One day at a time

Mike shaping beds with the Farmall

Wow. What a week. I feel like we have accomplished so much since last Sunday! 

Having an extra set of hands at the farm is amazing and so much fun. Our employee ROCKS and helped us tackle so many projects this week. We feel on top of things and at the same time we have several impending deadlines that are causing a little farm stress at the moment. Deadlines such as... transporting a tractor and disc from Montrose to Mancos on Monday, installing game fence all week and building moveable tunnels before May first-ish. It will all happen, we just need to stay focused and keep plugging away. When I feel overwhelmed I find myself saying 'You got this!' and we do... just need to take it one day at a time. 

The soil moisture was PERFECT earlier in the week and Mike was able to shape beds with the Farmall in one field for early seeding and planting and then he prepped the soil in the new field! Oh my goodness, the new field looks and feels dreamy.  

Transplanted spinach trial

Once beds were shaped we seeded beets, carrots, various greens and herbs. And yesterday we did the first transplant of spinach and lettuces. Everything is covered with row cover for a couple weeks to help with germination and to protect from any potential frosts.  

I rose early this morning, pulled fence posts for a couple hours and then headed to Ridgway to visit with my family and to work on my new (to me) tractor with my Dad. We checked fluids and went over general maintenance. Growing up with a father who is a mechanic is pretty special. He has been wanting to do all the tractor maintenance on his own but I asked he wait until I could come home so we could do it together. I have no business owning equipment if I don't know how to take care of it, especially now that my Dad and his shop are 2.5 hours away! 

Onions in the high tunnel awaiting their move outside... 

The high tunnel is weeded and the crops in there glow in the evening when it's time to close up. Now that the days are getting longer and warmer I feel like everything is really beginning to grow quickly. The peas doubled in size this week and we plant to set up the pea trellis in a couple days, before they find each other and get all tangled.

Ooooo, and our honeybees arrived yesterday and we placed them in an empty hive at the farm at sunset. Gosh they're amazing and SO beautiful... I'm hoping they get settled and thrive here in Mancos. And it seems like good timing as suddenly there are dandelions blooming up all over the property.

And one final note, the seed crops we planted a month ago survived the cold temps of the last couple weeks and are starting to put on new growth. Yea rutabaga!

Rutabagas waking up

April, you're so frosty!

We woke up to a couple inches of snow last week.

Good morning,

It's a frosty one here! I think we're currently hovering around 15 or 16 degrees? I was closing things up around dark last night and saw the full moon rise and thought to myself... I bet it's going to be colder than they're predicting. And sure enough! I need to check my notes but I do not remember temps getting this low in April last year. 

The pace at the farm is picking up day by day and I am suddenly exhausted by 9 pm and sleeping like a rock. Are bodies are slowly re-acclimating to farm work, all the lifting, squatting, and walking many miles a day (in circles) on this 12 acre parcel we call home. I love it!   

Kale in the evening light right before they get covered with row cover for warmth at night. 

The brassicas are all up and looking happy in the prop house and we're preparing to seed the second succession of broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco (trial!), kale, collards and more head lettuce today. We built a couple more tables last week to make space for the basil and tomatoes. The prop house is filling up fast, hopefully there's enough room for everybody! It's going to get tight for a little while but the first round of greens should be heading outside in 7-10 days.

Loving the bold colors of the early head lettuce seedlings. 

As I mentioned last week, we are installing a game fence around the property this Spring, woohoo! So to prepare for the new fence, we have started taking down the  old fence and pulling out all the posts. We removed the oldest fence line over the past couple days and used the tractor to lift each post out of the ground. One line down, 3 to go.

Pulling fence posts with the tractor.

I collected more material and supplies at Home Depot over the weekend for the moveable tunnels and started cutting and bending pipe yesterday. I'm anxious and excited to see these tunnels come together. We're still contemplating how exactly to build them so they move across the field with ease and more importantly how to anchor them to the ground so the wind doesn't toss them around. Little details.

