Ok next holiday on tap..............

So one inch of rain on the way this evening into tomorrow. Yes, Rain no snow yet. Thinking I should go mow the lawn for the hell of it. Turkey day at the beach was really nice. Weather was great, traffic coming home was not. We seemed to keep getting stuck in Camden and couldn't get any further. Finally took a break went to the IHOP then took back roads North until we were clear of traffic. Another 7 hour drive that took 10 hours. That is not counting the side trips we took to visit a college and see my spouses childhood home. Ahh well.
Greenhouses look great for this time of the year. The new one is loaded with spinach and will be ready for harvest in a few weeks.
On another note it is so nice having only 28 chickens instead of 400. I miss the eggs but not everything else that went with them.
Winter CSA appears to be going well and we have our second delivery this Thurs. First winter market starts this Saturday up at Vermont College from 10am to 2pm. Hope to see you there. I will have plenty of greens for sale and some very tasty soup.
As for the holidays this year the family has decided that we are staying home with just us. My oldest will be home from college and we hope to do a bit of skiing. Too many long car rides this year already and the thought of traveling for the holiday is not appealing.  Should be alot of fun. Means we will actually decorate and enjoy the house. I will even put up some outdoor lights.
I will get some photo's up of the greenhouses in the next few days. Stay tuned.  Joe

Ahhh... A short break is near.......

Well the mild weather continues and so does the work around here. Alot of extra things are all done and put into place for next spring. Still need to cover the small greenhouse and get the wood pile in the house. Blowing my back and hip muscle out for the last 6 days has been an aggravating and very painful experience. I just do not bounce anymore.......
Heading south for a crazy turkey day. The wife's family (25 of us) in a 4 bedroom condo.........on an air mattress.......with a tiny kitchen.......
Plenty of harvesting going on the next 2 days to get ready for market. Looking good. Should all of the following...
Salad, spinach, kale, chard, radish, turnip, braising greens, soup, pesto, salsa verde, cilantro, fresh horseradish,
and rapini.
Gotta go prep some soup.

19 Degrees and the farm is looking good........

Good Morning, The pace of farm life is finally shifting gears and I am getting some time to sit and think. Real good hard frost up here this morning and then into spring like weather for the next 5 days or so. Really getting alot done around here and things are getting put away correctly for once. Still some finish work on the greenhouses to be done but they are all up and running and planted. Late season grasshoppers are the issue in the salad and spinach. Damn things are inflicting some damage. Deer population is enjoying my winter rye as usual. Really makes me wonder if cover cropping is worth it.
Really going to have to figure out something to for me outside soil fertility next year. Need to get some soil samples done this fall as well.
I should be able to start processing sometime next week at the Mad River Food Hub, this is going to be great! A full blown professional kitchen to move the soup business into! Should be very interesting.
Next market is the Thanksgiving one on the 19th of Nov. Then a short break and the winter markets start on the first Sat. of Dec. That would be the 3rd.
Lot's of planning to do this winter. This was the last year of large scale infrastructure for a while. A few other projects on tap but nothing pressing. We built 2 new greenhouses this year. A new 30x96 and a seedling shed that is 21x24. Still need to get a heater into the seedling shed but have not quite figured that one out yet.
Really need to work on developing the Food Hub. Very positive feedback for the most part and a number of logistical issues to get figured out. Plenty of vendors to source product from. Trying to figure out how to use all of them and make it worth thier while. In trying to do that I end up having to raise the price of the share which we do not want to do.  The value would be there but the price point gets difficult.