Micro farm update

We are now starting to call our operation a micro farm after reading this term in a great new book: The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming by Jean-Martin Fortier. This is a must-read for any new farmer just starting out (and even for those with some experience under their belts will probably learn something) and we have already gleaned some great tips from his methods. Stay tuned for a more in depth blog post about this.

And, Spink is now full-time on the farm. It is amazing how much he gets done now that he is not juggling two jobs, though he continues to do some small computer consulting on the side, which helps pay the bills. We also took what could be considered an ill-timed 2 week vacation in the end of April. Normally, this would be a terrible time to be away from the farm since there are so many spring tasks that need to be tackled. However, our starts were in great hands in a beautiful heated greenhouse at our farm mentor’s house (thanks Bruce!) and looked amazing when we returned. And, the weather continued to be cold and wet, so we would have had some very stressful days if we had stayed in town, trying to transplant things and having them go into serious shock. Transplanting is always a shock to plants, but when the temps are so cold and the soil is still cold, it’s even more drastic, especially coming from a very controlled environment. Here are a few pics of what’s in the ground so far.