Spring is Here!

Well, that's what I've been told, anyway. Recent nighttime temperatures have dipped down into the single digits, which has made for a pretty chilly start to the farming season. In fact, it's been near impossible to distinguish our nice, snowy Wisconsin winter from our nice, snowy Wisconsin spring! Snow and ice haven't kept us from staying busy, however, and we've got pictures to prove it...


We're close to completing a new 30' x 100' seedling greenhouse at the Brodhead farm. Once the plastic cover goes on, it will be ready to go! This is the greenhouse we'll use for growing warm-weather seedlings such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.



 

A new barn was built by a group of local Amish carpenters over the winter. Since the completion of the new barn, there's been no more construction traffic in the farm driveway, thank goodness! The barn will house the farm's repair shop, and it will provide space for walk-in coolers that will store winter squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers and more. The only thing the barn needs now is a nice coat of red paint. That project will have to wait until the weather warms up this spring.

 

In the meantime, we have found plenty to do in the office of the farmhouse. There are seeds and supplies to be ordered, planting charts to update, bookkeeping to be done, taxes to prepare for and new employees to hire. One nice thing about the new farmhouse is that it has a great fireplace. Being able to sit in front of a warm fire while doing my bookkeeping makes the prospect so much more agreeable.

 

 

 

Of course, the calm of winter provides us ample time to play, too. I find it's a great time of year to experiment with the camera. I'm thinking that this shot of one of our rams, Handsome Dale, is a solid contender for the cover of next year's Christmas Card.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the Grayslake farm, Jeff, Jen, Tyler and Donna have been working in the seedling greenhouse since late February. They have been planting the early, cold-hardy crops such as onions, lettuce, bok choy, chard, celeriac, parsley and more.

 

 I love this shot Jen took of a flat of Swiss chard seedlings. Anticipating my first spring salad makes my mouth water!

 

 

 

 

Winter has provided the Millers with ample time for play at the Grayslake farm, too. Here, Jeff and the boys take their goats, Luke and Leia, for a walk.

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the Brodhead farm, there was one undeniable sign of spring this week, and that was the birth of our first lambs. Rebecca's twins were born on Monday.

 

 

 

 

 Gretel gave birth to her twin ewe lambs on Tuesday, followed shortly thereafter by Jane Austen with a ram lamb and a ewe lamb. Our newest additions are Blossom's triplets--Buttercup, Bianca and Bess, born on Thursday night. That's 9 lambs so farm. Right now there's a bit of a lull in the action, thank goodness. We're catching our breath and resting up for the other 5 ewes who have yet to deliver their lambs.

 

Now that we're approaching delivery season, I will be posting regularly again. Spring Share deliveries begin the week of April 29th. Don't forget that there's lots of helpful information on our new website, including a delivery calendar, pickup site addresses and times, and much more.

 

We're looking forward to that first delivery!

 

Cheers,

Peg