Late Winter Update

Hello there, just checking in to let you all know what is going on with us!
We always find this time of year to be kind of a strange transition - the broccoli and greens that grew through winter are exhausted and it is too early and unpredictable for summer crops.  That doesn't mean we aren't busy! These are the months we take seed inventory and make orders, interview interns, prune, cover crop, clean and plan.  Right now two of the most exciting things that the longer days are bringing here on the farm are the first seedlings and lots of eggs!

We don't start everything in the greenhouse - certain crops like beans and roots need to be direct sowed, and will have to wait until April when we do our first spring planting.  Other plants must be started indoors - like tomatoes.  We just started over 500 tomato seeds along with lots of flowers, squash and cucumbers, peppers and basil.  Everything is quickly germinating in our warm greenhouse - on warm days it gets close to 100° in there!  But the temp does fluctuate and drops at night so the tomatoes are kept on a large heat mat until they are well up, and since they want so much light we have hanging lights over them that we turn on at dark to give them an extra 4-5 hours/day of light.  This encourages the plants to be strong and bushy rather than forcing them to get tall and spindly in search of light.

Wyatt helping collect eggs

We are also kept busy collecting several dozens of eggs every day and the fridge at our farm stand is stocked with cartons! Our chickens are happily let out to pasture and we supplement their natural diet of plants and bugs with organic feed so these eggs are the very best.

chickens enjoying pasture

our gorgeous eggs

Meyer Lemons

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Along with eggs ($6/dz) we still have some yummy citrus - Meyer lemons and oranges - for sale as well as a nice selection of Jeannie's Artisan Jams.  And we have been selling some really wonderful chicken coops and planter boxes made by our friends at Hidden Fortress Micro Farm.  Using repurposed materials their coops and boxes are really well made and affordable.  They have a great operation, check out their fresh roasted organic fair trade coffee!

Hidden Fortress Micro Farms mini coop

Planter boxes

We will keep you posted as we approach the growing season and be sure to send out CSA info as soon as we have it!