This week’s plan is working to perfection. On Monday we worked getting the hoop house ready to plant the sweet potatoes sometime in May. It was too wet to plant in the field so the hoop house was part of the perfect plan. Come Tuesday the sun and wind from Monday had dried the field sufficiently to get the outdoor season underway. We spent all day Tuesday planting the onions and shallots. Today (Wednesday) we finished up the few trays of onions we had left then planted Brussels sprouts, kale, the first succession of broccoli, summer cabbages and snap peas. And precisely when we were finished planting all of these we activated the weather control system starting a nice, steady rain. If the plan continues on its perfect run it should rain through tonight, then start drying out tomorrow and Friday so that the field is ready for planting potatoes on Saturday. I love it when a plan comes together.
Speaking of potatoes, here is a reminder to let me know about the upcoming potato planting party (or as Dan Quayle would call it, the “potatoe” planting party). We could use a few more people, especially those adept at dropping potatoes into trenches. If our weather control system glitches and it rains hard tonight and tomorrow we may have to postpone the festivities. So before you head out here please check the newsletter/blog on our web site. Also don’t count on the announcement of postponement to arrive in your email box on time since the newsletter sending systems is set to send out news at 9:00 am and the call to postpone may come after that time. We will also give tours of the farm so people can see where their food is coming from – isn’t that why you joined? Please let us know if you plan to be here on Saturday!
Speaking of rain, with today’s rain the plan called for me to write a new newsletter. While doing so I noticed the software we use to publish the newsletters (and run our whole website) was not up to date. So being the optimist I am, I decided to upgrade the software, the plug-ins and the theme for our web site. Five hours later it is complete. Should have taken less than an hour but due to the fact I didn’t know I had to click “Save” in three places where nothing changed I spent a whole lotta time doing stuff and getting nowhere. Glad farming isn’t this illogical. On the bright side I added some new header images (because the update deleted the old header images — who’d a thought?)
Our chickens are laying more eggs now that it has warmed up. Contact me if you’d like to purchase some. They are delicious!
Last call for Seafood is May 15th. Please get your seafood orders in as soon as possible.
Last call for MeatShare is May 30Th.
Don’t forget CoffeeShare! If you like coffee, you’ll love CoffeeShare. Our coffee is as close to buying local coffee as you can get in Minnesota. It comes from Velasquez Family Coffee based here in good old St. Paul MN. The Velasquezes buy their coffee beans from their brothers and cousins who grow coffee in the National Mountains of Comayagua in Honduras. The beans are shade-grown using environmentally sound practices and the growers are compensated fairly for their hard work. The beans are hand-picked and sundried producing a delicious cup of coffee. There are four different regular blends, two decaffeinated blends and six flavored varieties. If you are a coffee drinker you owe it to yourself to try Velasquez Family Coffee through CoffeeShare.
It looks like we have a few people interested in putting together a dinner on the farm event. We’ll have details if we can put it all together. If anyone else is interested in helping please let me know.
In case you didn’t know, final payment is due – unless you made other arrangements.
Thought for the week: Raising plants is a lot like raising children – except for all the quiet.