Back on-line and on track!

Hello there!  We have had quite a hiatus from connectivity, but now we are back.  Randy got everything hooked up last night – and we may not have heat, but we have the internet (does that say something about our priorities?).

A lot has happened in the last month and four days since our last post.  The big news, of course, is that we are now living in the farm full time.  Good-bye Memphis, hello Ashland!

So here is a run-down of the major goings-on down here at Tubby Creek with many many thanks to all the helpful hands.

With the help of Chris Ramezanpour, Mary Park and Jake McCarthy, we finished framing the greenhouse and stretched the plastic.  It is now – like the Death Star – fully operational, except that it will be used exclusively for good and not evil. 

Cody, Derek and Rob helped us move our fridge and pick up the upright freezer from the Habitat ReStore so we can eat, which is always nice.

Thanks to Ace Madjlesi and Mary Phillips, we were able to get both vehicles down to the farm on one of the coldest nights of the year thus far.

So here we are and busy we have been.  There are a bunch of things growing in the greenhouse 

  • long white bunching onions
  • copenhagen market cabbage
  • red chard
  • buttercrunch lettuce, freckles romaine, and bronze mignonette
  • romanesco, calabrese, and de cicco broccoli
  • red russian kale and georgia southern collards
  • da chang chae, an asian green that we got on sale from Johnny’s and it’s no longer in their catalogue so I actually don’t know too much (anything) about it.

Arugula and salad mix are sprouting in the feild.  The chard (previously thought dead) spinach, carrots and turnips all seem to be doing all right, and more carrots and spinach have been seeded.  We also tossed some potatoes in the ground – early and experimental.

We got 26 tons of gravel delivered and now have a gravel driveway after one very long day of shoveling and some very welcome assistance from a county employee with a big machine.  We’ve started builiding the shed and wash/pack but I will let Randy blog about that.

Last week we went to the Southern SAWG small farm conference in Little Rock and got more ideas than we’ll ever be able to implement, but it was super fantastic to meet some great folks in Mississippi and get inspired by the many smaller farmers who are making it work.

I think that about sums up the highlights of the past five weeks – hopefully I didn’t omit anything too critical.  Stay tuned for more frequent posting from now on!