Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Seedling Heaven

I made that silly mistake today of taking a delightful late-afternoon nap, which means I'm wide awake at the hour I so need to be sleeping. But since it is dark outside and Josh is sleeping I am finally in front of the computer without distractions pulling me elsewhere. I must note that having said supposed distraction-Josh-is wonderful. Working alongside him once again, well shoot, I just couldn't be happier.

To sum up the going's on right now-wonderful. Since this blog is evolving more toward our garden and CSA info and updates, rather than my extensive naval gazing, I'll focus here on the current garden delights. Seedlings everywhere! The cold frame has worked splendidly; onions are still going strong, and we transplanted broccoli and cabbage two days ago. Another round of brassicas moved in and I think they will fare well too. Successions of lettuce are up and leggy but doing well in their flats.

But as my mom says, "most plants want to be in the ground"(hahahaha) and it's true; everything we've direct seeded is stout, strong and abundant. The arugula, turnips, radishes and spinach are all coming up beautifully among a nice leaf mulch (normally leaf mulch is undesirable as it mats down in a thick sheet, making it difficult to grow in, but, lucky for us, our hard working, free range chickens made nice work of all the yard leaves-tearing them up into fine pieces and eating all the weed seeds, leaving us with a premium garden mulch, thank you chickens!). Oh and the sugar snap peas! Oy vey are they doing well! Standing tall and growing by the day; we are going to be swimming in peas quite soon.

Carrots, celeriac, dill, parsley, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, beets and chickpeas are all in the ground and likely to germinate once this cold spell ends. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants have germinated in the windowsill behind me and have us dreaming of summer often. And last but not least, fungi is in! With the help of my good friend and fellow RPCV Elizabeth, we got our mushroom bed set up and spawn in all in one awful cold day this week. Kingstraphoria will be making it to our dear CSA members baskets this season. Hurray!

That leads me to CSA news! We signed on our very first CSA member today, and have two more committed. We are darn awful excited to grow food for them, and us, and more! Here are our offerings for the 2011 season:

Vegetable Share - $550 for the 22-week season ($25 per week). $250 deposit due by April 15th. Remaining $300 due by July 1st.

Vegetable and Egg Share - $616 for the 22-week season ($28 per week). $280 deposit due by April 15th. Remaining $336 due by July 1st.

Feel free to email us for more information or to sign up at jbveggies(at)gmail(dot)com

Happy Spring!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Rainy day updating

As you may have noticed I've finally added pictures-click on the Kentucky Livin slideshow on the upper right to view them all. You can also check out all the amazing photos from hog processing day at Emerald Glen Farm, courtesy of Chris, our beloved butcher here. I'm passing this rainy day indoors, catching up with all the not-fun computer work I've been avoiding. Important stuff though! Most notably our Local Harvest listing, click here for it. Local Harvest is absolutely the best site for finding local produce and CSAs. Dear family, support us by supporting a local farm near you! Seriously, it's so easy, just put in your zip and they will give you a whole list of nearby farms and what they offer.

Garden news, my broccoli and cabbages have sprouted! You never saw a sillier sight, oy vey, I was totally curled up and over, nearly planting my own nose in the soil, searching. But there they were, so beautiful, so full of life for how small they are. I feel sorry for the majority of people who completely overlook this incredible miracle that takes place every moment. Anyhow, that excitement's taking place in the makeshift cold frame I built in the garden out of a big (and INSANELY heavy) door and lots of hay. The leeks, scallions and onions have yet to germinate, but I have faith! I also had the mad idea to use a car as a cold frame. Yesterday I sowed two trays of more alliums and set them up in one of Leslie's daughter's cars, we'll see how it goes. And next to me in the window of the dining room are two flats of more yummy germination brewing.

One week til Josh gets planted here and I can hardly wait! Leslie and I both are looking forward to lots of hugs and lots of work from him : ) Looks like the rain has let up so I better head back out and get some garden work in before I head to the pizzeria.