Farmer Party

One thing that farmers like to do to have fun is help out other farmers. It's the perfect way to learn from each other and socialize while also getting work done.

Getting work done is the main thing that farmers like to do.

Recently, a Beginning Farmers group has started meeting up in the Keweenaw area. Yesterday we got together at Wintergreen Foods and everyone was kind enough to lend us their hands. We got a lot of work done.

In fact we filled 85 trays like the one above, which means we planted over 6500 onion seeds.

We finished the project (which would have taken Scott and me a good 3-4 days to complete on our own) in about 6 hours.

Thanks everyone for coming out to lend a hand!

Sara gives Jake and Ashley, from North Harvest CSA in Calumet,
 a quick soil mix tutorial.

Making soil blocks.

Matt, Lynette and Katie planting onion seeds in the blocks.

We ate lunch outside in the snowy parking lot. It was warmer out there than
in the unheated building.

Cold as it was, lots of good play happened :)

We brought the trays home and loaded them into the greenhouse.

After shoveling a bit of snow.

Farming in a Polar Vortex

I know the vortices are over, but we are still dealing with their dense and snowy aftermath.

Plus it's nice to have an excuse to use the word vortices.

 As you can see, the greenhouse isn't quite ready to be put to use this "spring", and it won't be for a while yet.

We still have seeds to start, though, and today was the day we put the very first seeds of the 2014 CSA season in soil. In our living room :)

We started 170 tomato seeds, 80 eggplant, and 80 peppers. They're all destined for transplant in the hoophouse during the first week of May.

For now, they are cozy on the heat mat, with a lovely view of the snow.

Tomorrow's project: Starting basil and lettuce seeds.