Well, the first boxes have rolled out and we are feeling pretty great! Each contained 10 items: 4 inch pots of italian basil, italian parsley, a jar of honey or a dozen eggs, two varieties of head lettuce, green and rainbow chard, garlic scapes, strawberries (picked from Arnold's in Rudolph) rhubarb and scallions (both from Sunny Sky Farm) and fresh mint. The weather was great for box day and our eldest Caleb was a huge help as he conquered his first whole work day without complaining....much.
We were very happy with the spring too. A lot goes on behind the scenes before there is produce to fill the box. Much time is spent planting seeds in trays then babying them to grow. Heating the greenhouse on cold nights requires someone to wake, check the pipes and put on your boots to throw a few logs on. We are sure that we helped clean up quite a bit of state forest floor from downed timber and are grateful that the cost of heating the greenhouse and our home is "free" beyond the cost of the furnace. We supplied lettuce and spinach again to the Wood County Farm to School program and even grew starts for Soua, a Hmong neighbor of my parent's who relies on her sales at the farmers markets. Soua has a young daughter who is requiring medical care in Minnesota and was looking at choosing between the inability to farm or the inability to be with her daughter and we feel pretty good about helping her do both for free.
This weekend is the MREA Energy Fair and the "donors dinner" will be enjoying some Vespertine lettuce and Great Expectations (awesome restaurant in Rapids) will be creating specials including Vespertine chard. Tonight it is raining and we will sleep well knowing that we won't be watering by hand for at least another week, our backs thank Mother Earth! A few days ago, our well went dry and or the pump failed so we revisited our water use plan here and are expanding on both our water conservation techniques and rainwater collection systems.
In a week or two the first batch of the meat chickens will go in for processing, the first tomato will turn red, the cucumbers will be munched on by munchkins running around the farm barefoot and the basil will be pesto once again.
