Picture Bomb!

Hey!! Whoa, it's been soooo crazy! I am sure I've said it probably about ten times already, but I hugely underestimated the amount of time, attention and love I have spent building this tiny farm. Since my last post we have seen in the start of our season with a ridiculously excellent farm happy hour for our families, members and friends, followed by our very first weekend ever at our two great farmer's market locations, and after that, our first membership deliveries! 

I can't believe we just made it through our fourth week at the market, and that I will be up in a few short hours to finish harvesting for our excellent members! I have to shout out to all those who have come to see us at the market, help at the farm, and attend our first farm event!! Seriously, I could not have done it without the help. 

A short recap of the past few weeks in words: We finished the rabbit fencing (finally!), we fenced two rabbits in (whoops!), our peas, beans, beets, spinach, chard, lettuce, scallions and cabbage exploded and went off to fulfill happy tummies; our potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zucchinis, squash and eggplants are blowing up and getting ready to cause a ruckus at the market, we are selling our purslane to True Food Kitchen in Cherry Creek North (so order the chicken purslane or purslane salad if you go, it's ours!!), and oh yeah, Mitty caught one of our two field pets (the BIG one!)!! See our pics below for back up to the crazy sentence you just fought your way through:

Jun 22

Abby(dog!), Mitty, Katie, Me and Rachel at our first Farmer's Market in the Highlands!

 Jun 25

All Blue Potatoes in blume!

Jun 26 

Me and the Valstar, supermodeling our first Wonderland Farm Membership deliveries.

 Jun 28

First zucchini!

 Jun 29

Um, just some rock stars kicking it in our farm booth. Rachel and Mitty.

Jul 5 

First heirloom Rosa Bianca Eggplant bloom.

 Jul 6

Gorgeous Rachel delivering three cases of purslane to True Food Kitchen.

 Jul 7

So happy! My first tomato, a Tigerella.

 Jul 9

Our first full container of Green Arrow Shelling Peas!

 Jul 11

Oh, it happened! Look at dem feet! Mitty got this little girl, and we gave her a loving sendoff before setting her free over the fence!

 Jul 11

Chioggia Beets! Prepping for our awesome cinnamon curry beet chips recipe!

 Jul 12

Mitty harvesting our beautiful Chioggia Beets!

 Jul 13

Rachel and I at the Highlands Market with our very first tomatoes!!!

Jul 14

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Our booth is starting to look really beautiful!

Bonus Foto(s):

Rachel and Mitty holding our All Red, All Blue and German Butterball test potatoes! Tiny but ready!!

Green Fleshed Pineapple Melon.

Going through recipes from my mother, grandmother, great grandmother and aunt!
This is a small handwritten recipe notebook from my great grandma!

First zucchini harvest! Dark Stars and Goldys!

Pics speak for themselves this post. So overwhelmed. So much love!! Thanks for checking in on the farm! Come see us at the markets!! 

XO,
Val

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