Sunday, April 22, 2018

BGF News - April 2018-Vol. XXXIX, No.4

Precipitation in the past month: Rain 0.75"
                                                    Snow 1.50"

What’s up on the farm?

Warmer weather...so nice to see green instead of white!
This past month has been quite the roller coaster ride; snow, rain, ice and sleet with enough sunshine thrown in to make us really aware of the below normal temperatures. Through all of that fun, we've been sowing seeds inside and out, harvesting and clearing high tunnel crops and starting the first of the transplanting. Most of the beds are prepped and ready for their soon-to-come crops.
 

Starting to look like spring outside...finally!


Some of the many transplants that will be heading to the fields soon

The return of spring weather means we can finally get to our field chores...



Applying finished compost with our 1940's era spreader




Cultivating the beds to kill early weeds and incorporate the compost with our 1950's era walking tractor

Sowing seeds in prepared beds with a vintage wheel hoe & 1920's era Midget seeder

































                                                                                                                       There is still space for new (or returning) members in the 2018 Summer CSA. Veteran members should receive their invoices this week, with payment due May 4th.  If you are interested in the 2018 CSA season, you can read more about it on our website:

If you are ready to join us for the upcoming season of veggie-adventures, you can get sign-up information here: 
Blue Gate Farm CSA Sign-up

Tuesday, April 24th is the final round of our winter VegEmail sales. And two weeks after that, the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market opens! Holy cow, here it all comes, ready or not! Honestly, at this time of the year, the answer is "not!" But we will be ready by the time it gets here.

Is an occasional newsletter not enough for you and you want to read more about our daily adventures or see pictures of the farm?  Follow us on Facebook at Blue Gate Farm and Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh. You can also share recipes, experiences and questions with other BGF members at Blue Gate Farm Community.

That’s about it for now, if you have any questions or comments be sure to let us know. 
Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and Luci & Indigo)

Thursday, April 5, 2018

A visit from Iowa Ingredient

Last summer we hosted the production team from Iowa Public Television's "Iowa Ingredient" for a program they were doing on cucumbers. When they called, I warned them that on a chemical-free farm, cucumbers suffer from an insect-induced death sentence. The day that they called, we had about 300 row feet of cukes growing, but that could change at anytime and they would die nearly overnight. They took the information, did some research and decided to include that as part of the segment.  Here's the piece that recently aired...


It was poignant to see this on our public tv station a couple of weeks ago, as it was shot last summer before we lost our beautiful Blue. There she is, featured right at the beginning of the video supervising everything that happened on her farm, as always.