April or October?

The cool temperatures and snowflakes falling over the past couples days have had me wondering what time of the year it is. Brrr. I secretly love seeding and transplanting on cold days, all bundled up with a cup of tea. Something about this is so cozy and just feels right to me.  Luckily we are only transplanting crops that are hardy and can handle some cold nights, such as kale, cabbages, bok choy, onions, leeks, etc. 

Now, transplanting in the snow is a different story... and not quite as charming as cool overcast days. So I have been sleeping in, procrastinating and waiting for sunshine. 

Remember my spaz planting of tomatoes last week? I am happy to report that with several layers of fabric and plastic covers in the greenhouse, they have stayed warm and comfortable in the evenings, even with the temperatures dropping down to 20 degrees outside. They're getting settled in their new space and already starting to fill out. They have one more cold evening and then it is supposed to start warming up. 

The days and weeks are flying by right now.  Psst, tomorrow is May 1st! Yikes. Things get a little crazy from now until middle of June. Lets see just how much we can get in the ground in the next 45 days. Ready, set, go!

I dug the remaining onions and leeks out of the greenhouse on Sunday afternoon as the wind blew and clouds came and went. I planted most of these in the Montrose garden this afternoon, but there are a few onions and a lot of leeks left to go in the ground. 

The barn is overflowing with starts. I am off to stoke the fire for the evening and repot a few things before bed. 

More updates and pictures to come. 

Have a beautiful week, 

Mindy

Planting Party

We are getting a little wild this morning and kicking off planting season with... tomatoes! Woot woot! Yeah, it's early and I could/should wait another week or so, but lets be honest, pushing the limits is fun. Let the planting party begin.  Here you can see the tomato bed getting prepped, starts are growing on the right and a bed of mustard greens on the left. 

Tomatoes this morning, seeding projects throughout the day, and then the onion transplanting begins. Oh baby. So, I need to tell you something. I have a seeding problem. I always seed too much because I have thoughts that they might not germinate, or I could forget to water or even drop the trays on a clumsy morning, which does happen every year normally early in the morning before a cup of coffee. To address these concerns, I plant extra as a buffer. However, and lets knock on wood as I say this, most of the time everything germinates and grows beautifully... and leaves me scratching my head on why I seeded so many. Needless to say the experiment of seeding onions directly in the greenhouse bed was a tremendous success this season and I have many more than anticipated. But I have never had a large amount of beautiful onions to transplant so I'm pumped. And you should be too! We are growing 16 different varieties, all different shapes, sizes, flavors and colors. I could use extra hands over the next couple weeks getting these beauties in the ground. Please call me if you have a free day and want to play in the dirt. I promise it will be fun. Delicious lunch and snacks will be provided.  

Whew. We have made a lot of progress this week, considering the thick layer of snow on the ground last Monday! Several hundred feet of potatoes are in and mulched. The wheat, oats and barley are all seeded and waiting to germinate. Beds of peas, carrots, spinach and salad greens are in and starting to wake up. 

A large dump truck delivered a beautiful load of compost earlier in the week. Oh giddy. There's no stopping us now. 

This weekend we will be stirring and spraying a round of biodynamic preparations in both gardens. 

Mmmmmmm. Breathe in and savor this beautiful morning.  

I hope you have a lovely day!

Sending smiles,
Mindy

Oh Happy Day!

Hello hello! Warning, the recent warm up and beautiful days have me hyper and bursting with spring planting energy. 

We disced the Montrose garden last week and marked the beds today. Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how good it feels to complete this task. The moisture and cool temperatures last week slowed us down a bit and the field was too wet for the tractor. So, a big THANK YOU DAD for helping me with this today!! You are the BEST. So, the Motown garden beds are ready for amending and planting, or in other words, love and seeds. Here we go! I seeded some clover, pea and vetch cover crops this afternoon. Tomorrow we are seeding a large block of fava beans and several varieties of grain in the field as well as seeding trays of ground cherries, outside tomatoes, and green chilis.

The onion starts are looking happy. They have another week or two in the comfy greenhouse bed and then they will be transplanted out. We need to make room for the tomatoes and peppers already. Yes!

The greenhouse is quickly filling up with trays of cabbage, broccoli, lettuces, kale, chard, kohlrabi, flowers, etc... Spring is here people and it feels good! The cold snap and snow last week were... expected, and gave me an excuse to stay inside by the fire and work on the garden plans and bake bread. So cozy!

