Greetings! We are heavily rooted in the 2010 growing season at the time of this first blog. We have great intentions to keep up with this wonderful form of communication. Last seasons attempt was lost in the shuffle of priorities to delivering the freshest produce to our faithful members and customers. Speaking of which, we are most grateful to those of you who have sent in your CSA membership this year, both returning and new folks, it is a wonderful vote of support! We still have some spaces available if you have friends or neighbors interested!
As farmers, the new buzz is all about extending the season! I know it sounds exciting, however, the coldest months of the year have historically been our only chance of catching up with repairs and new ideas. We have many unfinished projects here as the short “down time” flies by. When Mother nature wakes up, we become totally consumed with growing, and too often the good ideas are left behind for “later!”
An excellent example is our “Used Motor Oil Boiler Project.” Just last week we finally tightened up the last pipe connection of our boiler to the new Cucumber house. Now we are not only heating with a waste product that would have been a ecological problem, but we are using a new greenhouse that will allow us to offer beautiful delicious cucumbers early in the season. We are growing four different greenhouse cukes, and you can help us decide which ones we should continue with during the main season.
The first is the Euro cuke, which is long, skinny and seedless, Second is a Middle Eastern variety that is equally tender. Third is an Israel seedless cuke that looks all the world like a regular cuke but is again seedless and crunchy. Last is a standard field variety we are just curious about how it will perform.
Back to our Boiler Project! With this system, we can now take used motor oil off the hands of our members. You can take that five gallon bucket out of your garage and bring it to us, to grow tomatoes or delicious cucumbers… We only ask that you all make sure that the oils are pure and not contaminated with water, sludge or radiator fluid, which will not burn and may actually hurt our system.
Our grafted greenhouse tomatoes are well on their way as you can see from this photo. The first fruits are already a couple inches wide! The crew has been busy seeding and we hope the fields dry out a bit so the transplanting can begin! One can only hope for a rare season of balanced weather for a change! Until next time, we wish you all well! 
Two Month Old Tomatoes
