The First Cauliflower of the Season

Village Farm Team,

You’re looking at the first head of cauliflower to be harvested this season! Though the leaves of our cauliflower have some freeze damage the heads themselves are coming in beautifully. This particular variety is Song Cauliflower and as you can see in the second photo, it has green stems. Green-stemmed cauliflower tends to be sweeter and more tender than white-stemmed varieties. The florets of Song have longer stems which means it only takes a cut or two with your kitchen knife to separate them. Make sure to stop by the veggie wagon this Saturday so you can enjoy the first cauliflower harvest of the season.

We’ve been experiencing some pest issues in our greenhouse over the past few weeks so we decided to direct-seed some of our brassicas. Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage seeds were planted directly in our beds rather than starting the seeds in trays in our greenhouse. To protect the seedlings while they germinate and begin to grow, we’re using row covers. The row covers will also provide a bit of warmth now that we’re experiencing wintry weather.

We took advantage of the dry period last month to renovate and cover several of our beds. Renovating with the broad fork or BCS tractor is easier with drier soil so we made the weather forecast work to our advantage, knocking out the process before the recent rounds of rainfall. By covering our renovated beds with tarps, we’re able to reduce weed growth as well as soil erosion and excess saturation from rain. We’ll eventually be planting these beds with more winter crops.