We've started repotting the peppers. SO. MANY. PEPPERS! We're excited to expand our pepper production this year and are growing many Shishitos and Padrons, along with sweet bells, pimentos, italian roasters and poblanos. Mmmm hmm. Get those cast irons ready for blistering peppers folks!

Spinach almost ready for transplant. We're experimenting with transplanting spinach this season to deal with spotty germination and to get a jump on the weeds.

And the most exciting thing happening... our first full-time employee starts this week! Mike and I came to the conclusion last season that we were trying to do too much on our own and that we needed help at the farm. We are not interested in the internship model that so many other farms use, because farming is hard work and we feel that the people doing this work should get paid a fair wage. Lets lead by example, as my Mom would say, and make sure that the people producing the food that nourishes our bodies are able to making a living doing so. We crunched some numbers last Fall and decided we could hire an employee in 2017. I think having another person at the farm is going to be a game changer. More of those little things we don't have time to get to each day will be completed and the planting, seeding, harvesting, etc will all happen at a faster rate with another set of hands here to help. We hope having an employee will allow us to take one day off a week this season, and maybe we'll finish our work days before dark? We'll see! And more than anything, it's going to feel so good to share the knowledge we've collected over the years with somebody who is considering farming as a career. 

Cold Snap and Tomato Dreams

The field of rye and vetch radiating in the late afternoon is a reminder to stop and appreciate the beauty of everyday.

Good morning! 

Brr! It's damp and freezing out there. The latest storm has brought with it some cold air, we dropped down to 23 degrees on Saturday morning and it looks like the next couple days stay pretty unsettled. The forecast shows a low of 17 on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. That is COLD... so we will be adding a second layer of row cover to everything for extra warmth.  We have been able to keep the starts in the prop house above freezing but not without a little worry and concern. The many brassicas we seeded last week should be up at any moment... I keep checking them with excitement, trying to coax them to wake up and pop through the soil. Any day now.

I'm happy to report that we have finalized the CSA pickup location for the 2017 Season! The Town of Telluride approved our Spruce Park Vending Application last week and starting in June we will host the CSA pickup and have a small market stand set up in Spruce Park (next to The Butcher and The Baker) every Wednesdays from 11-2pm. Yay! It feels good to have the go-ahead on this so we can focus on seeding and planting! 

Oregon Giant Snow Peas are growing quickly in the high tunnel.

The snow peas are starting to show off in the high tunnel and may need a trellis before long! I weeded these a couple days ago and started thinking, if all goes well they should be producing peas for the first CSA Harvest, which is only 9 weeks away! I'm anxious to start seeding greens and roots in the field, but its currently a little too wet for that. Hopefully later in the week we'll have a dry enough window?

Who's dreaming of warm summer days and the taste of tomatoes? I am! I gathered the pots, trays and soil yesterday morning and have started repotting the tomatoes. They are getting a little large for the small cells they're currently in and are ready for more growing room. Perfect activity to do inside while the weather has temporarily halted many of our outdoor projects, and motivation!

Tomato dreams... 

Oooo, earlier this week I started reorganizing the barn! Oh my goodness, I love being organized but it takes a lot of work and time. I'm trying to find a place for everything and get us in the habit of putting things away (always always) so next time we need a particular tool, it's located right where it's supposed to be and doesn't take 30 minutes to track down. If there's one thing my Dad taught me, it's to have your tools clean and organized. 

One of our many projects at the moment is installing the Game Fence. The first round of fence materials were delivered this weekend and the rest are coming on Friday. We are fencing the whole 12 acres, which sounds a little daunting to me, but luckily Mike has some fence building experience and is heading up this project. We have started taking down the old fence in preparation... there will be fence updates and photos coming your way soon! 

Beets are up! 

Moveable Tunnel construction is my department. I have decided on a final design (I think) and have most of the parts ordered. We need to make a quick trip to Home Depot to stock up on more pipe, lumber and drill bits. Then it's go time... I think the first one may take a little work to figure out but then the second and hopefully third should come together smoothly. Fingers crossed. 

OK, I'm off to build a fire and repot tomatoes! 

