Green (and purple) thumbs

This one comes courtesy of the boss today. Right to left are Dan, Christy, and yours truly.

Due to torrential thundering rains we spent the better part of our day today in the greenhouse, working with basil. We are growing two varieties, a green one called genovese and a purple one called red rubin. The difference between the two is primarily color and so just an aesthetic one.

Here we are stepping up basil plants whose seeds were sown into plug trays on the 15th of May. Stepping up is the process of moving a potted start from its current container to a larger one, in order to give its roots more room to grow and to give the plant access to fresh nutrients through additional potting soil. In the case of this young basil, we scooped each plug out with a bladed metal instrument, used a finger to create a hole in the soil of the new container, and then placed the plug in, packing it in lightly with two fingers. It's a somewhat delicate process but goes fairly quickly once you get the hang of it--we stepped up several hundred of these tiny basil sprouts in a couple of hours.

Basil is a hot weather crop and so will be continuously planted throughout the summer season. We have 15 rows already growing out on the farm, as well as the starts we stepped up today; plus we sowed a few hundred more seeds into plug trays this afternoon as well.

Soon the greenhouse will be nearly empty, as the last of the spring-sown crops enter the ground. As you can see behind us though, we still have a number of tomatoes, hot peppers, and eggplants (and maybe even a bit of lettuce) to transplant into the fields this week.