Crop rotations 7-11-14

Rotating around the Farm

You may wonder sometimes how come some crops seem to be available for months and others have a very short season of availability. At Nash’s organic farm, we provide our customers only what is in season in our region, so it is absolutely fresh and at its prime. But how and why do we keep up a steady supply of certain vegetables, while others make only a brief appearance?

We strive for a consistent supply of several staple vegetables by planting what is commonly called “rotations.”  Spinach, for example, is a quick-turning crop that takes about 30 days to fully mature, and once its been harvested we can re-prep the field and plant something else.

We plant successive rotations of spinach twice a week from April to September. Rotations  vary in size, depending on where they’re planted. 40 rotations will be harvested from May into December of these calcium-rich tender greens for local sales, farmers markets and wholesale shipping.

Carrots is another crop that gets repeated plantings, although not nearly as frequently as spinach.  We plant 5 or 6 rotations of carrots, at about two-week intervals.  Rotations of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are also scheduled to go in the ground once a week for several months.

On the other hand, celery is so labor intensive and takes so long to fully mature, that we only plant one rotation annually.  Celery seeds are started in the greenhouse in March, are transplanted into the field in early May. We don’t actually harvest it until early October!

Three rotations of corn on Delta Farm.