Growing.

There is something amazing about doubt, and I think it's the fact that, many times, it's linked to nothing in reality. Garett and I have a favorite saying, and that is "Look at it. No! Look at it with your real eyes!" We stole this from comedian Loiue CK, who did a sketch about a passenger trying to stuff a gi-normous piece of luggage into a tiny overhead bin on an airplane. We've all seen it, the passenger crying out 'It'll fit! It fit last time!', without realizing that the circumstances (ie; the plane) may have changed. 

I am delighted today to say that my farmvision today simply was the opposite of this scenario... My brain was screaming 'Nothing's growing and it's not gonna work!', only to arrive in the field today to see cabbage, spinach and cilantro triple the size of three days ago, and the beets, carrots, chard, and onions bright and happy. The sugar snap and shell peas are fighting the Oregon Giant Snows for the height trophy, and my tomatoes are busting a yellow flower or two on their brand new fruit sets! It just goes to show you that sometimes, even when doubt is great, the world's out there just waiting to prove you wrong. You just have to look at it with your real eyes. Here are the pics from the past two weeks:

May 16

Rachel and Monica transplanting eggplant!

 May 17

Anya, laying out our gorgeous tomatoes in order of
color for our Rainbow Row!

 May 21

Megan transplanting red bell peppers in the
Gun Club Road Demo Garden.

May 23

Just a little farmer's market prep and run through!!! Like the booth?? It's not near complete...But! It'll look even better filled with veggies!

 May 24

The reason it's so good is because they put a little love in it. Rachel and Mitty dancing in the kitchen during a Wonderland Farm recipe tasting. 

 May 25

Katie and Teddy sporting the Wonderland UniCorn Tank! 

 May 31

Just makin' sure they're in the ground good...

 Jun 1: Epic Farm Day, Trellis Project

So lucky to have Ryan for the trellising project. Here
he's cross bracing the trellising end post with baling twine.

Jesse stringing twine for trellising out eight varieties
of heirloom tomatoes. Each plant can weigh up to fifty pounds
when fully grown and producing!

Katie, Jessie and Rachel. Trelissing and fence repair extraordinaires.
That was their title for the day.

Jun 7

Our prize Striped Germans!

Bonus Foto(s):

Beautiful Bright Lights Baby Chard. Rainbow Edition, of course.

Rachel and Mitty practicing the "Kaplan Method" for weeding. FYI, this is no (says Katie).

An All Red Potato plant. Notice the rosy interior coloration on the leaves.
They're gonna be spectacular!

Me and Megan's ridiculously great baby, Phoebe, givin' those peps a dirty look.

Mountain dove's nest, view from the deck.

Oh yeah, I took these men to a dangerous old- timey sawmill. And they loved it. Mitty's carrying a whole tree we used for trellising end posts.

Pocket musk melon anyone? So excited to see our Sivan Heirloom Melon making an appearance!

Best crew ever. Mitty, Rachel and Ryan taking a post to the resident carpenter, my dad!!

This cilantro tastes even better that it looks. And to all those haters out there,
even Rachel has created a recipe for cilantro dressing that she loves! And
she's the biggest cilantro hater of all of you!

Rudy needed a place to sit after the end of Jessie's
long day.

Napa Cabbage... See the heart?!

Just so excited! Our first micro harvest! A few leaves
of palm sized spinach leaves to saute for dinner.
It's not much, but it sure did taste sweet!

Well, twenty five pics per blog may be my new record, and I even thought I gave a pretty good life metaphor (simile?) in the opening paragraph. Maybe it's a moral. Something like; No matter what you're thinking, you're still growing. My farm showed me that today. Thanks everyone for viewing and thanks especially to my unmatched and excellent farm team. You are inspiring. 

XO,

Val

Adventures in Wonderland

On the way home from our farm today I was utterly exhausted. I wasn't prepared for how mentally and emotionally exhausting it can be to start you own business! Especially when that business is dependent on the weather, and the the soil, and the water table! Not to mention germination rates... All things that are in some way or another, out of my control, something I can be less than patient about! And I was listening to a scary book on tape (my fav), and I was stressing out majorly, about the farm, and about my family's personal challenges, and about money! And I was thinking about how I should really be listening to a happy story, and trying to relax. I tried to think of a story that would just be happy and uplifting and non- stress inducing, and I realized that any story without challenges is a boring story. 

They teach us in creative writing as children that there is a Protagonist, who runs into Challenges, and those Challenges build into a Climax, and the Resolution is when the Character finally figures it out and wins, and from there the story wraps up pretty quick. When things are running smoothly, then there is really no story to tell. The most interesting stories are about challenges, and how we overcome them. 

I'm at the beginning of this adventure in our story. I crawled down the rabbit hole at Wonderland Farm and I still don't think I've quite landed on my feet, though I have already had help from some of the most amazing characters. I'm walking into a different world, and I know it's a long road ahead. I can't express my love and appreciation for the help of my incredible family and friends. Namely, Susan and Roger, best parents in the world, Megan, Katie, Rachel, Mitty, Emma, Luke, Justin, Anya, and Monica. I don't know what I ever did to deserve such a crew, and Thank You will never cover it. 

Here are the pics of the past two weeks:

May 2

Transplanting heirloom tomatoes with my beautiful mom (and her shadow, Rudy!).

May 3

Mixing fun and work! Having a drink with Rachel and creating our farm dinner dates and menus from our harvest maps!

 May 4: Epic Farm Day

Katie, Mitty and Emma, transplanting our broccoli.