Brassica Seeding... and so much more

I love this time of year and the ever changing weather, one minute you're working outside in a t-shirt and the next the wind is howling and snowflakes are falling. Yea Colorado! We can feel the suspense building for the upcoming growing season as we're seeding more starts each week, beginning to prep the fields, finishing projects (and adding more to the list). It's all coming together and before we know it the days will be long and filled with planting, irrigating, pruning, trellising, cultivating, harvesting, etc... I'm ready for the mornings where I can walk outside with coffee in hand, as the sun comes up, in a pair of shorts and sandals. Those mornings are my favorite and so special around here.

The first CSA Harvest is only 10 weeks away, which sounds like a lot but I have a feeling those 10 weeks are going to fly by! We are more excited than ever about the upcoming season and are looking forward to sharing it with YOU! Thank you to our new and returning CSA Members who have already signed up, you are awesome! And, if you haven't signed up already, please go to CSA Sign-Up Page and do so today! We are offering two Telluride CSA options in 2017, and you can read about all the details here: Mountain Roots Produce Summer CSA and Mountain Roots Produce Fall CSA. Please do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any questions and keep spreading the word about our farm and CSA and help the Community get their hands on locally grown produce! 

We completed the propagation house this week! We were racing to get it finished and plastic attached before the colder weather and moisture arrived on Thursday. Our friends came over on Tuesday evening and the wind was not cooperating so we hung out for a little while and sure enough, 30 minutes before the sun went down the wind calmed and we attached the plastic quickly, worried that a gust could come at any moment. It went so smoothly, our friends are the BEST and we couldn't do this without them. Thanks guys and gals! 

So, now we're building tables and filling the prop house up with the many plant starts that will make their way to the fields in May and feed us and YOU all year long. We have a round of early greens started that are destined for the future moveable tunnels... which looking at the calendar I need to get a move on and build those tunnels ASAP. This afternoon we will be seeding the first round of brassicas (cabbages, kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, bok choy, etc), basil and lettuces. Yes! 

The tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are all growing fast. They have true leaves and the tomatoes are starting to smell amazing and are filling out the small cells that we seeded them in. In a week or two they'll be ready for a repotting, which is one of my favorite things to do a a stormy spring day. I'm curious to see what Spring brings weather wise... I'm guessing we'll have some warm and cold swings, a fair amount of wind and several more storms before May?  

The onion starts in the high tunnel are looking GREAT! I spent some time weeding these beds this week and the onions are beginning to bulk up and it's almost time for their next 'haircut'. They have another month in their current location before we dig them up and transplant in the field, grow beauties grow!

We seeded the snow peas, snap peas and fava beans in the field this week as well as onion and rutabaga seed stock. We're excited to be collaborating with Laura Parker at High Desert Seed and Gardens and saving a few seed crops this season. First up, we planted a beautiful onion variety, Bronze D'amposta, that Laura grew out in 2016 and Joan rutabagas that we grew here at the farm. Both of these crops are biennials and produce seed in their second year of growth. We went through the seed stock that stored well and selected for the traits we want to see in future generations and replanted those in the field to produce seed. Wish them luck! It all starts with high quality seed and Laura is working to preserve genetic diversity and create regionally adapted seed for our high desert regions, which is incredibly important work. We'll be working on a few other seed crops this season, and planning to document them along the way, stay tuned!

OK, I'm off to make breakfast and open the high tunnel. Have a beautiful day! 

Spring!

Hello! We enjoyed such a beautiful sunrise over the Cimarrons in Ridgway this morning. I'm here for a couple days, spending time with family and breaking down the hoophouses in my old garden. Two down, one to go. Woohoo! We're moving these hoophouse frames to Mancos with the plan to build a few moveable tunnels for more season extension options at the farm. The Spring project list is looooong but exciting.

We have spent the last few days finishing up the propagation house... building end walls and doors. It's now time to attach the plastic, which we've scheduled for Tuesday. Make way for baby plants! The tomatoes and peppers are all up have me excited for Summer. And in less than a week we will be seeding the brassicas (cabbage, kale, collards, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, etc) as well as head lettuce and basil.  Plus, the snow peas, snap peas and fava beans are all soaking and will be seeded tomorrow. 

