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

Trust your instints!

Greetings from snowy, springy Colorado. We've gotten over twelve inches here in the past twenty four hours, and if you think that's crazy, you're gonna love the week I've had! Mid March (meaning Monday) was my goal for breaking ground here, or at least, trying to figure out if we could break ground! Being high in 4B/5A territory (USDA growing zones based on elevation and longitude), and on the side of a lovely if not rocky plateau, we had no idea if our fertile field would wind up being a boulder field once we began. 

I started this week trying to rent a small tractor with a box scraping implement to rip up our soil and was promptly turned down by a man who thought it would be better to try to sell me on dragging a horizon auger backward with a bobcat (oh, and only for twice as much money). Surprisingly, for once I trusted my instinct and told him I would give it some thought. I'm really fighting an urge to swing by his shop and let him know my awesome 72 year old dad and I tore up the whole field a day later with a 15 year old BCS rototiller with a broken gear lock. Not to worry, Walt, we had some channel locks to hold things in place. 

As of Wednesday we have tilled all our Wonderland plots, and as of Friday, half are marked for rows. Friday also revealed perfectly neutral soil pH at 7.0 for three of the four plots, with only our tiny cabbage garden needing a little soil amendment! That's gonna save us some scrill, or clams, or cash, or whatever you call it, for sure!! Inside, the tomatoes and eggplants are stretching their cotyledons, and we even have a few peppers popping up as of this morning! Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Brussels Sprouts are doing great, though I have to admit, it's taken me some patience, as their germination hasn't been great, or even really uniform. I have some late bloomers peeking their heads out even now, three weeks later, after some early risers have decided it wasn't their day, and withered away. I think it's probably my fault, with inexperience in growing cole crops indoors from seed, but still, I feel victorious! My lovely cabbages are growing like crazy, and even if every cell isn't filled, the ones that are, are really taking off. I'll take the wins I can get. On that note, here are some actual DAILY pics of the week!:

Mar 18

Mom and Rudy, wearin' my Carhart jacket while we get started with rototilling!

Mar 19

           First rows tilled! Dad, showing me how it's done on the OG BCS!  That's gangsta for 'tilla, yo. (that means it's an old and awesome rototiller, if you don't speak gangsta...or tilla...)

Yup, that's me.

 Mar 20

The Valstar's first official farm bizness. Taking the OG BCS with ramps (ie; boards) to Old Gun Club Road. Yes.

Mar 21

The late blooming Buscaro Cabbages looking well. Boo- Yah!

Mar 22

The late blooming Red Buscaro Cabbages looking well. BOO- Yah.

Mar 23

Heirloom tomatoes gittin' going! Go, babies! BOO- YAH!

Mar 24. Boo-lizzard.

Just kidding. (but not by much)

Bonus Foto:

Looking forward to next week! Our completed Granedde Square plot, with complimentary rainbow of course!

Also, as of today, our pricing is up on our Join Page at WonderlandColorado.com. If you are in Colorado, please check it out! Freshly harvested, local produce, delivered right to your door, with some fun perks thrown in! What could be better? Can't wait for next week, our last week of preparation before seeds go in the ground! Until, or rather, TILL next time!!

XO,
Val

March First is Back to Farmstyle!!

Oh, wow. So, I have just completed Wonderland Farm's first nine flats of seedlings to be started indoors under our awesome grow light set up!! Bent over all day with a pair of tweezers centering tiny seeds into tiny plug flats definitely reminded me of the hard manual labor and focus farming requires. My back and neck are definitely saying hello to me right now! I also took Ted on a run this morning. We figured we had better get back into it, sooner rather than later, before this season gets going and we are trying to go from zero to hero in .6 seconds! I planted cabbage, Brussel's sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower today, roughly 2,500 seeds altogether!! Yippee, it's really real, we are really doing it, we are gonna plant things and have a farm! I can't tell you or really even comprehend what this day means to me. Here below are some pics of the inaugural first planting of Wonderland Farm:

Mar 1

Ted looks mad, huh?! Getting ready to go, compost, soil and water buckets for mixing, plastic on the table and everything!

Filling plug trays with 512 mix. These trays are 1.5" 288 plugs each. I seeded at a one to one ratio about 1/4" deep for the cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts)

Spokes Puppy Teddy Edde, still looking good! Maybe a little confused, but good!

Brussels sprouts! The very first seeds to be seeded, gettin' ret to GO!

Brussels sprouts! Best technique for me ended up to be individual application by tweezer.

Grow Babies!! In their warm and bright new home, complete with grow lights, heating mats, and humidity covers! 

Eight of nine completed trays! We're exhausted,, time to chillax on our parent's hippy futon! Yes!!

Who ever knew it's possible to be so excited to put a tiny seed into some smelly potting mix and jack your hands up and get dirt under your nails that won't come out for a week (if ever!)...I can't wait to see them peek their tiny sproutling heads out of the soil in a week's time. I can't believe it's March! I can't believe we are really starting our farm. It's so unbeleiveable and exciting and I just can't wait for it all to happen and to keep happening!! Until next time, stay warm, and let the sunshine a little, right into your eyes.

XO,

Val