It has been a while, but now that the throes of winter are deep (or super hot like it has been here) now’s a good time to catch up.

I’ve been doing a lot of relaxing, a lot of staring at my computer, a lot of spread-sheet making. A lot of overkill planning for this upcoming season. That is the funny thing about farming in the foothills. The season is long. However, there’s enough of a break to make your hands idle. And, you know, idle hands end up doing the work of the farmer (out of sheer boredom?).

Yep. I’ve started some onions in the greenhouse. The incidence of damping off is much smaller this year cause 1) I have more confidence that less water is really more when it comes to wetting a seedling mix and 2) those trays are on the heat mats every night. Heating mats are certainly an expense, but they are soooo worth it. This time of year everything needs the heat mat to get a good start. Pretty soon the cool-weather crops will be able to germinate just fine, but not quite yet.

Indeed I will be farming on roughly 11 acres this upcoming year. I plan to offer more member shares this year, somewhere between 90 and 180. It really depends on demand and if we market to any neighboring communities. I’d be up for expanding the bio-region a little.

All the capital I made last year has effectively gone right back into the farm. The start-up costs this year are much greater. I think we’ve already put out 9k. However, in theory, the payoff is much greater. I believe it will be.

So, it’s off to a good start. Damping-off is probably 50% less this year so far!!!

A week from now I’ll start the first tomatos – a thousand or so. I’ll plan to plant those out by April 15th (or earlier if they grow quickly). I believe in pushing the season a little bit, because if they get hit by frost (although a little demoralizing) you can just replant right away. Of course they’ll be covered and the sprinklers will be nearby,

Check out our new website – www.fourfrogfarm.com

The name of the farm has been changed from Wildgrace Farm to Four Frog Farm.

I am working towards a full partnership down the road with my really good friend Logan.

A lot is happening.

Andrew

Tags: andrew, cold season, damping off, four frog farm, starting, tomatoes, winter

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 am and is filed under Four Frog Farm, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.