The past week has been so incredibly warm. My body isn't ready for it and I have found myself overheating. Oh my. Water, drink more water! But it has really started to dry the field and things are greening up. Mike started discing the new field yesterday and will be doing field prep today and tomorrow before the next storm arrives on Thursday. We're trying to take advantage of this nice weather and complete as many tasks as possible because who knows what April will bring... 

We had the pleasure of spending time with the sweet cows at Burk Beef last week. It's calving season and the baby cows and their mamas are so incredibly cute. Heart melting cute. So, on that note I'll leave you with the photo above of day old calves playing while their mamas eat. So perfect. 

Enjoy the sunshine! 

Windy!

Hello Everyone,

It's March... we had a couple days in the 50's last week but now the wind is ripping and snow is falling. Feels like Spring is a comin'! 

March is a great month at the farm, things really start to pickup as the ground thaws and days get longer. We begin seeding crops on a regular basis, building the many projects we have planned for the season, fixing this and that, repairing tires, changing oil, etc. 

We purchased materials last week to build a propagation house here at the farm! It should come together quickly (once this storm passes) and make the vegetable starts and the farmers much happier!  

We seeded carrots and beets in the greenhouse on 2/21 and they should be up any moment... and today marks the first seeding of tomatoes and peppers for the season! I love growing these two crops. Seeding, repotting, transplanting, trellising, harvesting, etc... I love every step from seed to harvest. We're trialling a few new varieties this season. I'm on a mission to find the perfect brandywine type for our farm. The variety I came to love and rely on in Ridgway doesn't perform as well here so we're experimenting with 4 new (to me) heirlooms plus my old favorite, Soldacki. 

Shishitos were a hit with CSA Members last season so we're planting many more this year, along with Padrons and a mix of sweet peppers. Who's ready for the flavors of August?! 

We still have CSA Shares available, read all about the Summer CSA details and sign up today to reserve your vegetables for 2017! 

Have a beautiful day! 

Happy Valentines Day!

I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has already signed up for the 2017 Mountain Roots Produce CSA Share(s)! It's heartwarming and such a strong reminder that we're so lucky to have this supportive community that appreciates locally grown produce. Thank you! 

I hope February is treating you well. We're half way through and I'm ready to finish up all this paperwork, get my hands in the soil and start seeding! The snow has melted and this last storm brought us some cooler temps, rain and fog... 

We finished our seed orders yesterday, I think the stormy weather helped us stay focused and complete that task. I got a little carried away with tomato and pepper varieties... and am excited about the cucumbers we are trialling in the high tunnel this season. We're planning to grow and trellis cucumbers in the high tunnel this year as opposed to growing them in the field, with hopes of an earlier harvest and much more productive plants.  

The alliums we seeded a few weeks ago are all making an appearance, which is exciting! And, in the coming days I'm going to prep the remaining greenhouse beds and seed some early carrots and beets, which should be ready for our first CSA harvests in June. We're also seeding a few beds with a cover crop mix. This will grow until early May, and then we'll turn it into the soil and prep for transplanting tomatoes. 

That's all for now. Enjoy the afternoon and the next couple days of sunshine... 

Sending love!

Mindy

CSA Registration is Open!

Good morning! 

We are opening registration for the 2017 Mountain Roots Produce CSA Programs today! The farm is glistening at the moment, with a thick layer of snow blanketing the fields. I hope everyone is having a wonderful winter, playing in the snow and enjoying the recent sunshine. My goodness, it so beautiful! I'm reminded daily how lucky we are to live in Southwest Colorado... 

Winter is flying by around here... and we are very excited for the 2017 season growing and hope to make it the best year yet! Seeds are being ordered, plantings schedules/maps for 2017 are coming together and we planted the first seeds of the season, the alliums (onions, leeks, shallots and scallions) in the high tunnel last week. Mmmm, it felt good to have our hands in the soil. Grow alliums, grow!

