We had so much fun at our plant sale last Saturday, we are extending it for one more weekend.  We will be there again this Saturday the 15th from 9-4.  Tell your friends and neighbors.  We have wonderful, beautiful, organically grown plants for your garden!  See you there!

Saturday May 8th is our 1st, going to be annual, plant sale at the farm.  We have a large assortment of organically grown tomato, pepper, eggplant, and much more.  Come and get your garden started with us!  We will be open from 9-5.  

See you there!

We will be hosting a Farm Tour and Potluck social at the farm this Saturday.  Farm tour is from 2-4 pm and the potluck social is @ 4pm.  Come out and see what's going on this time of the year.  We are celebrating our 5th year for our CSA.  It is suposto be a beautiful day with out wind, got my fingers crossed for that one, hope to see you there.  Bring the whole family!

We are finally harvesting from the greenhouse.  Baby spinach and salad mix, micro greens and arugula, and the baby bok choy is not far behind.  I cant say how excited I am to gave greens that didn't come in a bag or from so far away.  I am also so thankful to have the greenhouse to work in right now, as the mud is thick out there, so yet again we will play the waiting game before we can get the fields ready.  Its not quite April yet, but close enough and I just happened to read the following last night and I feel that it is perfectly worthy of quoting now.  

The following is and excerpt from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle written by Barbara Kingsolver.

"April is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot wrote, by which I think he meant (among other things) that springtime makes people crazy.  We expect too much, the world burgeons with promises it can't keep, all passion is really a setup, and we're doomed to get our hearts broken yet again.  I agree, and would further add: Who cares?  Every spring I go there anyway, around the bend, unconditionally.  I'm a soul on ice flung out on a rock in the sun, where the needles that pierced me bein to melt all as one

On the new edge of springtime when I stand on the front proch shading my eyes from the weak morning light, sniffing out a tinge of green on the hill and the scent of yawning earthworms, oh boy, then!  I roll like a bear out of hibernation.  The maple buds glow pink the forsythia breaks into its bright yellow aria.  These are the days when we can't keep ourselves indoors around here, any more than we believe what our eyes keep telling us about the surrounding land, i.e., that it is still a giant mud puddle, now lacking its protective covering of ice.  So it comes to pass that one pair of boots after another run outdoors and come back mud -caked- more shoes thatn we even knew we had in the house, proliferating like wild portobellos in a composty heap by the front door.  So what?  Noah's kids would have felt like this when the flood had almost dried up: muddy boots be hanged.  Come the end of the dark days, I am more than joyful.  Im nuts."   

My Mom and dad are such a valuable part of our family farm.  They both have their roles and work very hard to make it succeed.  

My dad has been on the farm his whole life, he loves it.  It is his passion in life.  When I told him I was coming home to farm our usual 10 minute phone conversation quickly turned into an hour long conversation.  He has been a cattle rancher, running a traditional cow calf operation, as well as a hay farmer.  Of course he was also involved in the family's produce operation since he was a kid.  My grandparents grew up to about 50 acres of produce at a time including but not limited to cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, and broccoli.  We had to help when we were kids and yes it was torture.  His role at the farm is critical. He takes care of the cattle for the most part as well as does all of the maintenance on the tractors and all of the equipment.  He also gets the great job of spreading the manure.  We have really high-tec equipment for this.  The old truck in the photo below is our spreader.  Still runs like a champ, needs a little work now and then, but works great!  He also irrigates all of the pasture and hay fields as well as the produce when he is able to.  He can run the cultivator like no one else as well, but the trick is catching him do some of these things.  He also puts up about 250 acres of hay in Hillside in the summer and is in between places irrigating or moving cows or one of the many other little things he takes on in any given summer.

My mom.  My mom is a very special person.  She will do anything for anybody.  I dont know how she does it.  She is the person that if you tell her its someones birthday at 10 in the morning, she will have a cake ready to go for you by noon.  Im not sure when she actually makes it since she works full time at the college.  I think she has elves that help her do all the things she does.  She also does an amazing amount of work down at the farm.  When she is not giving Zia rides on the horse Nicky, she is busy watering, weeding, picking, planting, cooking, cleaning, working (at school), or doing any of the hundreds of things that happen on a farm.  I just cant say enough about her.  Where she finds the time or the energy to accomplish all the things she does is beyond me.  She is the most compassionate, loving, giving, caring, helpful person I know.  If you ever get a chance to come to the farm to meet her, it is worth every minute of your time.  She is an angel in disguise.  

Kiana my faithful helper was watching me plant our new beds in the greenhouse.  I havent worked with drip much and learned a lot from just these small beds of greens.  The baby spinach and salad mix have germinated nicely, only they only germinated in the circle around where the water comes out the drip.  Lesson learned...i need to hand water until germination.  It looks pretty cool though!

Production in the greenhouse is coming right along!  We are getting lots of vegetable seeds in the soil to start their long journey from seed to fruit.  It is always so amazing to me what grows from such a tiny, sometimes barley visible seed.  Or even the tomato seeds how that little fuzzy seed will produce so many pounds of food.  

