CSA is starting this week!!!

For all of our CSA members out there...don't forget to pick up your veggies!  Make sure and check the "Weekly CSA Produce" tab to find out what you will be getting each week as well as the "Recipes" tab for some fun ways to use your produce.
As a reminder...
PICK-UP WILL BE ON THURSDAY MORNINGS FROM 10:00AM – NOON AT EITHER KING GARDENS OR THE NEIGHBORHOOD GARDENER VEGETABLE STAND.  THE LONGVILLE SITE IS AT RON'S HARDWARE WHERE YOU CAN PICK UP YOUR CONTAINER FROM 10AM-4:30PM.  THE WALKER SITE IS THE GREEN SCENE WHERE YOU CAN PICK UP FROM 9AM TO 5PM.

I am very excited for another great year!

Tomato plants are in the ground!

We have been taking very good care of all the tomato plants and it is now time to get them in the ground.  It took a little bit of time to figure out exactly what we wanted to plant.  We started 52 different kinds of tomatoes, we made decisions based on last years favorites as well as planted a few new varieties we wanted to try.  We planted almost 300 plants so our CSA members can anticipate some very tasty new varieties this summer. 

Nice and tall and ready to be planted

Holes are dug and strings are hung

Snug in its hole

A little compost tea to get it started

...and done

Who Would Have Thought Planting Lettuce Could Be So Hard

Lissa and I were brainstorming some different places to plant some more lettuce crops when a genius idea struck her...
We have been using our small greenhouse for storage; we decided to clean it out and build some troughs to plant more greens.  The space is enclosed so therefore protected, we ca

Once the trench was dug and we laid the wire down, we covered it back up and started the frames for the lettuce beds.

Then  we laid plastic down and filled them with dirt.  Lettuce should be ready to cut in about 4 weeks. 

Getting a Little "Leggy"

John tells me that "leggy" is a technical term referring to plants that grow taller looking for light.  The tomato plats we started were doing just that..."gettin' leggy"!  We had been doing our best to rotate them under the grow lights that we already had; but everything was growing so quickly it was hard to keep up.  You can see in the picture on the right how the plants are getting really tall but not leafing out. 
The simple fix is get the plants more light, so we did.  John built some lights boxes that we could set right on top of the tables. 

Full Steam Ahead

Just four short weeks ago we planted the hoop house. I still can't believe how much has grown, I just don't get sick of watching stuff come up...

Week One

Week Two

Week Three

Week Four

The very first tulip of the year...How exciting that we will have some for Easter this year.
The Forsythia is also blooming and that is six weeks earlier than it did last year.

I spent the other day weeding the second hoop house; yesterday, John tilled it and laid the drip tape. It will be another week or two before we start putting the tomatoes in the house but I did plant some carrots.  This year we are going to grow Cosmic Purple, Scarlet Nantes, Astro Red, and Lunar White carrots; this will give us an excellent and delicious variety...and our CSA members can look forward to snacking on all these pretty colors.

The Hoop House is Making Vegetables

We planted the hoop house last week and there is already a ton of stuff coming up.  Radishes are coming up with a vengeance; the peas, kale and chard are just peaking through.  With some more sunny days on the way it should give everything a nice boost.  The mixed greens that we planted are also coming up and it won't be long before we are eating baby greens.

Mixed greens

Look at all those radishes

Spinach is just starting

Peas!

Green stuff! 

This is a tarragon plant that has spent the winter in the hoop house.  Tarragon as well as a few other herbs like mint and sage are perennials.

Lissa and I also started to get the gardens ready, did some weeding and getting some of the dead stuff out form last year.  In the next couple of weeks we will be able to do some planting and then not long after that we will enjoy Lissa's beautiful gardens once again.

Chickens!

In a yard about 4 miles from the farm, my boyfriend and I have decided to raise chickens.  He has a nice big yard and some serious skills when it comes to building things.  I have always wanted chickens and was surprised when I found out that he also has always wanted chickens.  The only reasonable thing to do was get some chickens.  We have been collecting little pieces of advice for the last couple of weeks and turning to the internet when we get confused.

cozy little nesting boxes

We started out deliberating over size and shape of the coop.  I wanted a picture perfect, cute and cozy coop; my boyfriend wanted it very functional. We finally came up with a design that we both loved;  Cute and cozy for me and easy to clean for him.  My boyfriend had a lot of lumber and random materials laying around so we did not have to invest very much into the coop; it was pretty much a gallon of paint, chicken wire and some hinges. It was really fun watching our vision come to life. 
We placed it in a semi shady area of the yard, chickens have a body temperature of 107 degrees so they like to stay cool.
A friends dad has been raising chickens for the last 6 years and was willing to sell us a few; since we don't really know anything about having chickens, we started with 6 established layers.  After we picked up the chickens and saw the operation they had...we realized we had a few more things to do before the chickens could get in the coop.  We needed a door, a light and radio in the coop, we needed to erect something they could roost on outside and most importantly some hay for the boxes.

Almost done.

Good looking birds!

 And then we got our first egg!!!