Though Spring by all accounts is here, the fierceness of Winter itself doesn’t want to let go. The was extremely evident this past Thursday as a snowy squall filled the first half of that day. Cold temperatures, wind and snow aside we remained steadfast in our goals to prep and plant. This past week saw ambitious goals like planting tomatoes, the seasons first flowers, getting ready for the NOFA field day, not to mention all the seeding and potting that needs to be done in the nursery this time of year. Though mama Nature was determined to make us work for it with the help of our crew both new and old we were determined to get it all done starting off with planting the seasons first tomatoes in the heated tunnel named Mizuna.
Now the saga of the heat itself has been quite an ordeal one that started back in February when we attempted to fire up the heater, to thaw out the veg and harvest. It was then we discovered that mice had made themselves a home inside and as mice do chewed some wires while in there. After cleaning out the mouse nest assessing the damage and electrical taping the wires, we were a little closer to but still not achieving flame. With the expert guidance of technical assistance we were able to crimp the damaged wires and finally achieve flame, success or so we thought. Though we were getting flame upon testing the heater in preparation for planting we quickly realized the heater was not putting out nearly enough btu’s. A strange problem that seemed to make no sense as the heater seemed to run fine giving us no error codes. After several conversations with technical support and some trouble shooting help from our propane delivery guy what seemed most likely was a blockage some where in the burner gas line. So taking the piping which leads to the cast iron burner apart was the next step. Once disassembled a quick inspection of the brass fitting where the propane enters the burner did appear to show a blockage. Remove that fitting and we find a little jumping spider that had crawled in there for safety during a molt(a bad choice for spidey it turned out). Everything was reassembled tested for leaks and fired back up and yes we have heat and the tomato planting is on. So we ran the heater over night Tuesday as a test and Wednesday planted around 50 grafted heirlooms and 75 or so sungolds.
Feeling confident in our fixes and the safety of the tomatoes before closing everything down for the evening Joel decided to see how the tomato planting had went and enjoy the heated tunnel. Then as he starred through the small port hole where the led error light indicator was to his horror a two flash error code was discovered and the tunnel was getting cold. Turning the heater off then on again resulted in ignition and the heat began to flow for now. A couple of hours later Joel again went out to check the heater and once again the red led light of horror flashed twice like a mocking wink. Turning it off and on once again remedied the problem, but without their temperature monitoring system in place it seemed J and J were in for a sleepless night, trading shifts throughout to check. Thursday was cold enough that the heater would run all day and in fact it did without issue. Similarly overnight and into Friday everything was fine and we resolved ourselves to the fact that perhaps the issue had worked itself out. However, one should know better than to think such things and when checked early Saturday the evil red wink was back, but luckily temperatures hadn’t fallen too low. Another lucky thing was that we do have temperature monitors they simply had not been set up yet in Middlefield. Apparently all we needed was the proper motivation and once the dust settled on Saturday the system was set up and working like a charm. Though the issue was not resolved nightly shifts to check the heater have been replaced with a phone call if the tunnel goes below 45. Not the best wake up call but it surely beats a sleepless night. With some luck and guidance from technical assistance we should be able to resolve the issue this week.
To be clear this past week was much more than just cold sleepless nights and heating issues. This week we welcomed the majority of our main season crew to the farm. The fresh faces and enthusiasm of the new crew members truly is what we need to push us through these last cold days. Their first week went great helping us check many items like planting flowers and tomatoes to name a few off our to do list, even with the hiccups this week brought. We also celebrated 20 years of the CitySeed Saturday New Haven market and despite the cold and wind had a tremendous start to the main season. Saturday also saw SLG hosting a CT NOFA field day, that went off without a hitch, . The event was well attended with the people from CT NOFA, the guest speakers and the attendees being very engaged and enthusiastic, Joel was even able to talk his way through more than the 45 minutes required for the farm tour. We want to give a big thank you to CT NOFA, NCRS, FSA, CT Greenhouse company and all the participants for a great field day here at Star Light Gardens. And of course a big Thank You to all of you the Good Food People.
Have a Great week