One of my favorite times of the year is when plants start to germinate and there is just that bright green, fresh spring green carpet in the greenhouse.  It is also starting to green up outside.  Time to start preparing the fields, pruning the trees and berry bushes getting the herb beds cleaned out and ready for spring, and all the other tasks we can do now that the ground has thawed and the days are warming up.  I better get to work...

This is my kitchen table.  My husband, Bruce, loves the fact that we cant use it since the seeds have taken over.  Every winter one of my favorite things to do is seed orders.  It is quite the process!  First I must take inventory on the seeds that we already have.  This year we got to add the element of making a spread sheet with all the info about each packet of seeds.  The variety, quantity, certifing agent and date for each and every one.  I guess in the long run it will be beneficial to just be able to go in and update the sheet.  

It is always fun to dig through the catalougs each spring.  Some of them are very entertaning and contain precarious information the items.  FedCo is the best for odd info about seed.  For instance there is a pepper called Beaver Dam.  The following is the description from the catalogue: "Drenched and desolate? Leave it to Beaver! The only pepper to produce for Emily Cates in this challenging season, Beaver Dam set several pendulous shiny horn-shaped 6" red-orange fruits per plant, 3" wide at the shoulders, tapering to a blunt point.  Early for its size and a heavy producer in more normal years.  With Beaver Dam you can have it both ways: sweet or with heat.  Most of its mild spice is in its seeds and ribs so you can excise those if you wish.  Or leave them in to enjoy its nice peppery flavor.  Heirloom brought to Beaver Dam, WI, in 1912 by the Joe Hussli family.  Emily's favorite for roasting over hot coals in the wood stove."  

Such a joy to learn so much about each item while getting the jist of what is to come from the seed.  Seed hunting can be quite time consuming.  I started taking my pile of catalogs with me to great-grandmas, the greenhouse, the car, for when the girls are sleeping or just playing for a few minutes, I can get some done.  Usually its about one or 2 items, but more than I would have if I hadn't brought it along.  Seize the moment! 

When thinking seed, I have to give thanks for our dedicated CSA members who sign up early.  You really are the glue that holds this operation together.  I would not be able to order seed if it wasn't for your early renewals!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  

This is an article that I wrote 2 winters ago.  Nobody ever got the chance to read it so I thought Id share it with you, not much has changed.  

As summer quickly approaches, so does the season for local produce!  Spending the winter eating frozen, canned, or even fresh produce from all over the world makes me greatly anticipate what is coming soon grown right here in our food shed. Becoming connected with the food that is produced in this region can be a great learning experience as well a way that you can support your local economy.

The average morsel of food travels 2000 miles before ending up at the local grocery store.  I spent some time in the local grocery store and took some time to look at some of the origins on those little stickers that are on the fresh fruit and vegetables.  The findings were interesting.  To my surprise there were some Colorado grown products in the produce department. Crimini and button mushrooms are grown in our neighborhood by Rakara Mushrooms in Alamosa. Fresh sprouts are grown in Denver, Osage Gardens in Newcastle, Colorado is the local provider of fresh packaged herbs such as basil, dill, chives, mint and more, and there were packages of dried pinto beans from Dove Creek. Organic greenhouse cherry tomatoes are starting to come in from Denver.  Weather their grown in soil or hydroponically, the package didn’t say.  All of the other produce in the department came from somewhere other than Colorado. 

Naturally some things don’t grow here so if we choose to have the luxury of them, they will have to travel.  Citrus such as oranges, mandarins, and grapefruit are coming from California and Texas.  The citrus growers in California experienced a significant loss this winter due to freezing weather but still managed to have some crops.  Grapes, nectarines, and plums are being imported from Chili, and pears from Argentina.  Produce coming from Mexico is dominating the produce market right now.  Blackberries, cantaloupe, watermelons, avocados, eggplant, organic celery, zucchini, summer squash and several varieties of packaged lettuce blends are all being imported from south of the border. 

Bell peppers of all colors, green, orange, red, and yellow are all labeled Canada, though I’ve recently seen grown in Holland labels on the peppers.  Holland is how far away?  As for the unmentioned fresh produce, it is coming mainly from California and Arizona, a mere hop and a skip away.  Some of the apples are still coming out of storage from Washington state, keep in mind that these were all harvested last fall and kept in pressurized rooms until now.  Start looking for New Zeeland labels on the new crop apples. Strawberries are coming from California and I am thankful that these farmers have a crop after the rains that wiped out the majority of the strawberries last year. 

Local, seasonal produce will be starting to arrive in many areas of Colorado as soon as May. Grown in the back yard or on your local family farm items such as sugar snap peas, carrots, spinach, lettuce, turnips, beets, and radishes are going to be some of the first out of the ground for you to sample this year.  Added to the list in June and July vegetables such as broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, cabbage, garlic, new potatoes, bunched onions, swiss chard, green beans, and the beginning of sweet corn, one of my personal seasonal favorites, will be arriving.  Fresh juicy fruit is always much anticipated as well.  Be ready for apricots, cherries, and the famous Palisade peaches to be juicy sweet, but only for a short season.  Do what you can to preserve these treats throughout the season to savor the flavor throughout the year. In August, September, and early October the produce really continues to be bountiful.  Eggplant, peppers of all kinds including roasted chilies, tomatoes, cauliflower, cantaloupe, watermelon, acorn squash and other winter varieties of squash are keeping the local market steady.