I seeded the first of many green beds outside on Tuesday. The spinach and salad greens are in and should be germinating soon. 

Whew! That's all for now. More updates and photos soon. 


Sending love, 
Mindy

Windy Business!

Whew wee. The trees are dancing this morning as strong gusts of wind roll through. The wind makes me feel a little crazy but hopefully it brings rain/snow in the coming days.

Spring is officially here and has excitement levels very high. The to do lists are growing by the day and I can feel the busyness of the season coming. As soon as we turn the field in Montrose its off to the races. The soil has really been holding onto moisture so once it dries out a little we will get in there and start working. 

We are adding a few new experiments this season and taking our first stab at growing grain! I am very interested in ancient and unique grains and will be planting several varieties of wheat, barley, amaranth, oats, rye, quinoa etc. If all goes well we will have a barn dance and threshing party in the fall. Who's in?! 

The onion starts in the greenhouse are doing well and starting to fill out a bit. Send them a little love. Grow onions grow! We plan to start transplanting these in mid April. Only a short few weeks away. Wowza.

Ok. I'm off to seed edible flowers (pansies, nasturtiums, calendula) and start repotting peppers.

Throwing love and kisses into the wind. Hope they find somebody and brighten their day. 

Feels like Spring!

The warm sunshine on my face and birds singing sweet songs in the early morning hours are stirring daydreams of the warmer months to come. The snow is melting in the gardens and cover crops are growing. I know it is not Spring just yet, but it sure does feel like it! And this feeling of Spring has me overly excited, I literally caught myself skipping to the garden this morning. 

Onions, leeks and shallots are all up and growing. We seeded the first round of peppers, eggplant, and yes, heirloom tomatoes this week. Mmmmm I am already anxious for the first of many tomatoes. Warm off the vine, chopped up in spicy salsa, on a BLT, tomato pie! Slow down, slow down... it is still February. 

In any event, I have updated the CSA Page and invite you to take a moment and read through our plan for the 2014 season. We are expanding the CSA this season and would love you to join us in our third year of growing delicious, beautiful and truly nourishing produce. Growing food and being outside every day feeds my soul, and it's so very rewarding to then feed so many close friends and families in the area.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, I love to talk about food. Growing, harvesting, cooking, preserving, and eating food. But I warn you... my enthusiasm and passion can be contagious, so be careful.   

In addition to growing a large variety of fruits and vegetables, we are spending time in the kitchen this season. We will be baking sourdough breads, pies, tarts and pastries. I have always had a sweet tooth, but sourdough has become my latest obsession. And because I think things I am passionate about should be shared, we are offering a Bread Share this season for all the bread lovers out there! The loaves will vary from week to week (plain, seeded, rosemary garlic, etc) and will always be made with organic ingredients. 

Cheers to doing what you love! 

Sending hugs and smiles
Mindy

   

Happy Dance

Well hello there snow! Oh how I have missed you and your magical white fluffiness. After several weeks of sunshine and warm days here, it was wonderful to wake up to over a foot of fresh snow on Friday. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning… my eyes lit up and sparkled with excitement. The morning was filled with constant smiles and happy dance parties… over coffee, while shoveling snow, and while baking up a storm in the kitchen. Oh yes. Snow, you make me happy. Oh so happy. 

As you can see above, the path to the garden is as beautiful as ever!

And the greenhouses are looking more like igloos at the moment. The plan is to seed onions in one of these houses soon, so the beds inside will be amended and prepped this weekend. Mmmm I am anxious to get my hands in the soil, but I want to sneak in a couple ski days first!

My mind has completely switched into farm planning mode. I am drafting planting calendars, mapping the gardens and fantasizing about the growing season. My dreams are already being overrun by vegetables, sweet peppers in particular. We do have quite the ongoing love affair. What are you dreaming about on these charming winter nights?

Here is a teaser of the beauty to come. Enjoy this lovely weather and throw in a happy dance for good measure! 

Winter Wonderland

Hello Everyone, 

I hope your holidays were wonderful and that you are enjoying winter! Wishing you all a beautiful, fun and fulfilling 2014!

It feels like ages since I posted an update here. Currently the garden is tucked in, and resting under a thick, white blanket of snow.

