Market today...

We had our first market of the year today, not much to sell produce wise but we had starts and they sold well. It was brutal hot, which I think kept some people at home. Right now we are getting ready to go out and do some chores, more planting and some more tilling...

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Visitor in our garage.

Look who we found in our garage last night... We live in a zoo! What was a bullfrog doing in my garage, and how did it get there? But my neices thought it was pretty cool. We let the youngest feel its skin and took photos of the 13 year old puckered up like she was going to kiss it, then we releseased it at the tree line... But really, with all the snakes we've found a frog is nothing...

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First Market this Saturday

This Saturday we will be at market for the first week!

We expect to have the following available:
Radishes
Rhubarb
Baby Turnip Greens
Honey Caramels
Starts - Tomatoes, Peppers, and Squash

Many of the starts are heirloom varieties and several are on Slow Food's Ark of Taste! And, no, it's not to late to plant your garden. In the past we have put tomatoes in as late as early July (because we lost our first planting) and still got tomatoes!

Some of these items will be in pretty limited quantities, so visit us early. The market opens at 9:00.

As always, thanks for your support of our farm and local food!

This evening on the farm.

calm evening. beautiful.sky, birds singing, sky changing... I love spring.

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my neice with her chicks... she is not that interested in holding them a lot since one pooped on her...

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Update on the PD article

A friend contacted them about us and they said we had not answered our phone when they tried to call us. We do not have an answering machine on our home phone as we always use our cells, and recently between our jobs and farm chores are seldom inside the house during daylight, unless it is raining! Most people contact us on email, or else our cells. I'm not sure where they would have gotten our home phone as we do not list it anywhere. If they contacted the Cuyahoga Conservancy the number they have for us are our cells, and that is what they always give people... No one attempted to contact us by email.

In any case that was not the only error/omission in the article. Poor Crown Point! If anyone is wondering they do NOT require members to work 30 hours a week! They do offer a working share where members receive a discount in exchange for working on the farm some during the season, but it is not 30 hours a week!

Thanks to everyone for their support of our farm.

Rain and plants...

Yesterday we saw the rain was coming (2.5 inches expected in next 2 days) and it was a mad race to get more stuff in the ground. The soil temperature was (finally!) warm enough to feel safe putting in our untreated squash and pumpkin seeds, so it was going to be an evening of squash and pumpkin planting!

But then I got home and there was a box on my doorstep. 200 sweet potato slips (plants)! I was really beginning to wonder if our order had been lost as we were supposed to get them (I thought) 2 weeks ago! But there they were and they had to go in then, as 2 inches of rain will make it hard to plant very much for a week... So it was a change of plan.

With the help of my sister (who is visiting) and my 5 year old niece (who is a sweety pie and very patient) we put in the sweet potatoes. Then a quick look at the weather on our cells said there was only a 20% chance of rain in the next 24 hours (80% in 48) so poor hubby went and got the hoses and dragged them out to the field. We typically do not need to set up our irrigation this early in the year, but we will in the next couple weeks, this has been a strange weather year and we need to be more prepared.

S0 1000 foot of hose came out, not quite long enough, so he spent an hour watering the starts with a bucket while my sister and I put in hundreds of feet of winter squash and pumpkins! He said when we were done he never thought he'd own that much hose, and he NEVER imagined if he did he'd want more!

The 5 year old alternated who she was helping, but I think her favorite was stepping on the seed holes and dropping seeds in the planter, although anything she can do with her Uncle is always fun...

We started around 6:30 and got done at 9:15. Then watered the starts still being hardened off in the barn, took care of the baby chicks, and was inside the house by 9:45 or so. Feed the kids a very late supper (they had snacked and we had a late lunch (2:30)) and I was in bed around 11:30. Yawn...

Woke up this morning and was out the door at 5:59, to be at my office by 6:30. And the past week of days like this are getting me! I NEED to get to bed before 11, at least once, or else I will fall asleep at my computer! When I woke up it was raining, and I felt horrible that hubby had spent so much time watering by hand! But if we had woken up to sun and it had not rained until 1 or 2 in the 80 degree weather those sweet potatoes would have been cooked!

I am having a great time visiting with my sister and nieces, I took afternoons off all week so I can be home by around 1 to go do something with them... Yawn, again, long week... Maybe when I get home today I'll nap...