Dispatch from Chez Nous Farm - Boots on The Ground

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Poised…is a good description of an ideal early spring. Of course it doesn’t always happen this way but the present spring is one of the best since starting the business in 2018!

Two hallmarks of success are early planning and collaboration with important resource people. I’ve been on the phone with suppliers and browsing websites for the best deals. The weather (and dry enough ground) coincided beautifully last week, and I was able to get all that good compost hauled to the flower beds for what should be a wonderful production season for flower bouquets at the market. Each of the six raised beds is now heavily covered in straw to preserve moisture and deter weeds. This is the first season I’ve tried germinating seeds on wet paper towels in covered flats in a temperature-controlled grow rack. Careful what you wish for! They’re all germinating so fast that I had to start making up flats with soil blocks today. Gonna need more flats…and it’s only March 24th :) This is a first!

Plans are in place to rent a spreader and purchase a ton of organic fertilizer for the hay field, to be applied after the first cutting in May; I’m waiting to hear from OEFFA (Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association) on a grant toward a new hay baler that will automate picking up harvested bales in the field; 60 bare root seedling raspberries are ready to ship from Norse Nursery to replace one fourth of my plant stock (with a planned sequential replacement for the other three rows); an irrigation upgrade is in the works, with a timer and four valves that will allow for automated irrigation for short intervals many times per day. This will be a much-improved regimen for these plants that live in porous grow bags, and a huge savings on my time. This year I plan to start a small you-pick enterprise.

Whew! I could go on ad nauseum – but you, dear supporters of MCLG, get the idea, I hope. The more you understand about what goes into producing the food and farm products you buy, the more you are connected with your local community and the more you foster relationships toward that end. And we all benefit from that.

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