Planning, planning, planning

We have spent the last several weeks taking stock. What do we want to do this year? Well, the answer to that is that we want to do everything. But. Practicality narrowly prevailed.

We are planning how many shares to have. How many vegetables to grow. What kinds to grow. We are ordering seeds - mostly heirloom seeds. We are planning another acre of growing space.

We are adding to our egg flock and figuring meat bird purchases. We are searching out plans for portable chicken coops so that the meat birds can have fresh pasture every day.

We are ordering yet more berry plants - strawberry (doubling our bed size), raspberries (we have 25 bushes but want more - black, purple, yellow, and pink), and blackberries.

Are we ready for a dairy cow? Turkeys? Pigs? Which of these next?

We are so excited to be able to share the bounty of this land with those who are searching out "just" food. Tasty, sustainable, faithful food. The work of farming has begun.

Newsletter Time

We just finished putting together our first newsletter. It has all our prices, classes we will offer, and this thoughtful article from Ben:

When folks talk about food, they don’t just talk about food; they talk about some kind of food usually by using a colorful adjective in front of it -- organic, local, cruelty-free, healthy, fair-trade, seasonal, gourmet, farm-fresh, natural, whole. Some time back I asked Kristin, “How come nobody seems to sell just food anymore?” Then I realized that “just food” could be another whole description of all this food folks are already talking about. I liked that “just” could mean “only” and also “morally responsible” at the same time. Anyway, that’s the kind of food we like to eat around here. Call it what you will, organic, local, whole, healthy -- usually we just call it good. More and more folks are realizing that the way you grow or raise food is just as important as how the food itself tastes. Trying to improve today’s vegetable crop with chemicals that harm the soil (and the water, animals, trees, and everything else in the world) into tomorrow just doesn’t make sense. Making foods that hold up well in long transit sacrifices the food’s taste and nutrition, the two reasons we eat it in the first place. Raising animals indoors in cages just to save a few dollars not only makes them (and anyone who eats them) unhealthy but it robs them of their inherent animalness.

So that’s why we started a farm. We wanted to make sure that the food we were eating was grown and raised in ways we knew to be right. We didn’t want to wonder where it came from or how it was treated or what possible effects its production was leaving on the earth. Now we know just how it’s coming to us and if something isn’t right, we know about it and can do something about it. We can choose food that tastes good and is good for you. We watch it from field to table (which makes it taste that much better). The best thing is that we love doing it. We love it so much we are raising more than we need and sharing with other people who want the same thing from their food as we do but can’t go out and do it all themselves. That’s you. You want food you don’t have to wonder or worry about. You want food that tastes good and fresh because it is good and fresh. You want food that is “just food,” food that doesn’t have a bunch of other hidden things in it as well as food that came to your table in the best ways possible. You want food that you can know and invest in from seed to plate. That’s what we’ve got. Our desire is to not only deliver you a whole season’s worth of tasty food but also to allow (and encourage) you to be as involved in its growing as you want. We will post regular blog entries showing the whole process every step of the way. You’ll get other newsletters updating you on what’s growing, what and when to expect certain foods from the garden, as well as news and reflections from us, your farmers. Also we hope you will come out to our farm (by which I mean not only our family’s farm but yours as well) to visit, see what we’re doing, and even to help raise your food by getting as involved as you want. While there is a lot of planning and careful work that goes into raising food, there is always plenty to do and room for more help. We want to share the farm and the farm experience with you as fully as we can.