Seeds ordered... Check!

I hit a great milestone on Saturday. The seeds are ordered for my little organic farm's 2013 season!! We are growing twenty five types of vegetables with sixty eight varieties within those types, twelve varieties of herbs and a handful of flower crops, all on what will barely amount to one acre of land. If this sounds somewhat extreme, look at it this way. We will be growing tomatoes, for example, which is a type of vegetable, but we will be growing eight different varieties of tomatoes within that specific type. Many of our crops will be like that, with several different colorful varieties of vegetable within the same row. It's going to be a super lush and super beautiful field. 

Winter seems to be downtime here in Colorado, where nothing is growing outside, but I have been so busy planning, charting, staring at the wall thinking, reading, making lists, and trying to stay ahead of the game so when the season starts, all I will have to think about is the planting, cultivating and harvesting. And although I have already done so much, a laundry list of things to get in order still looms ahead of me- overwhelming to say the least! See below a few pictures of my mountains of notecards, paperwork, books and maps (with my helper, Teddy, always nearby, of course!). Also, a few vintage pics of my great friends from last year's season at Grant:

Jan 1-28

Ted, doing some reasearch

Overview plot maps, eight year crop rotation chart, and self saved and cataloged seeds for our pepper and tomato crop.

Not the most exciting pic to look at, but super exciting for me; seed ordering complete!!

Vintage farm foto(s):

Calvin, so excited to embarrass Nate further with this picture on the food saftey guide.

Tor, harvesting pumpkins!

Harvesting green beans for pickling.

Elena, eating/harvesting corn (while standing in the cucumbers...?)

Check back soon! More enthralling fotos of season planning await... plus some more fun vintage pics. Stay warm, and dream of those summer tomatoes!

XO,

Val

Super Slacker.

Hey everyone... I have to apologize, the month of December and this first two weeks of January have sucked me into the vortex of silence regarding blog correspondence. Happy New Year! Here we are and it's already January 13th. I think most everyone has heard the unfortunate new of Grant Family Farms declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy by now. I have to say it was not the way I would have liked to end the season, and I know everyone else involved with the farm feels the same way. I'm looking forward to positive news regarding their future plans, but for myself, looking forward to our own future endeavors starting our own small farm... 

Starting January, I have been busy planning away for the upcoming season. I am starting from the beginning, outlining on notecards all my crops and the necessary info required to grow them, then organizing these into a chart based on planting dates to plan the 2013 season. Essentially, I am teaching myself succession and stagger planting, based on an eight year crop rotation. I spend a lot of time staring at the wall, let's say! I will get maybe one chart complete all day and it won't seem like a lot, but it was such hard work to get there!! My goal is to be organized enough to order seeds by January 21st. That's an arbitrary date, but I'm gonna try to make that happen. I've also saved quite a number of heirloom seeds from our pepper and tomato crop this year that I've spent a bit of time counting and putting into paper packets (with the help of Rachel!). I wish I had grabbed a picture of that! Well, here's to new year's plans, and last year's memories. A few vintage pics from the 2012 season:

lining up heirloom tomatoes for transplanting.

Megan, Justin, and Alyssa laying plastic in Pie Four.

Alpaca friends.

Check back next week for a few new pics, winter though it is, as well as for some more vintage pics. And I haven't forgotten about the surprise thing I promised to have up by Christmas, just think of me as the crappy relative who sends things late... 


XO,
Val