Wanna be? A farmer!

So you want to be a farmer? This evening over 200 people gathered at the Great Lakes Brewing Company to discuss the future of farmers in Northeast Ohio, with a focus on the farming dream.

If you are thinking this may be for you, visit Cleveland Local Food or Entrepenurs for Sustainability for details about the ongoing networking meetings for local food....

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Counting on your fingers....

Quick survey for all you red blooded Americans out there...

While farmer hubby and I were watching Inglourious Bastards we had a disagreement.

The question is what finger do you put up first when you start to count on your fingers and which fingers are you holding up when you are counting to 3?

Deep breath, it's January...

We are coming off our typical January thaw. We may feel like winter is almost over, but believe me, it's fury will come again to remind us all that Northeast Ohio is not called the Snow belt for nothing.

But in the past couple days I have heard a couple people comment that they feel like they should be starting seeds for their gardens. If you have these urges, do not give in!

Well, give in if you are starting some flowers from seeds, or onions & leeks, or some herbs (like oregano.) But if you are one of the majority of gardeners who only start their own tomatoes and peppers you have plenty of time. Really.

Unless you have a heated greenhouse you probably have another 2+ months before you will be starting these seeds. Broccoli and cauliflower may be started a little earlier. If you want a good reference I suggest Clyde's Garden Planner. But remember mid May frosts are not unusual for us and few things want to be started more then 6 (toms) or 8 (peppers) weeks before planting out after all risk of frost has passed. Last year May 12th had a freezing night for us of 25 degrees, May 22 and 23 we saw 31...

Now, spend a snowy day sitting in front of fire flipping through seed catolouges and planning the summer's bounty. You have plenty of time to start your seeds. It is only janurary.

BHN-624

One of our most expensive seeds is this cherry tomato. We will buy 100 seeds this year and they will cost us $39.00 for those seeds. We could get the cost down to 26 cents a seed if we bought 1000 seeds, but $262 for one type of tomato is a little pricy for us!

Now we could find cherry tomato seed for much less. So why do we pay so much for this seed?

Because it is worth every cent! I would probably pay twice what they cost. They are easy to pick which is very important in cherry tomatoes. They are very sweet (Johnny's Seeds Trials rate them as one of the best tomatoes.) But most importantly they resist cracking. In cherry toms that is so important. Beautiful tomatoes can be ruined overnight by rain. And every single one of them will crack open.

We used to use Matt's Wild Cherries, which are a great home garden variety, but we found that some days as many as a quarter of them would crack AFTER we picked them! So frustrating in the time it takes to pick 10 pounds of cherry tomatoes. Then having to sort them all, and they are very small.

With these we know they will hold for us, and still provide a sweet, nice cherry tom.

Potatoes...

Today we ordered our seed potatoes for next year.

It really makes the season seem like it is coming fast to be starting seeds and ordering major items like hundreds of pounds of potatoes. With luck (and good management) we should have a yield of a more then a couple tons, and that is a lot of potatoes.

It is also strange to be ordering items in quantities like hundreds of pounds, but 500 pounds of seed spuds is what we will be planting this year.

But to keep that in context it still costs less for 500 pounds of seed potatoes then one ounce of the cheery tomato seed we will be planting this year. Thankfully, we only have to buy 25o seeds, at about 10 cents a seed.

Class Series....

So we are thinking about this summer's classes... I am still working on details but here is the preliminary plans:

• Gardening Class Schedule: First Thursday of each month (evening)
  April Gardening Series: Seed Starting
  May Gardening Series: Laying out your garden
  June Gardening Series: Feeding your plants
  July Gardening Series: Organic pest & diseases control
  August Gardening Series: Succession planting
  September Gardening Series: Mid-summer questions
  October Gardening Series: First frosts & fall harvests
  November Gardening Series: First steps for next year

• Preserving Workshop Schedule: Third Saturday of each month
  June Preserving Workshop: Berry Jam
  July Preserving Workshop: Pickles
  August Preserving Workshop: Tomato Sauce
  September Preserving Workshop: Salsa & Summer Heat
  October Preserving Workshop: Apples
  November Preserving Workshop: Holiday Gifts

When I add them all up it looks like a lot! Especially on top of our season, but I am looking forward to them all... Please let us know if you have preliminary intrest.

CSA and blog,,

Well, I know, I have been derelict in my CSA blogger duties, I really have no excuse for my lazy self except... laziness!

Well, today I broke the lazy streak. I sent out an email to last year's CSA members about next year's season. The email to new members will go the first week in February.

I am still a behind in website and weblisting updates so that is this week.

I will post when those are ready, we have an exciting class schedule planned for this year!

So I am back! Hello, everyone, again...