Monday, February 23, 2009

This cabbage that was seeded Monday, February 16 and up and looking good by February 21. Hopefully we will plant this in the high tunnel about March 15-20 so we use the tray and space for the second planting.

Now she is doing the first of several trays of peppers. We are starting with 800 pepper plants! Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, Chocolate, Sweet, Mild, Medium, Hot and Very Hot! We need to plant so many because we have a daughter that eats one for every one she picks for sale! Great source of vitamins!

A closer look. John is not allowed to help with this part! Details.
Janna putting in the first lettuce seeds. Today she did four trays that will be the first 1000 heads of lettuce!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

This is where we will begin our transplants. The seeding will happen on the table on the right of the picture and the water on the left. I need to add the plastic yet. Once watered, the trays go under lights on one of four stacks of shelves. We currently have room for about 40 trays that hold anywhere from 72 (tomato trays) to 338 (onions, leek) plants. We are dreaming of putting up a heated greenhouse to move this out of our garage.







I ordered a winter delivery of seed potatoes. I am going to green sprout them inside for the next 3-4 weeks and then plant the sprouted seed potatoes in high tunnel #2. The idea is to have new potatoes early at the markets. It has been done in Maine so I think it should work in NW Iowa! They came in a insulated box. It was a good week the delivery being the temperatures have been mild this week. There is 15 lbs of Yukon Gold and 15 lbs of Rose Gold.

Janna is covering up Radish, Kale, Turnips, Mache in tunnel 1. We hope this is all harvested before it is time to plant tomatoes. She also put in two rows of peas. It was warm, I didn't have the therometer in the tunnel but it felt like t-shirt weather.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Hooray!

Janna and I have been accepted into a mentoring program with MOSES, we will get hooked up with an experienced farmer and Janna will participate in a program called Organic University!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Today Janna is finishing her seed inventory. She hopes to place an order tomorrow. We are also working on our CSA brochure and an ad for the local shopper. The CSA will run for 20 weeks from May 12 to September 22. Today was a clear cold sunny day and it was "warm" in the tunnel. I am going to put in some poles and wire tomorrow so we can hang a row cover over the entire crop like a blanket. We hope to seed some greens and carrots before the end of the week! Spring is coming!