Farm Update!

Hello All,

Me and martin have been feverishly busy this winter. We attended one of the largest veggie conferences in the U.S. This year it was in Michigan and we had a great time but more importantly we learned a lot more about veggie farming. The truth of the matter is that you can never learn enough! So I am extremely excited for the 2012 C.S.A year. We have garlic planted. As noted in previous blogs I have not grown this before so this will be a good learning experience. I am hoping for moderate success.  We also learned how to grow ginger at the veggie show so we will be trying this as well. Although we will harvest it as baby ginger it is mush tastier that way. One more task we are tackling is the task of growing carrots, upon popular request the farm is investing in a special planter for carrots, beets, radishes. We are going to be growing these items on the top of the hill where it is the sandiest. Carrots need sandy soil so they can grow nice and strait and uniform.Their have been many changes to the farm and this is necessary as we grow. As we grow we learn more and we encounter new issues and we learn how to deal with these new issues and fix them. Some of the issues we had last year we wont have this year because we are constantly innovating. We had a great C.S.A. in 2011, but we always will strive for perfection. With this being said the farm has made some large capital purchases that will improve our efficiency on the farm and will result in better customer service and better quality product but most importantly will make it more sustainable for me and Martin. (On our bodies)

New Investments Farm Made:
2 ROW potato digger (Thank God!)
Digging potatoes by hand for 100 plus boxes was a challenge, It won't be any more. Eight hour jobs become a one hour job.

Willsie's Weeder
This is a highly specialized piece of equipment out of Canada. I really can't describe how awesome it is. It is basically designed to ride over the plastic rows and destroy all weeds in between rows. YOU must see to believe.

Seeding Machine

This piece of equipment will seed our flats for us. This will reduce the nights we worked in the greenhouse until 4 A.M. seeding flats. It will improve our efficiency greatly.

Cooler In Store:

We will have a produce cooler in the store this will keep that extra produce you occasionally get with your C.S.A. extra fresh. It will no longer be outside. It will be in a controlled environment to preserve the most possible freshness for you are customer. I also can't stress how excited I am that I am finally getting there. We have needed a cooler in the store for SO LONG!

Cooler in Garage:
Many of you might not know this but in 2011 we built 12x16 professional grade cooler in the garage.

Carrot Planter:

This is also a highly specialized piece of equipment. It plants tiny tiny seeds and this is what we will be planting our carrots, radishes , and beets with. It plants three rows @ a time.

The round bales have arrived and are placed already to protect our pepper patch 2012 from the wind.

ALSO THE MOST EXCITING PART OF ALL!!!
2012 half of the farm will be planted Using biodegradable plastic!!!

Also we need 150 members to keep the farm sustainable. I originally thought we needed 80. Last year we had 86. This is possible at 86 but me and martin were ran ragged. So please support us and tell your friends. We are just two young guys trying to provide clean produce in a local way!!!!  C.S.A info & signup on website.

Thz Chris