April news

It has been a very busy month of April.  The month began with planting potatoes, transplanting onions, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower from the greenhouse into the garden.  The frost came  and  frosted the onions white.  However they all have showed very good signs of new growth and will likely be sweeter because of the frost.  The cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are growing well enjoying the  cool  temperatures and frequent rain.  The majority of our direct seeded crops radishes, spinach, turnip,  beets, asian greens, leaf lettuces, and peas are growing well. I saw a few potato leafs poking through the soil yesterday.  Today our baby chicks arrived. This is my first year  raising chickens.  I will be taking orders for free range chickens  if anyone is interested.  I ordered a 100 males from  Murray McMurray Hatchery  guaranteed at least 5 different varieties from this list: Black Australorps; Lt. Brahmas; Dark Cornish; Black and White Giants; Buff and White Orpingtons; New Hampshire, Rhode Island Reds, Barred, White, Partridge, Buff Rocks; Sussex, Turkens; White, Silver Laced, & Columbian Wyandottes, Red Star and Black Star.   I have turned a small storage shed into a brooder house where they will stay for about 6 weeks and then move them into a fenced area not far from the garden where i have constructed a 20ft x 20ft coop with tin on top and chicken wire on the sides.  Our tomatoes are hoping for sunshine in the forecast and warmer temperatures.  In May we will be starting melons, cantaloupe, cucumbers, and squash in the greenhouse.

Planting Season



Trailer with older transplants



 It has been a very busy few weeks.  We started direct seeding crops such as spinach, lettuce, radishes, asian greens, and peas.  We planted red nordland, pontiac, yukon gold, all blue, french fingerling, and austrian crescent potatoes.  We still have a lot of transplanting onions to do over the next few days.  Our tomatoes have came up in the greenhouse while we have moved the other crops outside onto the trailer during days and into the garage at night to stay warm.  Soon crops like cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon will be seeded in the greenhouse.   



Red Cross, Winter Density, & Flashy Trout Back lettuce



Broccoli and Cabbage







A view of the garden a top our grain bin



The Greenhouse

Our plants are loving this warm weather.  We have onions, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, kale, lettuce, and swiss chard growing so far.  As they mature we will move them outside for about 2 weeks to harden them off before transplanting them into the ground.  We will have flats germinating in the basement ready to move into the greenhouse as room is available.  We will be very busy the next two months starting warm crops such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, and melons




Our Greenhouse




Cabbage and Broccoli




Onions



The first seedlings.

Broccoli and Cabbage Seedlings

We have seeded broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, swiss chard, & onions so far.  We have started these in 128 cell flats in the basement under fluorescent lights.  In mid-March they will be moved into the greenhouse outside and into the gardens in late-April.  Starting our seeds inside provides many benefits.  Crops like onions require over 100 days and would not have the time to mature in our area if not started indoors.  When growing organically on of the biggest benefits of transplanting young seedlings is getting a head start on weeds and insects.  We can be sure that our transplants are raised organically.  When buying seeds instead of transplants, we also have many more choices. We can look for more interesting features or better flavor in vegetable varieties. There are many more heirloom varieties available as seed than as plants. 

Membership Form

Anyone interested in becoming a member for 2012 needs to click the link on right side of page to download, print, and mail in membership form.  Please circle any shares you are interested in and circle delivery preference.

2012 CSA Season

Winter may be here but we are thinking a lot about spring already.  This year we will only have 50 CSA shares available and have recieved a very large response already.  If interested I suggest signing up soon as shares are on a first come basis.  This year along with many new crops and varieties everything will be delivered WASHED.

Seed order for 2012

We have put in our seed order for next years CSA.  A lot of them have already arrived.  Here is a list of our seed order so far.  If you want to learn more about our seeds you can see pictures and read more at www.johnnyseeds.com.  A few exciting new things we well be growing this year are seedless watermelon(red & yellow), cauliflower(green, white, cheddar, purple), carrots(purple, orange, white, yellow) and lots of new Heirloom Tomatoes.

Bush Beans- Provider(green), Velour Filet(purple), Concador(Yellow)

Beets- Merlin(red), Touchstone(gold), Ace(Red),

Broccoli- Waltham 29, Gypsy
Cabbage- Gonzales(green), Farao(green), Super Red(red),

Carrots- Nelson, Purle Haze, White Satin, Yellow Pak
Cauliflower- Fremont(white), Cheddar(Yellow cheese color), Graffiti(purple), Panther(Green)

Chard-Fordhook(green)

Cucumbers- Albi pickling, Marketmore slicing, Diva seedless

Dry Beans- Vermont cranberry(Baked Bean), Midnight Black Turtle(Black),

Greens- Purple Mizuna, Tatsoi, Hon Tsai Tai

Kohlrabi- Eder(white)

Lettuce- Butterhead varieties- Australe, Red Cross, Ermosa,

Lettuce- Bibb variety- Buttercrunch

Lettuce-Romaine variety- Flashy trout back, Winter Density, Helvius,

Cantaloupe- Maverick, Athena

Onion- Walla-Walla, Gunnison(yellow), Ruby Ring(red)

Pac choi- red choi(red), black summer(green)
Peas- Caselode(shelling), Snow Sweet(snow/sugar)

Hot peppers- Serrano, Highlander, Hungarian Hot Wax,

Bell Peppers- Flavorburst(Yellow/orange), Ace(green/red), Yankee Bell(green/red)

Pumpkin- Winter luxury(pie)

Radish- Rover(red), D'Avignon(French),

Rutabaga- American Purple Top,

Summer Squash- Sunburst(patty pan), Golden Glory(Zucchini), Plato(Zucchini)

Winter Squash- Honey Bear(acorn), Waltham(Butternut), Burgess(Buttercup), Sunshine(Kabocha), Confection(Kabocha), Cha-Cha(Kabocha)

Tomato-Sun Cherry(red), Smarty(grape), Mountain Fresh(Red), Pink Beauty(red)

Heirloom Tomatoes- Brandywine(red), Moskvich(red), Rose(red), Striped German(red/yellow), Green Zebra(green)

Turnip- Purple Top White Globe

Seedless Watermelon- Sunshine(yellow), Sweet Bite(red), Farmers Wonderful(red),

Potatoes we get from Albert Lea Seed house and will include- Yukon Gold, Kennebec, Pontiac, Nordland, All Blue.  Fingerling varieties include French, Austrian Crescent, and Russian Banana.