Hi all, this week is the first delivery of the season! Exciting!  Below is the letter from Farmer John

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Hi Folks,

The week you have been waiting for has arrived, the first delivery.
We have lots of nice stuff in store for the beginning of the season.
The spinach looks beautiful as do the lettuces and the peas have been
flowering profusely.  We received a good slow rain just after my last
writing and a drenching thunderstorm on Sunday, so we are in good
shape in the moisture department.

We finished transplanting most of the warm weather crops this past
week, with just another 1000 or so tomatoes to put in this week. We
will also be planting out the melons this week.  The sweet potatoes
plants have taken root nicely and should start to grow rapidly in
another week. The stage is set for a great season, now all we have to
do is follow through- keep ahead of the weeds, get the tomatoes and
cucumbers tied and trellised, and get the harvesting done.

The biggest challenge I face right now is a shortage of labor. I have
5 field workers presently, but I have been planning and working at
bringing 7 more workers from Central America for the season. At least
some of these I expected to be here by now. I have experienced about
every bureaucratic delay imaginable this year, beginning with the
Dept. of Labor changing their address without notifying those who use
the program or posting it on their website. After a month of
correspondence with the Embassy in Guatemala I finally have
appointments for the interviews the workers need to get their visas,
on June 23. Hopefully the 3 workers from Guatemala will be here by
early July. The other 4 from Honduras are still waiting in
bureaucratic limbo for Immigration services to notify the Embassy
there. I don’t expect to see them until at least August! In the
meantime I will have to go in search of day laborers, which is not
really the best use of my time.

Any volunteer help with the harvest will be greatly appreciated.
Calling all pea pickers!

The share for this week will be: Spinach, lettuce (various types),
peas, garlic scapes, kale and radishes.

Enjoy!
Farmer John