Market Over, Now What?
With the Coupeville Farmers' Market now over for the 2012 season, you might be thinking those people out at Prairie Bottom are finally getting a well deserved rest. Well, that isn't quite the case. We are dividing up potatoes, storing squash, sorting beans, preparing last CSA orders, and getting ready for Fall. With all of the winter squash in the barn and the Rockwells drying, we are finally spending some quality time getting the farm in order and taking stock of our inventory.
Henry got his wagon today that I worked hard on repairing and sprucing up for his birthday. I painted the sides to look just like Grandpa Wilbur's squash trailer. I hope he likes being hauld around in it.
Tom has been hard at work on the Cub and we were able to replace the rear main seal today and to put the clutch and tractor back together again. I hope this rear seal doesn't leak. Tomorrow, Tom is coming out and we will see if it all works! Cross your fingers.
Hoop House Horay!
We picked for market today many nice veggies! The spinach is so tender that we had to work hard not to break the stems as we bunched them. We have the most amazing little heads of Tom Thumb head lettuce this week for sale. They are tiny butter head lettuces that are just so fantastic (I love to eat them as I pick them - and that isn't true for most lettuces).
The planting in the hoop house began in earnest today! Heni, Josh, Miriam and Wilbur worked hard in the hoop house today to remove any signs of weeds and organic matter to ge the soil ready for planting. The melons were planted around the perimeter of the hoop house and tomatoes are going in the center. Currently, there are 74 tomatoe plants and probably 140 melon plants…. We have many more tomatoes to go and several melon types. There is basil to plant and eventually peppers and eggplant if possible. Watering is fun and something we haven't done for awhile but with the high temps in the hoop house we will need too.
The upstairs in the barn was primed the other day and we are planning on painting it on Sunday. We picked out a red floor paint and a very light blue for the walls.
As I was finishing planting the tomatoes for the day cousing Bob Engle was out tilling up the remainder of the garden! It looks amazing and we will be chomping at the bit to get things planted!
Tom Thompsin, a CSA member, has been out working on the Cub. For those of you who don't know the cub blew a piston and we are working to remove the engine so that it can be prepped for oversize pistons to go in. We've been working in the barn cleaning parts, getting the engine out, and learning how to read a service manual.
Beets cleared out!
After Uncle Bob advised me on removing beets prior to discing Josh, Miriam, and Julieanna jumped to and pulled all of the old beets! I love that we can actually stand on a mountain of beets! There are two smaller piles at the other end.
Flowers Going In
Today Josh, Miriam, Julieanna, Sara, Wilbur, and Henry worked hard to transplant flowers into the garden. After several trays of starts had been planted a nice spring rain watered them in!
The members have been doing well with their pickups and the routine is working along. It is quite hard to believe that we are on the third pickup today for produce and we can keep it coming. The turkeys and chickens had quite a day as 20 visiting birds of prey feasted on prey in a field being mowed nearby.
First Pick Up Date 2012
The first boxes have gone out to the membership and they include the following produce: lovage, spring onions, kale/kale raab mix, salad mix, green garlic, leeks, radishes, Rainbow Chard, and Rockwell beans.
It sure has been exciting working with Miriam and Josh, Prairie Bottom's interns, as they bring enthusiasm and hard work to the many projects we have going here at the farm.
Seeds Have Arrived! The starting begins.
This fun collage was made with the website woodle, I took our entire seed inventory ordered through FedCo seeds and had some fun with it.
This gives you an idea of the incredible variety of seeds we have to plant this year. We will be transforming the cold storage room asap to our seed starting room.
We use heatmats, a heating coil in wet sand, and grow lamps to get our little guys going, then they are transfered to an area where we can watch them grow!
The season is underway, while much is underwater right now!
Rhubarb appearing out of the ground! A beautiful strawberry variety
Many of our most faithful perennials are showing their first sprouts out of the ground as they challenge Winter to do it's worst. Already the rhubarb, horseradish, aspargus and other perennials are showing their vigor for life. I can hardly wait for that first taste of spring dessert - a nice rhubarb crumble?
I came upon a very nice row of arugula that had done suprisingly well during the winter. It is young, tender, and ready for picking.
We have been enjoying these spicy greens in salads each night. The arugula is excellent with a basalmic vinegrette and cheese from bayleaf
We are prepping for spring - even as more snow is predicted!
Seeds are ordered, piglets are coming, chickens are a-laying, berries are being tied up, everything is starting to grow! We are constructing the hoop house for this year's heat loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil. There are a lot of new members signing up for the CSA this year - we welcome their enthusiasm!
