Packing for the Farmers Market, Planting Broccoli and Clearing Garden 2

Early start for us yesterday (8am) as we had another first: picking, washing and packaging for the first Livingston farmers market of the season. We needed lettuce, spinach and arugula - all salad greens we've become familiar with.
We knocked it in about five hours. Dave packed some lovely packages for market and we crossed our fingers that the beautiful weather would hold out for the market and Laurie would sell it.

1/2lb bags, picked today

After lunch, Sara and I returned to garden 3 where we've been the past few days to plant another whole row of broccoli. It's so refreshing to know that we'll all be here long enough to see these Little Guys grow from tiny seedlings to delicious, edible bunches. They take two months to mature.

Broccoli

Meanwhile Dave tilled and prepped Garden 2 for the season. Let's be honest, he's lovin the tractor (who wouldn't, I suppose!). He cleared out rocks and the biggest weeds before tilling over with the tractor. 

The must-have before and after pictures:

Garden 2, Before

Garden 2, After.  Ready for planting

Laurie had wintered a section of onions in Garden 2 and Dave took to weeding that section too. Super time consuming as the area was covered with hay to deter the weeds but they grew right through it.

We all finished up planting and tilling around 5:30pm, a pretty long day, and were rewarded with a few hours to do as we please with lovely weather. I took my copy of Anita Shreve's A Wedding in December (I love everything she writes) to the front porch and enjoyed it with a cup of tea. Sara took a walk around the property - and returned two hours later! - she had lost track of the fences and circumnavigated the whole property!

We had another unbelievable stuffed pasta shells dinner - this time, prepared by Laurie's sister Lisa, who is visiting this week from New Hampshire with her husband David and daughter Emma.  I enjoyed it so thoroughly that I forgot to take a picture!

Rumor has it that 50mph winds are headed this way today (Thursday). We'll need to forage for more heavy rocks to weigh down the row covers. But the sun is shining.

PS.  Laurie and her niece Emma SOLD OUT all 40 packages at the Farmers Market and could've sold more!