April Update

Wow, April is flying by! Those sunny 70 degree days have felt great, too bad we’ve had so many cloudy 50 degree days sandwiched in between. The response to our CSA program has been fantastic and we are now officially sold out of shares! I’ve had several inquiries about shares for next year so I’ve started a contact list for anyone that was not able to join this year, so we can notify them when 2015 shares become available. If you know anyone that would like to be added to the list, please let me know.

2014 share pickup times are initially set as follows:

  
  DAY
  AM		
  PM
  
  Thursday
   10:00 - 12:00		
   5:00 - 7:00
  
  Friday
  10:00 - 11:30		
  5:00 - 6:30

  Saturday
  10:00 - 11:30

Chickens – Chicks are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday April 30! Our initial batch will consist of 25 Cornish Rocks and 25 Freedom Rangers. I’m very interested to compare the feed consumption, growth rates, and taste of the two varieties. Our chickens will be housed in the recently completed mobile chicken coop, which will provide secure shelter but allow us to pasture them in different locations. We had lots of help framing, roofing, and painting the coop. Big shout outs to: Noe and Ethan Contreras; Dan, Mae, and Vincent Clark; and John, Kate, and Clare Decker for all of their help.

Hoop Houses – We finally got the plastic on Hoop House #1, thank you to Tim Datsko, Shannon & Adam Smith, and Mom & Dad Decker for all of your help! It’s now plenty warm (74 degrees inside while 46 outside) but still too wet, hopefully it will finish drying this week as several of our early tomato and pepper starts are ready for their permanent homes. I started laying out lines for Hoop House #2 on Tuesday, it will house the strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries that are arriving this weekend, so getting it framed and plastic on is high on the priority list over the next two weeks!

Orchard Work – Cindy, the kids and their cousins had the “privilege” of spending two days of their spring break at the orchard hauling brush from all of the winter pruning. The cold spring has delayed leaf and bud emergence but green tips are finally showing up on the McIntosh!

Seed Starts – All of the transplant vegetables and herbs have now been planted. Big thank you to Dan, Mae, and Vincent Clark and to Clare and her friend Maggie for helping plant the last 200+ seeds! Our south facing front room has been re-assigned to greenhouse duty.

Just a reminder, farm activity updates as well as additional pictures and other news can be seen on our website at http://www.deckerfarmandorchard.com/ and on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/deckerfarmandorchardllc

-Wade

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Welcome Spring

According to my calendar its the first day of spring, but with 21 degree wind chill and still frozen ground it doesn't quite feel like it!

Just wanted to shoot out a note, first to thank everyone that has signed up to participate in our CSA program this season and secondly to give you an update on farm activities over the past couple of months.

Orchard Work - I have spent a large portion of my time over the past couple of months at the old orchard that we leased, pruning 250 trees. Five of the six varieties we have are looking really good, unfortunately the rabbits and mice were very fond of Red Delicious bark, girdling many of these trees over the winter. Here is a picture of two rows of Golden Delicious that will hopefully be contributing fruit to the late September and early October share baskets!

Applesauce -We will be utilizing many of our apples from this fall's harvest to produce our own unique brand of variety specific applesauce. In order to produce the applesauce we need an inspected commercial kitchen and be licensed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. We found an excellent kitchen in the Goodrich area back in January and completed all our inspections and had our final processing observation yesterday resulting in us now being an officially licensed "Wholesale Food Processor". Look for the different varieties of Grandpa's Grand Applesauce starting in September!

Hoop Houses - We managed to get one of the two hoop house frames up at the end of last year prior to the ground completely freezing, still waiting for that nice warm day with no wind so we can get the plastic on and then for the ground to thaw so we can get hoop house #2 up and "skinned".

Seed Starts - In anticipation of getting plants in the ground in the hoop house by the end of April, we recently started some of our tomatoes and peppers seeds. I’ve included a picture of some of the week-old tomato transplants, they are small and fragile but it’s great to see something green!