Well the snow has stopped, spent most of yesterday moving it around. The new peeps arrived and are doing fairly well. 9 of them did not make it. Lot's of eggs to sell, the salad is coming along and I keep seeding flats in hopes of the weather finally moderating and staying above 29 degrees. Good grief what a cold winter it has been. Well off to go start figuring out my taxes......

Well here we are. Saturday morning of market----watering all my seedling, feeding chickens, bagging salad mix, and all the other little jobs. Market is always fun though. Little bit of snow last night and today...just enough to remind me not to worry about getting seeds started. Plenty of time but am still anxious about having enough stuff going for this summer.  CSA has 8 shares left for this summer.  Barre farmer's market should be interesting and still waiting to hear about the Montpelier market. Intervale Food Basket is going to keep me real busy. Other offers keep rolling in for my produce. Going to have to sit down and evaluate where I want to concentrate my considerable efforts. The cold business calcualtion is the closer the  account the better, the fun side of me really enjoys the relationships and new friendships that I have gained with my long distance accounts. Hmmmmm, well have to go. Joe

Well so much for winter letting go early. 3inches of snow this morning. Planting seeds in the basement and moving flats all over the place. Put a bunch of transplants in the ground this week. Off to start harvesting for market this Saturday in Montpelier. Looks like I will be doing the Barre farmer's market this summer on Wend. evenings. It's going to be back in it's originol spot downtown. Still waiting to hear about the Montpelier summer market as to whether I have been accepted or not. Things are looking to be real busy this summer with alot of business. A very good thing with the state of the economy. Well gotta go get that spinach.--Joe

Mid February and the spinach is looking very good. Off to spend this morning cultivating the beds a bit and doing a little fertilizing to give everything a bit of a boost. Storm coming this afternoon. Winter market this saturday. Everyone calling for greens, trying to fill those orders. bye Joe  CSA is filling up, a bit slower than I would like but hey it's only February! I have about 8 shares left.

Sun is out and things are growing! In the greenhouses renovating beds. Tomatoes started to sprout today. Trying some grafting on 50 of them in about 2-3 weeks. Going to trial 3 differant types next to ungrafted and see how things go. The other experiment are my red "walls o water" for early tomatoes in the greenhouse. I set one up last night and am very pleased to report that with a low temp of 13 degrees outside the temp inside the wall o water hit a low of 32 degrees. This means putting tomatoes out on the 1st of April with no supplemental heat in the greenhouses. Well busy weekend with the NOFA conferances tomorrow and Monday. Have to go get stuff done. bye for now.  Joe

Good Morning Folks,

Well seeds are being planted in the basement and I am sowing spinach in the greenhouses. Trying to get my taxes done and look for a tractor and find an employee for this summer.  Conferance season is almost over for me. NOFA this Sunday and then going to listen to Eliot Coleman on Monday and see if I can learn anything. Lot's of anticipation building up on my end since this will be my first full season spent totally on the farm with no off farm job.  I have so many spread sheets set up, now to actually use them. The warm spell of weather this week was useful and nice. Salad continues to come to life in the greenhouse and still trying to figure out ways to improve winter systems. So many things to try and not enough time to do them.  Winter market in Montpelier next Saturday hope to see you all there. Joe

Hello All,

I apologize for the long time between posts. I was out in sunny and warm southern california last week for my sisters birthday. Also got by a few farmer's markets and one large plug operation. The plug operation was very impressive, learned a few things that will help me grow better transplants hopefully. Farmer's Market is on this Saturday. It's an odd one since we have had a 3 week break from the last one in Jan.  Days are longer and we are seeing some warmer temperatures. I am building lighting racks for my flats and a few other gadgets that I hope will save me time this summer. Head lettuce and tomatoes are going to be started this weekend. Stuff in the greenhouses is hanging in there. Always interesting to see what makes it and comes roaring back in the next 3-4 weeks. In years past the bed has looked dead and by mid-March it is full and I am harvesting every 10 days.  Take care and I will write soon. Joe