I on the other hand am not so good at resting. It makes me antsy. So, I am busy planning, brainstorming and dreaming about the upcoming season. So many ideas are churning and I look forward to sharing them with you soon.

Seed catalogs are arriving in the mail daily and making me so very anxious and excited for the growing season to arrive. 

I had a funny dream the other night. In said dream, it felt like I blinked and it was suddenly May 1st. I had been so busy and distracted that I had completely forgot to seed my veggie starts and did not have anything ready to transplant! I woke up in a bit of a panic and was delighted to realize it was January 3rd, not May 1st. Whew! Note to self, draft seed starting calendar ASAP. 

Alliums (onions, leeks, shallots) will all be seeded very soon. We are hoping to experiment with seeding some of these in the greenhouse beds, letting them grow until April/May, at which time we will dig them up to transplant outside and make room for peppers and tomatoes in the Spring. I love experiments! 

CSA Members, please let me know if you have any special requests this year. Did I miss a vegetable that you would have loved to see in the shares last season? Comment below or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Have a lovely day!

Garlic Planting

We tackled a few fall garden tasks in the past week, and the most exciting of those was planting garlic! A friend came up on Wednesday and we planted several garlic varieties and about 25 pounds worth, which came to just over 1000 cloves. Woot woot! We made sure to give the plants generous spacing and mulched the freshly planted beds with a think layer of straw. Beautiful! Hopefully each clove planted grows into a gorgeous bulb for harvesting in July. Oh my, the anticipation of next season has already begun! 

We are also spending time putting beds to rest, which basically entails pulling up the crops that are past their prime, adding compost and covering the beds with straw or leaves for the winter. Basically, tucking the soil and all it's goodness in underneath a think blanket, before winter arrives.

There are a few crops still growing (slowly) in the garden and we are harvesting a bit today for a pick-up in the Town of Ridgway tomorrow, Saturday, October 26th. We should have a limited supply of carrots, head lettuce, kale, turnips, bok choy, leeks, potatoes and tomatoes. Yum! 

CSA Harvest - Week 18

Winter made a very real appearance last week. I went to bed Thursday evening thinking there might be a dusting of snow in the morning. Well, I woke up to find 6+ inches! Wow. I was surprised to say the least. 

I may have grumbled for a few minutes while I searched for my snow boots and came up with a game plan. Then, the sky started to light up and I realized just how magical it was outside. I spent about an hour sweeping the snow off my beds covered with hoops and fabric before running off to the Ridgway Farmer's Market. The snow load was so wet and heavy that it bent some of the hoops, and smooshed the crops underneath. Luckily, most of those crops have bounced back after a few days of sunshine. 

Well, here we are. It's October 9th and the last CSA pick-up of the season. The past 18 weeks flew by quickly didn't they? I hope you have all enjoyed the fresh produce and discovered new vegetables and recipes along the way. 

This week's CSA Share includes the following:

Potatoes
Winter Squash
Carrots
Kohlrabi
Head Lettuce
Leeks
Cauliflower
Bok Choy
Green Tomatoes

The harvests are wrapping up but we are busy in the garden putting beds to rest, seeding cover crops and planning for next year. The garlic planting will commence in the next few weeks and come November we should be ready to take a rest ourselves. 

Thank you so much for being a part of the CSA this season! I truly enjoyed growing food for you all and hope to do so again next year. 

I will be sending out a survey in the coming weeks and would love your feedback. 

Have a beautiful day! 

CSA Harvest - Week 17

The sun is just about to rise over the mountains and start warming up the cool air. We are moving a bit slower at the farm these days, the mornings are lazier and I am convinced it's the colder temperatures. 

The wild winds last week brought in our first taste of cold cold weather. On Friday evening the temperatures dropped down to 22 degrees, I knew it was coming but I wasn't prepared to feel temps that low! Brr. Down jackets, long underwear, winter hats and mittens all came out of my closet. 

We had a late evening on Friday harvesting like mad and covering crops up with fabric. We lost the tomatoes and some of the peppers but tis the season. With that in mind, this is the last week of tomatoes, please savor them! The CSA Share is beautiful this week and includes the following:

Heirloom Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Peppers
Carrots
Winter Squash
Potatoes
Leeks
Salad Greens
Herbs: Cilantro, Sage or Mint

I look forward to seeing everyone this afternoon. 

Have a beautiful day!