Dear Farm Community,

A big fall milestone happened on the farm this past week: our ranunculus corms have officially been started!

This is one of those undertakings that requires many hands, even more potting soil, and a mind boggling amount of repetition. By the end of one very long day, our crew had potted up 7,000 ranunculus corms ~ 9 standard ranunculus varieties and 7 butterfly ranunculus varieties ~ and tucked them into the cooler, where they’re beginning their very slow journey toward becoming some of our most anticipated spring flowers (cue photo montage….)

And that journey starts with something remarkably unimpressive and a lil freaky lookin’ (see above……)

Ranunculus corms arrive looking like tiny bundles of shriveled-up fingers. Or miniature dried octopuses. Some strange little creature you might find under a rock or in the uncharted deep sea. They certainly do not look like something capable of producing layer upon layer of silky, delicate petals a few months from now, but nature has her mysteries! And that’s what makes them so fun.

Before potting, we give the corms a nice long soak in water. Over the course of a few hours, those dry little fingers plump up as they rehydrate, and they start looking a little more alive.

From there our crew divides and conquers. Some corms are planted individually into cell trays, while others are spread across shallow flats and covered completely with soil. Tray by tray, flat by flat, the stacks begin to grow until what started as a pile of strange little dried corms has become a VERY large and VERY heavy collection of future flowers.

From there, into the cooler they go! Ranunculus benefit from spending their first few weeks growing in controlled cool conditions. During this period, the corms begin developing roots and waking up before they ever make it out to the field. Giving them this head start helps us establish strong plants that will be ready to take off once they’re planted outside. For now, though, they’re quietly doin’ their thing in the dark while the rest of us are taking in the fall weather and sunshine. And GET THIS ~ we’ll be doing it all over again with another 7,000+ corms in a month or so.

There’s something very big picture about this particular task. Autumn is only just arriving, the leaves haven’t really even turned yet, and winter still feels a ways off. And yet, here we are already preparing for spring. Those 7,000 little corms sitting in our cooler are essentially a promise to our future selves. There’s the whole journey of the world falling asleep and waking up again over fall and winter. But sure enough the whole time we know that eventually, we’ll walk into our greenhouses and find rows of ranunculus beginning to blooming again. After spending a whole day potting up what currently looks like 7,000 tiny dried octopuses buried under some very wet soil, it remains slightly unbelievable that this is where all that spring beauty begins. But believe it we do ~ it happens every year ;-)

In other news, this week we met a few fairies in the fields. They told us some cosmic secrets that we are not at liberty to disclose. But we still wanted to share the wonder with you guys…. ;-)

Let’s get cookin’ with our CSA shares this week! As the weather gets chillier it begs the question… when does soup season start?? If you want to get an early start, try out this Sweet Potato Soup from Love & Lemons that incorporates lots of cozy flavors like apple and smoked paprika. Pivot to summer squash and cook up this Zucchini and potato stew ~ yellow squash will sub in just fine! And that bok choy would be perfect for this Super Simple, Very Green Soup.

Some might call it a False Fall ~ and then some of us will just take all of the Fall we can get !!!

Happy Eating!
Diamond Hill Farmers

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