March 2008 Newsletter - Spring is Coming

3/6/2008
The pepper seeds are in their trays and being kept warm so they will germinate. The cabbage plants have already poked out and are soaking up the rays. Scott's last day as a full-time employee of the City of Boone will be March 7th and he will then truly be able to enjoy getting all the other plants started without any distractions.....besides me and the kids!! :)

A quick reminder to those CSA members that have paid the deposit to reserve their spots that the first half of membership is now due. If you have not reserved a spot yet we still have some openings so contact us if you want to be a member and just send in your first half.....or the whole amount if you want to take care of the whole thing.

We attended the Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference in Marshalltown in January and got a lot of good ideas to implement this season. It was also good to talk with other growers that understand "where we are coming from"! Scott won 5 apple or peach trees in a drawing there so we need to first figure out where we can put them and then arrange to get them delivered. I don't know if we are ready for that venture......but would be nice to have our own.

We are working with the Iowans Fit For Life of Boone County on the Local Foods Committee to put together a map and website of Boone County food sources (produce,meat,dairy,eggs,etc). We want to encourage everyone to support all the local farmers in the area and they can't do that if they don't know where to find them.

The annual Boone Farmers' Market meeting is scheduled for April 3rd at 6:30PM. It will be held in the Ericson Public Library in the meeting room on second floor. Anyone interested in supporting the market, learning more about the market, giving your input on what you want the market to be, or volunteering at the market please show up.

Scott and I are attending a course at ISU every Saturday called "Growing Your Small Market Farm" which is very helpful. We are making our business better and working on a business plan. It's really hard to get our homework done during the week with both of us working full-time and with everything else that is going on. We usually try to cram on Friday nights. I'll be doing taxes until April 15th and then I can start working full-time on the farm with Scott.

I can't wait to be able to work outside.....right now there are a lot of ponds out there due to the massive snow, freezing rain, and rain and melting of everything with no where to go.......wish I could bottle it and have access to it in the droughts of summer. That is something we should look into......no not going out there and putting water into bottles.....but some kind of water conservation system.

Be sure to contact us if you have any questions...........have a great Easter!! Spring is COMING! :)

Extra Special thanks to our webmaster (and brewmaster) at Anheuser Busch that has made this web page possible!