Two Feet in the Dirt

I’m going to keep this week’s post short in honor of a special, non-farm event in our family- our son Caleb’s 5th birthday! Our son has the misfortune to have been born right at the peak of the farming season, so we always try to make an effort to take a day off to celebrate no matter how busy we are. It’s been fun watching our son grow up on the farm the last few years. As an almost-kindergartener, he is much more involved in the farm this year. He can identify a variety of insects, has favorite crops, and has helped with a variety of tasks from weeding to...

Those of you who have shopped our stand at the farmers market in the past two years have probably heard us talk on and on about how much we love Red Russian kale. We grow two types of this kale, one with flat leaves and one with more frilly leaves which tends to do better in the spring-to-summer slot as temperatures heat up. Red Russian kale, with it’s purple stems and green-blue leaves has many attributes that put it at the top of our list. It is beautiful and has an upright growth habit that makes it perfect for harvesting. Originating in Russia, it is extremely cold tolerant and is...

If we thought the bunny rescue threw a wrench in our day, we really got our fill of unexpected events this last Friday. Friday is our busiest day of the week as we work to harvest, wash, and pack all of the orders for Saturday delivery, so we always hope that everything outside of the farm work goes as smoothly as possible. Last Friday, however, our day started with a toad in our kitchen, continued with a mid-afternoon severe thunderstorm that knocked out our power, and ended with us packing orders in the near dark! Because we rely on a well for our water and our well is powered by...

I’m a schedule person and I can’t imagine running a farm any other way. I sit down at the beginning of every week and plan out each work day hour by hour. But I can say pretty confidently that there is barely a week that goes by when something doesn’t throw the schedule out of whack! Farming is nothing if not unpredictable. Things happen all the time that force us to adjust and think on our feet and you never know what it’s going to be.  Our most recent (and one of our cutest) changes of plans was the discovery of a juvenile rabbit that had made it’s home on...

I’ve been mentioning how up and down the weather has been over the past few months. Things like garlic (which has been in the ground since last autumn) are ahead of where they usually are given the warm winter. Other crops, especially those that were planted in April, are behind because of our unusually cold late April and early May. A perfect example of this is the potatoes (pictured above). Potatoes are one of the few crops that are not planted from seeds or seedlings. Rather, we put actually pieces of potatoes (like those you eat) in the ground. You may have noticed the “eyes” on potatoes you’ve had at...

It’s been a strange spring in terms of weather. We started out with an exceptionally warm February and early March. Our first crops seeded in the hoop house germinated in about half the time we usually expect at that point in the season. However, the weather cooled off significantly in the last few weeks. Usually, we are beginning to plant summer crops this week, but with nighttime temperatures forecast to be in the 30s at the end of this week and into next week, it looks like we’ll be holding off until things warm up a little. This can be a hassle as the transplants are quite big and ready...