Planting Grapevines & Monitoring Crops for Freeze Damage

Village Farm Team,

Last Saturday for Farm Fun Day, the focus was excavating holes in the vineyard in preparation for our new grapevines. On Thursday our grapevines arrived at the farm “bare root”. This makes them easier to transplant as the team can efficiently spread the roots out by hand in order to ensure maximum contact with the soil. By spreading the roots out, we are helping them to become established quicker since they will have more surface area from which to absorb water and nutrients from the soil. Our grapevines are of the Black Spanish variety. Black Spanish grapevines embody a natural resistance to the Phylloxera pest and Pierce's Disease, which is a common threat to vineyards in areas of the country with warmer winters.

Now that we are a little over a week past our hard freeze incident, the team has been able to monitor how all of our crops are faring, both in the greenhouse and the fields. In the greenhouse, our tomato seedlings are at about 75 to 80 percent germination. This is only slightly less than the overall expected germination rate of 85 to 90 percent so we won’t need to re-plant. In the north field our brassicas are beginning to recover despite looking a little stunned post-freeze. When it comes to leafy greens, any damaged outer leaves can be trimmed off to allow for healthier maturation. As for our cauliflower and broccoli, they still appear to be in good shape since none of them had produced heads before the freeze.

The countdown to Chef Fest is officially on! On Sunday, March 4th from 12-4pm, our farm will be hosting a group of local rock star chefs for the 2nd annual Chef Fest. We currently have 12 chefs lined up, each bringing their own unique style and flavor. This year we are lucky to have one vegan chef for our plant-based friends as well as a pastry chef specializing in both unique and classic confections. Head over to the website for the complete chef lineup and ticketing information. We hope to see you there!

This coming Saturday (January 27th) the veggie wagon will not be open in order to allow our team to participate in the first aid training course with the residents at the Farmhouse. We’ll resume regular veggie wagon hours next Saturday, February 3rd.

Happy Harvesting,

The Agmenity Farm Team

Words & Photos by Courtney West