Spring at Our Research and Education Seed Farm

Posted on Tuesday, 9 May 2023 under Stories

We have been having a lovely spring at our Research and Education Seed Farm. The beautiful sunny days have been motivating us to sow our seeds and get our plants growing.

We started the season with starting seeds at Fraser Common Farms, where we grow all of our transplants. As soon as the soil dried up, we were able to get into the fields and plant fantasia carrots roots, onions, watermelon radish roots, and lots of potatoes. Over the past few years, we have collaborated on a couple of potato projects, including the Kenosha true potato seed project and an indigenous potato project. We now have 8 varieties of potatoes growing on our farm!

A large chunk of our time at the Seed Farm has been spent prepping the fields for planting and applying compost. Once we have a clean bed, we can start planting our seeds. The first seeds in the ground were our Citizen Seed Trial crops. This year we are looking at peas, salad turnips, and radishes. Since early April was on the cooler side, we patiently waited for these seeds to pop out of the soil. Luckily, within a month, all the crops had germinated.

As we moved into April, we planted 100 feet of Stuttgarter onion. As a biennial, onions take two years to go to seed. Last year, we planted the seeds and grew the onion roots. Over winter, we stored the onions in a cooler. Then we planted the pungent yellow onions back into the field. We are looking forward to watching these onions grow the ball-like flowers found in alliums.

Some other crops we are growing at the Seed Farm include our F2 Striped Gold beet mix, aprovecho fava beans, and a variety of salanova lettuces that our friends at Stable Harvest Farm started for us.

Overall, it has been a great start to the season. If you are interested in volunteering at our Research and Education Seed Farm, please fill out our volunteer application form and we will be in touch.