Up-potting Tomatoes & Seeding Peppers

Village Farm Team,

Our tomato transplants are swiftly growing in the greenhouse, especially with this warmer weather pattern. In order to allow for room for healthy root development, we’ve been potting them up into larger 4-inch containers. This allows them the space to continue to grow until we are able to transplant them in the field. The tomato transplants will remain in the greenhouse until we’ve passed our last frost date. Weather permitting, our target date to begin transplanting tomatoes is March 1st.

Now that our tomatoes have had time to put on some growth, we’ve started seeding another warm weather favorite: peppers! Peppers are members of the nightshade family along with tomatoes. And, just like tomatoes, peppers prefer growing and producing in warmer temperatures. Here are some of the varieties you can look forward to: Big Jim (a larger chili pepper with a medium spice level), Cornito Giallo (an oblong sweet pepper), Felicity (a “no-heat” jalapeno), and Jalafuego (a large jalapeno with a medium spice level).

We’ve been seeing a lot of variety with our harvests over the past couple of weeks so we hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy it! One of the newer items in our harvest lineup is our Top Bunch collard greens. This variety is both heat and cold-tolerant and has a quick re-growth time after harvesting. Top Bunch has a sweet flavor (especially after our recent frosts) and can be used in any recipes calling for kale. Since the leaves are on the larger side, they can be used for wraps and burritos. If you decide to go that route, try lightly steaming them first for about 30-60 seconds to make them more pliable and easier to digest.