Well, better late than never, this is the newsletter that went out earlier this year. I just ran out of blogging-speed last fall and didn't start to get back to it until now. Here's hoping for a great 2013!
Blue Gate Farm News – Volume XX, Number 1 – January 2013
Weather notes:
Precipitation to date this
month: Rain: .65”
Snow: +/- 1.0
What’s up on the farm?
Happy New Year to everyone, just
a bit late. We hope the young 2013 has
been as kind to you as it has to us.
Given the health and weather
challenges of 2012, we were more than happy to send that year into the past and
look forward to the promise of a new year.
So far, things are looking great. All of Sean's medical team continue to
be very pleased with his progress and one by one they are bidding him farewell
as their specialties are no longer required. There are still a number of
appointments to be kept, but to date, all the news has been good. We are so
very appreciative of all of the wonderful support that we received throughout
the "adventure"!
We have left the farm on a
few occasions this winter. What a treat
to have crew members from last summer nearby to look after things for us. We travelled to Colorado to visit with family over Christmas, plus our annual
pilgrimage to the Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) conference. This is one of our
favorite events of the year and we look forward to learning about new
farm-related skills, opportunities and techniques. The best part of the conference though is
catching up with farming friends, some of whom we only see “in person” this one
time of the year.
Blue and Luci have been
enjoying the winter, especially when we have visitors to the farm. They enjoy playing outside in nearly all
weather, except rain, though they have made it very clear that they would be ok
with becoming house dogs at least part time.
The chickens aren’t big fans
of snow and during some of the rare snowy days they had to be coaxed out onto
the frozen whiteness with piles of fresh greens gleaned from the high tunnels. While they love their greens, they really hate
walking on snow, although our current flock is better about this than earlier
flocks! Egg production has been variable
throughout the winter. So our egg sale opportunities continue to be rather
erratic. We will make eggs available for sale as we have them. If you are in
the area and want to stop by the farm for eggs, call and let us know, we will
be happy to sell eggs if we have them available.
The bees are shivering the
winter away, literally. During cold
weather a honey bee colony forms a ball with the queen in the center of the
ball. The worker bees “shiver” their
wing muscles to create heat. A colony
with an ample population can maintain a temperature in the center of the ball
in to the 80s!
The seeds have all been
ordered and the majority of them have already arrived. The annual sowing of transplants will begin in
the sunroom in the next couple of weeks. First on the schedule are: onions, leeks, shallots,
green onions, edible flowers and perennial herbs. After that, things will start
to get serious with the sowings of cabbages and broccoli and the direct sowing
will begin in the high tunnels. Before
that can happen though, the winter crops will all be cleared from the tunnels
and we will flood each of the beds to help clear the soils there of excess
salts. Then we should be about ready for
planting.
2013 CSA Season
So, now that we’ve mentioned
the 2013 crops, let’s get to the 2013 Summer CSA. The sign-up period for the
season will begin later this week as we send out emails to veteran CSA members. These members will have until February 17th to let us know if
they wish to continue their membership. The following week we will start
contacting names from our waiting list to fill in any remaining slots. Due to increasing seed and fuel costs, we are
increasing the 2013 Base Membership fee a bit, to $480 for the 20 week season. Deposits
($50) are due at the end of February. Balance
payments will be due on May 1st, and we will send out invoices for
those amounts during April. We anticipate
the first delivery of the 2012 season to be the first week of June,
weather-depending.
That’s about it
this month, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know.
Best from the farm,
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