The farm crew has been moving full steam ahead. Because while so much is unknown, one thing is certain: we all have to eat. So, we have spent the last six weeks:

Seeding in the greenhouse. More than 100,000 seeds are starting their green little lives, some of them destined for our online Plant Sale while others are headed for farm fields (many for the first May Share harvest). (PS: Plant sale is online now!)

Clearing and replanting the high tunnels. Usually we have Vassar Intern help with this… but this year we’re doing it all ourselves. Goodbye winter greens, hello summer darlings. 750 cucumbers and over 1,000 tomatoes were planted in our high tunnels, cozy and protected from cold spring nights (and potentially deadly frosts), to give them a head-start to the season.

Plowing our fields and laying down compost. We’ve made a lot of beds for all of those tens of thousands of seeds destined for the farm fields.

Planting our first field crops! Arugula, scallions, beets and chard are starting to take root. Kale, collards, cabbage, bok choy and more are soon to follow suit.

Showing our perennials some love. Rhubarb is up, and looking great so far. The raspberries have received their annual bedding of compost and woodchips, and the strawberries are looking very… er, green. (PS: Read about updates to PYO here.)

n addition to all of the work we are usually doing this time of year, we’ve also:

Launched an online store, where you can buy vegetables, CSA shares, and local products.

Made some important decisions about what CSA and PYO will look like this year.

Scrambled to donate as much food as we can -- so far, we’ve donated 5,400 lbs of food and counting.

Spent a sum total of 30+ person hours per week simply washing our hands. Crazy but true.

And yet -- despite ramping up to full-steam-ahead way earlier in the season than anyone was expecting -- we are still finding energy to be excited about this season. We hope you are, too. Because we’ve got some good vegetables (and some good energy) coming your way.

COVID can’t stop GOOD. And COVID can’t stop this tractor.