Potatoes

Here is a video highlight from our day of potato planting.
Farmer Hubby rigged our new cultivator to cover them and WOW did it make it so much nicer then last year! Over 1300 feet in today, with about that much still to do would be hard without equipment to help, as it was it was a full day process, to hill, apply fertilizer, put the potatoes in and then cover them.

(This is the first time I tryed uploading video from my cell!)

"The calender doesn't lie,"

Yesterday when Farmer Hubby took advantage of the rain to run to Yoder's Produce Supply and pick up some rolls of plastic mulch, fertilizer (organic), and the last 250 pounds of our potatoes he happened to overhear a conversation.

From what he could gather the customer was a pretty new produce grower and seemed eager to plant everything NOW! Raymond Yoder (the owner of the business) looked at him and said, with great wisdom "The calender doesn't lie, it will be cold again."

Now I am looking out the window of my office at sleet pounding down. Exceptional warm year or not, it will be cold again when it is the first week of April and you live in Northern Ohio!

Thanks, Rural King!

The problem with old tractors is they have a tendency to break, usually in the strangest ways. The problem with new tractors is they cost way more then we can afford right now.

On Tuesday while Farmer Hubby was happily discing the seat on the tractor broke! It is hard to use a tractor with no seat, and work needed to be done, so he welded a quick fix and got back on the seat, and I worried about him falling to his death and being overrun by a run away tractor (and disc.)

Well before he went back out he ordered a new seat from Rural King. That was on Tuesday around lunch time.

Well yesterday he came in for lunch and saw a BIG box sitting on the porch. He cringed thinking they had packed all our onions into one big box instead of individual cases, but when he opened it his new seat was in the box! 26 hours from ordering it to it getting to us from Indianapolis.

Now that is service, and a company who understands the importance of speed to farmers in the critical spring season.

Thanks Rural King! (I guess UPS should be thanked to...)

Strange year....

April 6th and 100% plowed!

With luck and some hard work within a week all 500 pounds of potatoes will be in the ground! Also, the bushel of onions we are trying as sets. That is only a couple thousand onions, but not to worry, our 5 cases of starts (about 2000 each and how we normally grow onions) are due to be delivered sometime next week. Between onions, leeks, and garlic we have about 1/4 acre so everyone should have their fill!

Cabbage and lettuce should soon follow, and than step by step through the spring planting season until the eggplants and peppers are put in after all threat of frost has passed!

There have been years when we are pushing to be 100% plowed by this week in May! I will take this weather (warm and dry) but I really hope that the summer does not prove this dry or we will be testing our irrigation capacity!

Seed Saving Class...

Where are you going to get your heirloom tomatoes this year? Where can you find a selection including Hillbilly, Brandywine, Garden Peach, Box Car Willee, Black Krin, Purple Cherokee, Plum Lemon, San Marzaon, Matt's Wild Cheery and more then 15 others along with heirloom peppers, a selection of herbs, lettuce, cabbage, and more? And where can you get them for an average price of about 83 cents each?

Easy! You can take our seed saving class next Saturday (April 10th) and walk away with a tray of 72 seedlings you started and the confidence to care for them yourself...

Check out details here: and email us with any questions or to register. (Preregistration is required.)

Farm Photos

I just found this website which lets you put together montages for free online. It is pretty neat!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sad News...

We have some sad news today.

After much deliberation we have decided that we think that this local food thing is just a fad. So we have decided to get out of farming. Don't worry, CSA members, we have you covered.

You may be asking yourself "WHY?!?!" Well, we have decided that it is better to eat imported conventionally grown food then that we grow. Fortune magazine this month said "According to a recent Oxfam International report called 'Fair Miles- re charting the food miles map,' a tomato trucked in from Spain to Britain may be more environmentally friendly then a tomato grown in a greenhouse in Britain because that process needs energy intense farming techniques." This proved their myth "Buying Local Food is Better for the Environment."

We have decided to re-purpose our hoophouse into a tanning salon, so we will be putting down a kiddie pool and a layer of sand. We will be offering large game hunting opportunities on our land (does anyone know where I can get an elephant?) And our barn we will be turning into a U-storage facility.

Now CSA members may be asking themselves "But I already have paid for more then half the season!" Don't worry. We will be offering you weekly shares of cupcakes, produced by a friend of ours who is starting a cupcake business this May, so no worries. And your kids will like them more anyway.

I hope to continue to blog here about our adventures in the new "FAIR MILE" world, with our dinners of Chicken Nuggets and imported asparagus. In fact, I will probably go out of my way to avoid local food, because (after all) I DO care.