We would love to have you join us and our farm this season, for 18-28 weeks of freshly harvested produce grown right here on the piece of land we call home. CSA Harvests will start in June and run through mid-December.  We are constructing a few moveable hoophouses this season to help extend the seasons even more, as well as have more protected growing space for crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, peppers etc... and cantaloupe trial. I can hardly wait! 

OK, so how do you sign up?

• First, review the Summer CSA and Fall CSA details and options.

• Second, go to the CSA Sign-Up page and select a payment option.

• Third, mail a check or Pay Online to reserve your CSA Share for 2017

  • If Paying by Check: Complete and submit the CSA Sign-Up Form online. Then make your check out to Mountain Roots Produce and mail to 41095 Road G, Mancos, CO 81328.

  • Online Payments: Go to the farm store, select the CSA Share you would like to purchase and proceed to checkout. When you add a CSA Share to your cart, a CSA Sign-Up Form will pop up and need to be completed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Thank you so much for your support! I love the CSA model, I love planning the season with YOU in mind and knowing that we will get to see our CSA members every week.

Have a beautiful day!

January... Rain, Snow and the Food and Farm Forum

Large, fluffy snowflakes are falling from the sky and the wind is howling as I write this... cozy inside by the fire. I'm sitting here, cross-legged on our wood floor, surrounded by seed catalogs, calendars and notepads planning for the upcoming growing season. I love winter... I love snow and I love a little down time. BUT my goodness, I am so excited, anxious and ready to start growing again! 

We are planting the first seeds of 2017 this week, the alliums (onions, shallots, leeks and scallions)! I used to start these crops in trays but discovered a few years ago how happy they are if seeded directly in soil, where their roots have no limits. They'll be seeded in beds in the hight tunnel on Friday morning, as that is the next root day on the Biodynamic Calendar. They'll germinate slowly with our cool temps but then grow into strong plants. We will then dig them up in early May, trim their roots and transplant in the field. 

The weather has been a little strange this winter... up until a few days ago we have mostly been getting rain at the farm. We usually have snow, not rain, this time of year so it has been odd and honestly, a muddy mess. I'm happy to report that we have about a foot of snow on the ground that fell over the weekend and more is falling. Keep it coming! 

We just got back from the 5th Annual Western Colorado Food and Farm Forum. This is a wonderful farm conference put on by the Valley Food Partnership and is held in Montrose, Colorado. I love gathering with farmers, friends and mentors and being inspired by all the amazing things folks are doing in agriculture. This year's conference was the best yet. I brought home a lot of knowledge to put towards improving soil health... the enthusiasm of the speakers and the innovative techniques that farmers across the country are using to improve soil health gives me goosebumps. Mike has been interested in strip tilling for a while (worth a google search) and the speakers at the conference made him even more excited about it so we may just go for it and invest in a strip tiller this spring. Always learning! 

We are finishing up the details for the 2017 Summer and Fall CSA Programs and will launch registration on February 1st! Until then... enjoy the snow! 

Happy Solstice!

Happy Solstice! The darkest night of the year has come and gone... and the days will oh so slowly become longer and longer and seeding the first of the 2017 crops is only a few weeks away (mmm hmmm, I'm talking about you alliums). 

We need to set aside time in the coming weeks, with coffee, to reflect on the season and prepare for the coming year. Order seeds, meet with accounts, launch the 2017 Mountain Roots Produce CSA signup, etc... Only after we spend the holidays with family of course and enjoy a few ski days. Come on SNOW!

We have set several plans and goals for 2017... and to help streamline and simplify things, Mike and I are combining forces this year and will be running Mountain Roots Produce together. We created this website and will be updating it regularly with photos and weekly blog posts. You can also stay in touch by subscribing to our monthly newsletter, sign up here. 

Thank you everyone for supporting Early Bird Gardens over the years... I have learned so much from our wonderful CSA Members, the lovely market customers we used to see weekly at the Ridgway Farmer's Market as well as the chefs we sell to in Telluride. We look forward to growing high quality vegetables for you all for many years to come!

Happy Holidays! xoxo