Starting Seeds

It’s one of our favorite times of year.  The light is coming back, the air is still crisp and fresh but the sun warms us.  Our pantry is filled with trays of soil blocks (our favorite way to start seeds indoors – no ridiculous plastic trays, plus it works way better) and planted seeds – thyme, parsley, kale, lettuce, and onions.  A ridiculously awesome amount of onions.  (We hope to grow enough for our family and the bakery this year.)

We have big plans for the farm last year.  Last year, since I was exhausted my entire pregnancy, we took a very light year of farming, and we really miss it.  This year, we plan to grow tons of vegetables, create a new garden space on the top of the hill, plus a small field of popcorn, heirloom wheat, and another Three Sisters field (oh how beautiful – and delicious – that was!).  We hope to raise two pigs for meat, and also (are you ready?) to finally, finally get a milk cow and her calf.  Yay!  I have, honestly, wanted a milk cow since I was about ten years old.  Now that our big hoop barn is up and we have room to store hay (and house her), we are finally ready.  Oh yes, and we want to get some ducklings and plant some more fruit trees of course (we get our trees from here) – cherry, pear, apple . . .  And there’s always fences to build and stumps to dig out.

This week I’ve started pruning our fruit trees.  Generally, pruning trees totally scares the pants off of me – it seems so permanent, and we hope these trees will grow food for us for a long time.  I’m using the excellent American Horticultural Society’s Pruning and Training book, and it’s so helpful.

If this sounds like a ridiculous plan for folks with a new baby, who run two businesses, well, we like a challenge.  Plus, we know by now that each year we only manage to complete about half our farming plans, and that’s totally okay. What are your dreams for the growing season?