both of these we add to our salad mix and we also sell them separately. The Red Russian Kale doesn't sell as well as the toscano. The beds in between are spinach. WE had seeded these at the same time as the radish and kale but we must have had bad seed because nothing came up so I had to re-seed. The spinach has had its 2 grass like leaves for about a week now and is finally getting its first true leaves. In the front of the photo is a second planting of radishes. The ones that are ready to harvest now are white icicle radishes that are a little spicy. To give something different a tried planting a few rows of pink beauty radishes that are supposed to be sweeter. They need thinning out and that is on the books for the next couple of days.



As you can see some of the things have grown out of control. SO 2 days ago I did a massive cutting, filled my trunk up, and hit the road trying to sell some stuff. It was a great trip to Southern Pines. I got 2 definite new customers who have already placed orders with us. Chef Warrens and Ashtens will be using our salad mix. Ashtens is also going to be using our spinach. I am so excited about this. The other local restaurants that are using our greens are Elliotts on Linden and The Bell tree. I also stopped by Rhetts, Maxie's in Pinehurst, and the new restaurant in Sourthern Pines, Swordfish. I have enough stuff growing in there to supply all of them with no porblems at all. I just hope I get all of them to buy from us. And of course, this is just a stepping stone into purchasing everything else that we offer in the spring and summer.

This is the picture of the greenhouse from the outside. As you can see there are no trees or anything. It simply sits in the middle of an open field. This time of year that doesn't present a problem. But in the spring and summer it is a huge problem. In order to keep our organic standing we can not cool or heat it. The sides have a part that we can lower to cool it off in there but as you know we have had summers with many days reaching above 100 degrees. When it gets that hot outside it is a death sentence inside the greenhouse. It actually got enough to melt the plastic drip irrigation lines. During the summer we do not grow any crops in there for this reason. I am hoping to plant some trees that will provide some shade in the summer to help with the cooling but that will lose their leaves in the fall to let the sun through to keep it warm. During the winter and early spring this is where I spend most of my time. Right now I am trying to figure out the planting schedule so that everything is out and the sugar snap peas can go in the ground.