Early April

We are pleased that our 2010 season help arrived this month and we quickly put them to work. They came in a mini van with California plates and unpacked their stuff into our converted corn crib living quarters. They had a weekend to get acquainted with the area and then we got started with greenhouse seeding and field planting.

This week we were busy planting potatoes (all 500 lbs of them...300 lbs more than last year) and onions (about 2,000 in the ground so far). In between planting we weeded our crop of raspberries. The young plants are doing well this spring and we can't wait to harvest raspberries for the first of many years to come.

The season is in full swing and one can already see that we have expanded quite a bit this year. The greenhouse tables are already full of flats of seedlings and we have to make at least 8 more tables to accommodate all the flats left table-less at the moment. We are also growing on 2 more acres of land this year (making the total acreage a little less than 5) and we planted the onions and a few potatoes in this new ground. It has been farmed organically the past 3 years so we are hopeful that it will do well for us.

The tasks are mounting up and the anticipation of fresh picked veggies is making for an exciting Spring. Plus our Organic Certification application is being processed and we are being inspected at the end of the month. Hopefully, we will be able to label our produce as Certified Organic by the first market!

Signs of Spring

It is safe to say that spring is here to stay. Around the farm there is new life steadily growing. Pictured here is a nice covered cropped field of rye that is starting to green up, garlic that is peeking through the straw mulch, and our onion seedlings now growing in our greenhouse. We are filling our greenhouse up quickly with lettuce, kale, specialty greens, scallions, and lots of flowers. Greenhouse season really gets going the 1st week in April when we will start tomatoes, peppers, basil, broccoli and eggplant. It feels great to start the season!

It's Starting!

We have plants! When winter lingers on it is always nice when we start onions as it gets us thinking about summer! It can't be too far off, right? Well...onions are such slow growers and are day length sensitive that they need to be started very early. Our greenhouse is not yet heated, so we start our onions in our basement under grow lights. We have storage, red, and sweet onions started as well as leeks and shallots. Hopefully we will have a nice onion crop this year!

Winter Tractor Work

Living on a farm often has unforeseen advantages. This winter has been particularly snowy and lucky for us, we have a tractor which was used to plow out our driveway! Hopefully all of the cold we've had will kill all the pests that live in the soil over the winter. That sure would be nice!

Winter On The Farm

With a few inches of snow on the ground we were able to tour the farm with our son via his sled. Here he poses in front of the broccoli patch. With the mild fall we had the broccoli just keep going and going and we never had a chance to mow it. Warm broccoli soup would have been a good idea after this sled ride.

Farm Intern Wanted

We are in the midst of one of our winter jobs - finding interns for the upcoming season! If you want to live and work organic farming, Mile Creek Farm is the place to be. We are seeking 2 interns from April through October to work side by side with us for the 2010 season. Duties will include seeding, planting, harvesting, weeding, and other crop maintenance. We provide housing, vegetables, eggs and a stipend. E-mail milecreekfarm@gmail.com for more info.

EGGS AT LAST!

After 18 weeks of raising our Golden Comet hens, they have started laying their eggs! These first few eggs have been small (as is normal for first eggs) but oh so delicious. Here is a picture of the eggs just after morning collection and then later as our lunch! The yolks are a bright yellow color--a sign that our birds are getting a healthy nutritious diet of grass and bugs. If you are interested in purchasing any eggs send us an e-mail at milecreekfarm@gmail.com.