March 28, 2026

Greetings from the greenhouse!

It’s the season of my favorite garden work. On bright sunny days when the wind is blowing a March gale, there’s no better place to be than in the greenhouse. It’s also a pretty great place to be even when it’s cloudy, foggy, drizzling, and down-right raining.

The returning birds keep me company and there’s no need to play human music when they’re nearby. The aroma of the compost-laden soil is a balm for my nervous system.

Over 50+ years of growing, I’ve learned that patience pays off - that starting seeds any earlier is a waste of energy - and that good things come to those who wait.

A week ago I started some early flowers and herbs - several kinds of salvias and bachelor buttons, calendula, petunias, penstemmon, statice, parsley, and some kale for our salads. They’re all up now and have moved off the grow mat and into the greenhouse. These are all pretty tough and can stand colder temperatures, although I’ll bring them indoors on really cold nights, like tonight’s predicted 17*. We have a small heater but why tempt fate?

This week I started my first 2 waves of tomatoes and they’ve replaced the flowers on the propagation mats in the bay window in the living room. I like to start 3 waves in case trouble befalls one [usually due to me dropping something because I’m moving too fast, or because a chipmunk or bunny got into the greenhouse for a snack.]

Among the tomatoes I started today is “Celebrity” which was my Mum’s favorite variety. Today is her mother’s birthday, and I learned long ago that the wave begun on Grammie’s birthday always grew strongest. And Mum was right, it is a very fine tomato, perfectly balanced sweetness and acidity and our favorite for slicing and sandwiches.

We’re also growing Kellogg’s Breakfast, an extraordinary golden heirloom with meaty texture and lots of layers of flavor, Sungolds and Supersweet 100’s - favorite cherry tomatoes, and 3 kinds of sauce tomatoes - Laroma, Zenzie, and Saucy Lady. We make A LOT of sauce! We eat A LOT of sauce! [At least once a week] - I’ve been canning all our tomato sauce since 1975 and haven’t needed to buy a jar since then.

Next week I’ll be starting peppers - sweet Italian varieties and hot cayennes, the basils - Genovese, piccolo, lemon, Thai and tulsi - and dills. Then will come all the flowers - zinnias, cosmos, celosia, amaranth, nasturtiums, strawflowers, marigolds, scabious, and sunflowers. We love growing them and people love to see them at Tiny Farmstand.

Speaking of which, we’re planning on opening the last weekend in April [although we’re flexible - if it warms up earlier, we’ll open then - if it snows, we’ll wait.]

Once open, we bake our berry pies and mooncakes DAILY and plan on staying open through December. Our hours are 9-6 [9-7 June-August].

In the meantime, we’re still putting up preserves so we’ll have plenty ahead of our opening. We’re low on strawberry, and out of blueberry, peach, and black currant. [We have blueberries and peaches in the freezer, but we need them for TripleBerry Pies and PeachBerry Pies.] Hopefully we’ll have good yields of both this season so we can put those fruits into preserves again as well as pies.

We’ve also made plenty of Elderberry Syrup and Tomatoes Rustica. This is a good time of year for mail-order because the weather is moderate and the post office isn’t overwhelmed. [We’re also happy to arrange a pickup if you’re local.]

I’ll begin making PattiPops - Frosty Fruit Pops - in April - strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, red currant, and grape.

Outdoors all the plants are still sleeping, although there is a faint golden hue around the forsythia, a pink glow around the peach trees, and slightly swollen red buds on the red maples. I began pruning the peaches yesterday, and Elisha will take care of the berry bushes soon.

Ralph has been busy readying the greenhouse, repainting the road signs, doing some home repair work, making lots of good food, [and of course moving snow and keeping the wood stove burning.]

Abbey is a happy girl - still prancing and dancing for her supper and woofing for guests. She walks all around the farm several times a day with both of us [Ralph’s on the morning shift; I have the evening tour]. Chipmunks, squirrels, and bunnies have nothing to fear from her these days, but that’s ok. She worked hard for 13 1/2 years and deserves her retirement.

Happy Spring and many thanks to everyone who reads this!

You help make it all happen and we’re so grateful!

Love, Patti, Ralph, and Abbey the Joyful

[photo is from April 2025!]