This morning was overcast & warm... and the soil had the perfect moisture to cultivate! We worked down the rows (on our knees) of parsnips, beets, spinach, & carrots, and brushed out the small weed seedlings with our fingers. It is delicate work, requiring much concentration, but allows conversation and the occasional made-up song (usually about vegetables).
When the plants are this little, it is easy to disturb their roots too much. But if we don't get all the little weeds in the carrots now, they will only get bigger & more difficult to pull, interfering with the precious space those orange roots need to fill out.
The beets needed thinning, so while we weeded, we also took out the extra plants so that each beet had about 3" spacing between the next beet. 3" is a good fat beet. If we left all these plants in, we'd get lots of 1" beets!
This is some good-looking spinach:
Probably because I gave it a dose of organic fertilizer last week. It works that fast! Those leaves sure are tasty & tender. 
Some good-looking cabbages! I can't wait to make my first sauerkraut batch.
In the afternoon, I planted more sunflowers, zinnias, & broom corn in the flower garden. Then I planted a 400' row of tomatoes-- all by myself. Nick was mowing field W, Dave was rototilling & doing office work. It was a pretty hot afternoon out in that rocky row. But it felt good to get all those plants in the ground... tomatillos, 'Big Beef', purple heirlooms, paste tomatoes. I was dreaming up recipes while planting. We set up a drip irrigation line on them, and also on the sweet potatoes we planted yesterday. The next few days are going to be hot...
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