The FARM!!!!

OK, we've been pretty slack lately in our postings about the farm and how everything is going. Now, in our defence, we've been really really busy since moving into the Panabode and i guess the blog has been pushed to the serious backburner. However NO LONGER!! I'm gonna try for a post a week updating our progress and anything interesting and exciting thats happened(of which there is lots). So anyways, heres a big ol' list of whats been going on(in no particular order).

We got a greenhouse!! Its not ultra big, only 10x16, but big enough for us to put our transplants in. We realized we just couldnt keep moving dozens of trays of transplants in and out of the house everyday. We have a little kick heater in it right now that runs at night just to keep it a little bit warm. However we're really trying to get it to the point where we don't need to use the electricity to heat it at night. So far we've been putting rocks and jugs of water in the greenhouse to try to retain some of the heat. The idea being that the water and rocks store the heat and release it slowly during the night. Pics of the Greenhouse forthcoming.

It's official, we're a commune now. The straw that broke the hippies back was a little thing we like to call Dandyburgers. Brads aunt sent us a recipe for these and i must say, they pass the test. Who would have ever thought that dandylions could be so delicious. A recipe and possibly a pic or two forthcoming

Heres an exciting list: spinach, radish, fava bean, pea, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onion, leek, lettuce, swiss chard, beets, mizuna, carrots, kale, mustard greens. Can you guess what this list signifies? No one? Its what we've planted!! Its really exciting. Our peas are about 3 inches tall right now. Our early brassica crops are looking pretty nice as well. Tasty food forthcoming.

Our Tomato transplants are about 6 inches tall right now and looking really really nice. Im really really really excited about them.

OK, its time for a little farm math. What does all of those crops in the ground + no fence + lots of deer equal? It equals Mike, Brad, Luke, and Kath staying up all night in shifts. We've fiddled around with them a wee bit since we started(about 3 weeks ago) but heres the current breakdown.

9:00-11:45 Luke
11:45-1:30 Kath
1:30-3:15 Brad
3-15-7:00 Mike

In addition Brad is out there from 7:30-9:00 at night and Kath shows up at 7:00 till 8:30 in the morning. We basically just worked them out by everyone picking their favorite shift, then we just change them until everyone has their favourite.

So theres the inaugural weekly farm update. Dinner for me forthcoming.

mike