Just the beginning...
As always, the ever present "garden cat" Kittums. She sneaks in the warm greenhouse whenever possible, but she can't stay because she tries to bed down in the seedlings.
Almost ready.
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Spring sales are almost here
Finally! Longer hours of sunlight and the beginning of warmer days. We have started our seedlings for the Columbia Farmer's Market. Our small greenhouse has weathered another winter in very fine fashion, but the large one is looking a little rough. We will have to re-sheet the bottom three feet, but otherwise, it will make the season. We can't wait to see all of our friends at the Market - sellers and shoppers alike.
This year we have added asparagus, sweet potato slips, kale, brussel sprout, spaghetti squash, Iroquois cantaloupe, lime basil, and cinnamon basil to our list of spring seedlings for sale. We have also expanded the number of varieties of some of our standards. We will have yellow, orange, red, purple in addition to our green sweet bell peppers. We will have over twenty varieties of tomato plants this year - I won't bore you with the names! Just know that we test drive them all and pick the widest range of tastes from savory to sweet.
Now for the long awaited animal story. All winter we babied about six growing boxes with two kale plants in each in the small greenhouse. We prefer kale to lettuce, so we were all excited to have fresh salad all winter long, but it was not to be. Aaron likes to let the chickens out at the end of the day so they can get some gravel, bugs, and greens out of the big greenhouse. Unfortunately, he forgot he had propped the small greenhouse door open to keep the temperature down, and guess what..... chickens love kale! They stripped all but two plants down to the stalk. I will say though, they produced some rich eggs for a few days!
God was with us more than once when the temps were so low, as well. The small greenhouse door had a stick lodged in the bottom and the door was open a few inches on a night below freezing, but the plants did just fine. Another time, the temperature went lower than expected on a night we didn't have f ire in the boiler, and there was no heat circulating, but again, God was good and had mercy on us!
Thank you for reading our family farm blog and supporting local growers - it's good for you and good for us.
This year we have added asparagus, sweet potato slips, kale, brussel sprout, spaghetti squash, Iroquois cantaloupe, lime basil, and cinnamon basil to our list of spring seedlings for sale. We have also expanded the number of varieties of some of our standards. We will have yellow, orange, red, purple in addition to our green sweet bell peppers. We will have over twenty varieties of tomato plants this year - I won't bore you with the names! Just know that we test drive them all and pick the widest range of tastes from savory to sweet.
Now for the long awaited animal story. All winter we babied about six growing boxes with two kale plants in each in the small greenhouse. We prefer kale to lettuce, so we were all excited to have fresh salad all winter long, but it was not to be. Aaron likes to let the chickens out at the end of the day so they can get some gravel, bugs, and greens out of the big greenhouse. Unfortunately, he forgot he had propped the small greenhouse door open to keep the temperature down, and guess what..... chickens love kale! They stripped all but two plants down to the stalk. I will say though, they produced some rich eggs for a few days!
God was with us more than once when the temps were so low, as well. The small greenhouse door had a stick lodged in the bottom and the door was open a few inches on a night below freezing, but the plants did just fine. Another time, the temperature went lower than expected on a night we didn't have f ire in the boiler, and there was no heat circulating, but again, God was good and had mercy on us!
Thank you for reading our family farm blog and supporting local growers - it's good for you and good for us.
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