I looked at the calendar this week and realized that I had to get my seed ordered. That really is not one of my favorite jobs as you look through several catalogs searching first of all if the seed you want is available in organic seed and then comparing prices to try to get the best deal possible. This year I set the catalogs in front of me and started at the front and as I came to a species I would get my carry-over seeds out and try to decide how much to order for this year. This always leads to some sticker shock as you see one packet of peppers seeds costing 60 dollars. Then I always try to test a few new varieties of something. A few of the new things I am trying this year are Poc Choi and Diacon radishes. I also hope to use a little more help this year so I can concentrate on getting things planted on time which is always a challenge.
My daughter gave me good remarks for last week’s newsletter but then she may be a little biased. She liked my remarks concerning the MOA conference. It is because I know if you will make the commitment to go you will be so glad you did. It is doubtful you will ever have the chance to hear so many powerful speakers and attend so many educational workshops at one time for one price again. To get to hear all of the speakers we have this year you probably would have to attend several conferences spread over several states which would cost you much more in conference fees, lodging, and travel expense. I wish I could require all of my CSA members to attend this conference as part of their CSA because I think it would be that beneficial to them. If you read this and are someone who likes to expand your horizons you cannot afford to miss this conference. OK that is the conference ad for this week. Do you get the idea I’d like to see you there?
Thomas Jefferson once said that he was an old man but a young gardener and the longer I am in vegetable farming the more I understand what he meant. It seems like for most of our time we have been learning more what not to do than what to do. However last year I finally felt like some things finally came together that made a real difference and I am anxious to see if I can repeat and improve on them this year. Of course the excellent start we had to last season was a big contributor to our success last year also. OurMissouriclimate plays such a huge part in how successful we are each year but my goal is to get to a place where we can start each year with a sense of some consistency for each season.
So far both of the high tunnels are in tact and I have the drop down sides working on both of them so I hope to get them both planted on time. We have the peppers planted to the summer house and we have most of the spring house planted already with lettuce, spinach, radishes, and turnips. I still need to put in some beets and I am waiting for the diacon radishes to get here. I also hope to have all six kinds of kale in the field this year. We will be trying some trap cropping this year that we hope will help to hold down the cucumber beetle numbers.
One of the sessions I hope to be able to attend at the MOA is a farm fromTennesseethat has 800 CSA members to see if I can learn some things that will help me give better service to my CSA members. Right now that sounds like an impossible task to me, to supply food for 800 families each week withMidwestweather, so I want to know how they do it. For right now I am hoping for an even better year than last year with a rain each week and lots of sunshine in between. Well it never hurts to dream does it?
Your friend in farming bringing you food with integrity.