Depending on the location the produce is grown will determine when it will be ready for harvest.  In Colorado this will greatly vary from Pueblo’s long hot summers to Salida’s shorter, cooler growing season.  No matter where you are indulge in pleasures of local produce.  Keep in mind that even if it is from the other side of Colorado, it is still local.  Nearly 90% of transportation costs are spent on transportation of food and a mere 10% is used for the production of food.  Challenge yourself to eat as close to home as possible.  Visit your local farmers market weekly and don’t be afraid to try new foods that you have never had before.  Spend a day canning green beans, or freezing fresh peaches to enjoy throughout the winter.  You will be pleasantly surprised the joy you will get from this.  Also visit your local farmer and volunteer on the farm for a day to really get a hand in the local food production system.  Becoming connected with local food systems is a great way to keep your money local and to make sure that farmers are getting what they deserve for their effort to feed you.  Eat fresh, local, and share in the joy of eating seasonally!     

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Welcome new piggies, our most recent addition to the farm.  They arrived on Saturday and are as happy as can be.  They have a huge pasture that they are housed in.  Zia is absolutely in love with them.  They are pretty friendly and we hope that we can get them used to us so we can scratch them behind their ears.  I had 4-H pigs growing up that were my best friends.  Id even lay down on them and take naps with them, the two I remember most were Siegfried and Tristan. They were Hampshires, black and a white band around the midsection.

Animals have it pretty good on our farm.  The pigs get soaked grains every day (soon will be getting whey from a local dairy), they have a big area to run and root in.  Hoping to get them some pasture to graze on this summer.

The chickens are going to be setting on their eggs.  I figured what better way to get more chickens than to let them raise some of their own.  I think the girls will really get a kick out of the chicks to.  They too have a great home.  We are going to be rebuilding their yard, not so big and alien proof.  Thats what got the last ones you know.  

The cows have 50 acres to run on in the winter.  They have warm water to drink.  We call it the Castleburry, it is ground water that flows into the creek.  This is the sweet spot for them to drink.  In addition to the grass, there is not much left at this time of the year, they get hay that we have grown in the late morning every day.  This also gives us a chance to check them.  Tis the season for them to start having calves, we had one yesterday.  Should have about 30-40 calves on the ground this spring.  The newborns are so very cute.  

On the vegetable side of things, the green house will soon be in full swing.  We have new beds in ground that will be able to produce lots of vegetables.  We will be planting arugula, baby spinach, salad mix, bok choy, and some other early spring additions. I am excited to see how much we can produce in that small space.  

Spring is well on its way and there will be endless new additions!  It is my favorite time of the year with all the baby's and new growth.  I especially cant wait for the first bulbs of spring that add that splash of color the the winter landscape, and those brand new bright green leaves on the trees

I feel safe saying that cleaning is not everybody's favorite thing to do.  Cleaning the farm is different though.  It doesn't involve dirty mop water and cleaners.  It is the time of the season for me when, playing roulette with the weather, is really inspiring and comforting.  I get to know the farm again.  Since I don't live on the farm, there are some days in the winter when I don't even make it down there.  "Dad, will you please take care of the chickens for me?"  When I do get down there and have time in between doing paper work, computer work, and juggling early season meetings, it gives me a great sence of relief.  

I know that spring is just around the corner and that I really have to get my butt in gear.  I start thinking of all the things that need done.  Starting with cleaning up the weeds, yes they never really go away.  The fields and ditches are fine.  The cows either take care of them or we burn them come spring.  Around the greenhouse and buildings it is a little harder to start a raging fire to control the population which seems to get out of hand rather easily.  It feels good to go home after a day on a rake and feel the muscles in your back after getting back at it.  This all depends on the weather of course.  It could be sunny and 55 degrees, just beautiful, and in a matter of minutes be snowing and the wind blowing (not just wind, but the kind of wind that blows right through you and makes the inside of your ears cold).  This was our expierence when we had folks out for garlic planting.  

The greenhouse is the perfect place to retreat on days like this.  If the sun is or was shining it is a safe bet to say that the weather in the greenhouse will be very pleasnt.  It may sound as if the whole thing is going to come down around you if the wind is blowing hard enough, but you are out of the elements.  There is always cleaning and prep to do in the greenhouse.  Anything from watering beds that have dried out after sitting fallow for the winter, to tilling them.  There are also plants that have been in pots in the winter in there that can always use some lovin'.  In addition to cleaning and prepping this is the time of year when we start to think of spring planting in the greenhouse.  We start getting salad mix, baby spinach, and some other cold hardy things growing.  This is our first season with a lot of space in ground, in the greenhouse, that we will be planting for early sales to restarunts and early CSA shares.  

Farm aside, the other perfect thing for me to do in the winter is to get my pottery wheel spinning.  It doesnt pay to have a degree in something unless you are going to use it eh?  I finally got a burner for my kiln and am hoping to have some pots to sell this summer.

I love playing in the mud!