June Update

We wrapped up the final part of our primary planting this past weekend, getting in the fall squash, watermelons, green beans and the 3rd planting of sweet corn.  The recent rains and warm temperatures have crops (and weeds) sprouting quickly!

The chickens are filling our nicely, and doing an excellent job of removing insect and larvae pests while working lots of fertilizer in to their pasture area.

The outlook for apples at our leased orchard this fall looks to be a bit disappointing compared to last year.  While we had great blossoms for the McIntosh, Primas, and Red Delicious, the weather conditions during bloom were not great for bee activity and as a result  we didn't have good pollination and actual fruit set appears pretty light.  I'm still optimistic that we should have a harvest to include with shares, but we probably won't be producing any Grandpa's Grand Applesauce this season :(

On a more exciting note, the first shares of the season will be available the week of June 22, with the first pickup day at the farm being Thursday June 25 at 10:00am

Pickup days and times are as follows:

Pickup Location	Day	Times
Flagstar Bank, Troy	Wednesday	4:00 - 5:00
Farm	Thursday - AM	10:00 - 11:30
Farm	Thursday - PM	5:00 - 6:30
Farm	Friday - AM	10:00 - 11:30
Farm	Saturday - AM	10:00 - 11:30

I will send a separate email to shareholders confirming the day and time I have everyone signed up for.

And even more exciting....we are starting to get some early strawberries from the hoop house, I am planning on distributing as we harvest over the next 2 weeks.  Watch your email for your strawberry pickup time!

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

May Update

It has been a much drier spring this year and with the recent trend of warm temperatures we have gotten an earlier start to our field plantings. This past Thursday we put in all of our potatoes, almost 3 weeks ahead of last year!  Tilling the fields this spring has also been more efficient, with fewer passes with the tractor thanks to our new Land Pride tiller.  It's wider than our previous tiller and covers both tire tracks, it's also a reverse rotation tiller which does a better job of working in previous year crop residue and produces a finer seed bed with only one pass.

The chickens have all feathered out and we moved them onto pasture last week, its amazing how quickly they transition from sitting inside the coop eating from feed trays, to scratching and digging and enjoying the outdoor buffet of insects and grasses.

Color is returning quickly to the orchard, as the gray bare trees now all have green leaves and the early varieties are adding in lots of pinks and whites as blossoms begin to open.  It looks like it should be a strong year for the Prima and McIntosh varieties as they are loaded up with blossoms, the Red Delicious look about average while it looks like an off year for the Golden Delicious following a bumper crop of them last fall.

The first week for CSA share pickups looks like it will be sometime in mid June, we should be able to firm up the date over the next couple of weeks.  Also - we are working on partnering with another small local organic farm with a large laying flock,  to begin offering an "egg add-on" to shares.  Hopefully more to come on this over the next week!

Fuzzy and yellow

Both chicken coops are now full of chicks!  Feel free to bring the kids by to hold and feed them anytime, the next two weeks are ideal as the cuteness factor does go down as they start to feather out....

Spring 2015

It’s been a while since our last update, and there has been lots of good stuff going on.  First, a big thank you to all of our CSA shareholders that have signed up for the 2015 season.  We are now completely sold out and looking forward to another great year!

Winter pruning in the orchard is completed, despite the crazy cold temperatures and a busy schedule we managed to get another 110 trees trimmed up and looking respectable.

Golden Delicious prior to pruning

Golden Delicious after pruning

Mobile chicken coop #2 still needs a paint job on the outside but the inside is well appointed and ready for move in! We are expecting the arrival of our first batch of chicks today (I’m waiting for a call from the post office as I type this).

I was slightly more disciplined this year in my seed starting, other than some intentionally early tomatoes that will go into the hoop house shortly, I and managed to wait until mid-March for everything else.  With the nicer weather they are able to start spending some time outside as well!

I’ll probably jinx myself by saying this, but the fields are drying out quite well, and hopefully we’ll be able to get some snap peas, and other early cool weather crops in soon!

Hope everyone has a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather this week!

-Wade