Luke, planting Gold Rush Bush Beans!

Rachel, trenching a line for our buried rabbit fence. Sorry, field bunnies,
sneak your veggies in someone else's cabbage patch!

Luke and Rachel transplanting Farao and Napa Cabbages.

Justin was the total fence master of the day.

Mitty and Rachel adding row cover for cold and hail protection. Katie and Emma planting Graffiti Purple Cauliflower.

 The A Team Crew! Justin, Rachel, Mitty, Luke, Emma, and Katie.

 May 9

Rach, Teddy and Mitty helping me move our tender tomatoes from the grow room to the farm to prepare for transplanting!

 May 10

Burying rabbit fence in the hail!

 May 12

Getting our herbs planted for the farmers markets!

Bonus Foto(s):

Our freshly transplanted heirloom tomatoes, and a few eggplants, next in line.

The nightshades' temporary new home, in our custom rolling herb beds, to move in and outside for hardening off. These beds will be bursting with letuce and other goodies  at our farmers markets to harvest your own herbs and salad!

Dirt Masters!

Planting Spring Wheat by the toss method.

It's all good if you have a dirt hand and a dirt foot.

I think these pic really speak for themselves this time. Have a great (and finally warmer) week. All of us have our challenges, but I know about myself, and my family and friends, that we like a challenge. And we really love a good story. Bring on the adventure!

XO,
Val in Wonderland

The April Epic Post: Snow Blow(s)

Well, shoot. I was hoping to do better than just one post for April, and now that I think about it we're already at the First of May! It has been a crazy month of whirlwind fencing building, tiller fixing, row straightening, seed planting, TRANSplanting, irrigation set up, watering, raised bed building, and oh, did I mention, SNOW?! Nevermind the weather, because we love the moisture! This has been my mantra for the past month and a half. Even as I write, a fluffy flurry of snowflakes swirls past the window outside. I just pray that the chard, carrots, onions, potatoes, greens and pea seeds are staying snug and thinking about germinating just as soon as this wintery blanket lifts for (fingers crossed!) the last time this season. 

I'm thrilled to announce our participation in two local Farmer's Markets in Denver! Saturdays, we can be found at the Highlands Market at 15th and Boulder Streets in the West Denver Highlands Neighborhood, and Sunday we are the fortunate newcomers in the Old South Pearl Market at Florida and Old South Pearl St. in Denver's historic Washington Park area. Both markets are a great time and we are proud and excited to be a part of them!

Our membership is coming right along as well, and I can't wait until we are delivering our bounty of veggies right to the door of people who value fresh local produce, complete with our unique local recipes crafted specifically for our farm. 

Shout outs to Megan and her darling daughter Phoebe, whose Demo Garden we started in early April, and will be restarting soon, due to all the inclement weather. Also Katie, my excellent fellow farmer who helped me to bust out all the planting in our triangle plot in just one day (before yet another record setting snowfall), and also helped me shovel dirt, drive around, and brainstorm raised bed solutions! And of course and always, Mom and Dad for all your endless support, ideas, tractor fixing, bed building and everything else I'm forgetting to mention.

And finally, even though it's snowing outside, I can't stop the growing inside!! I've been way too busy up- potting my cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts in anticipation of planting this week and next. And my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are busting out of their cells. We are working on relieving the rest of the tomatoes and the luscious black beauty eggplants this afternoon! Well, with no more fanfare, let me catch you up on some pics of the week...er...MONTH!!

Mar 30

The beginning of creating the rows in the Granedde Square!

 Apr 1

Pops driving some fencing supplies in for the day. Foreground: my deer fencing under the pines.

Apr 4

Megan and Farmer Phoebe in their matching bibs, getting ready to plant
Cascadia Snap Peas in the Demo Garden!

 Apr 6

Teddy, guarding last year's garlic and onions as we test out our row hoops.

Apr 12

Drip irrigation in place, row cover hoops and river rock ready to... well, ROCK! Brassicas will go here. 

 Apr 13

Katie (and Ted!) weather proofing our awesome rolling raised beds for the
farmer's market. Fill dirt in the Valstar behind!

 Apr 20

A little grainy, but that's how we like it. Me and Dad, first day of outside planting- eight rows and three varieties of peas!

 Apr 21

Katie, planting three varieties of potatoes in one row for a Red, White and Blue Mix!

 Apr 23

This pic does not do it justice, but we are swiftly running out of room after transplanting!!

 Apr 26

Purple Graffiti Cauliflower, and broccoli in the foreground, hardening off and getting ready to go in the ground next week!

 Apr 30

This is not, I repeat NOT a farm vehicle! Well, maybe just this once. At the nursery getting transplanting supplies.

Bonus Foto(s):

Me, at Megan's Demo Garden, after the first roll of the precision seeder!

Our six row seeder, getting ready to plant our Rainbow Chard!

Action shot! Katie, shoveling fill dirt for our raised bed project!

My booming Black Beauty Heirloom Eggplants stretching their leaves!

We work hard! Teddy, sleeping sitting up at the end of a long day!

Well, I think this post wins the award for longest, most epic blog of farm foto so far! I'd like to make more promises of getting back in a routine of blog updates, but with starting the farm up this year, I admit it's been hard. Maybe as the season progresses, I can be a little more consistent. Maybe. Thanks for checking back in, and for all your continued readership! Let's all use our collective energy to melt this snow and let things grow!! One thing is for certain, there's never a dull moment in Colorado... at least not at Wonderland Farm! Stay warm and well until next time, and let that be sooner than next month!!

XO,

Val