If there is one lesson I learned from playing 100s of games of Risk as a child, Ukraine is neither easy to capture nor easy to hold. Perhaps Putin should have played more Risk.
Here are a few announcements then on to farm related news!
We are still taking orders for the 2022 season. We are 70% of our way to our goal so we still have shares to sell. If you plan to join please do so soon. I’d love to sell out by the end of the month. To join either order your shares through our online store or if you are returning you can just send in a check or PaypalMe the money.
We are looking for a few employees this summer. This recent newsletter has a description. Please spread the word!
Speaking of spreading the word, if you haven’t already, please tell your friend to join the farm. We’ll credit your account $25 for every new member who joins at your suggestion. Have them put your name in the “Where did you hear about us?” box. Referrals are one of our best marketing tools!
For those of you who put down a deposit, the rest of your balance is due this month. Feel free to send it in at your earliest convenience. I added a PayPalMe button to the footer of our website to make it easier for those who don’t like writing checks (who does that? Just use your online bank app to send the check!)
I think that is all for now, on to the farm news!
Farm News
Speaking of Russia, if we as a country want to cripple Russia’s economy we need to stop working the supply side of the oil equation and go back to what we did really well back in 2020, reduce oil demand. If we shut down the economy like we did two years ago the price of oil would drop precipitously and Putin would run out of money to fund his terror campaign. Come on people. We proved we can do this so let’s get to it!
Now I must confess I say this with a bit of self-interest. See, when I came up with the idea of keeping our share prices the same as the last many years I was figuring on fuel prices staying relatively the same. The increase in fuel costs have a direct affect on the financial success of the farm. So if we reduce the demand for fuel, the price will drop and the farm will not be negatively impacted. How great is that? If we would all be less selfish and sacrifice for the good of the free world the farm would benefit as well. A win-win if I ever heard one!
I suppose I could pull the old “fuel surcharge” trick I’ve seen many companies pull in the past. You know what I’m talking about. The price of fuel increases so they add a fuel surcharge onto your bill. A non-negotiable fuel surcharge. And they call it a “surcharge” so that you think it is just a temporary thing until the price of fuel decreases at which point they will remove it. But then when the price of the fuel drops the surcharge remains. Why don’t they just raise the price of their service to cover the increased cost if the surcharge is never going to be removed? Companies are evil.
Anyway, enough about all this gas talk, let’s talk about what’s happening on the farm. At the beginning of the month we fired up the greenhouse and started planting seeds! Yay! Let the season begin! The nice part of farming this time of year is that when the sun is shining and the outdoor temp is in the single digits the temp inside the greenhouse is a balmy 70+ degrees, with a tropical level of humidity. Its like a vacation in the Caribbean but without the long plane flights, and the warm ocean, and the palm trees, and I suppose a lot of other things that make island life different. But still, being in the sun in shirt sleeves and if you want shorts is pretty nice this time of year in Minnesota! It makes for a nice reprieve from the long, cold winter.
As some of you may recall from last season, we no longer just plant seeds into trays. That is so last decade. No we add another step to the process to give the plants a better chance at a successful life. It is like adding Pre-K education for your kiddos — an activity early in their life that reaps great rewards later once they mature. This activity we do is heat treating the seeds. I discussed the results from last season in this newsletter.
So instead of writing about it again I thought I would throw in a couple of pictures to you give a better idea of the thrill and excitement one experiences when heat treating seeds!
Thrilling! Anyway, that’s pretty much it. Then it is back to the usual planting process.
I suppose this newsletter is already pretty long. Let me know if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, jokes, etc. Or topics for future newsletters.
Here is this week’s joke:
What do plants do when their plant friend is sad?
Photosympathize.