Harmony Acres: Farm Update 5/22/11

What a week! Exciting, motivating, fast and now over... This week we had our first Wilkesboro Open Air Market, and it went very well! We had a great vendor turnout, and excellent participation from all you guys! Thank you! As I listen to rain come down while writing this, I feel relaxed, finally able to take a breath for a day or two.

Rain is a funny thing, on one hand we really need it, but on the other we really need to be tending to the fields. The plants love rainwater, so we welcome it also! After the Boone market on Saturday, we went to pick up our newest additions to the farm...2 Jersey heifers (cows that have not had a calf) and a Saanen doe-ling (baby milk goat) One of the cows is due to calf in Sept-Oct, and the younger one is about 6 months old (visit the blog for pics.). They are very friendly and have adapted quite well to our place. The little goat is freshly weaned, so she is still trying to figure out life, but she is getting pretty used to us so far. The chickens are not sure what to think about the intruders in their large grassy area, but soon they will realize the benefits of cows and a goat in their area, and so will the crops! We have a few extras this week, such as lettuce, radishes, eggs and plenty of chicken. Have you ever tried boiling radishes? It is amazing! We had the privilege of eating at a friends house this week, and they prepared an awesome, all farm grown, meal that included boiled radishes. We are officially hooked, and have been trying to tell everyone we know! Try it! I know it's early in the season to think about winter, but we are trying to come up with a good idea of how many of you might be interested in a winter CSA. The idea we have so far is to have a $20 enrollment fee (mainly to encourage action!) and provide $10-$20 of greens (kale, chard, turnip, beet, lettuce, spinach, etc.) and roots (potatoes while they last, sweet potatoes while they last, carrots, beets, turnips, etc.) and even some late tomatoes and early crops in the spring. The idea will be that all you have to pay upfront is the $20 membership, and then at the delivery pay for what we have available for that particular week. The spots will definitely be a little more limited, maybe just to about 10-15 families. We have a little while to work out the details, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to share them! A bigger hoophouse is in the plan-book as well, so if we have a good idea of who might be interested, then we can make a good judgement on the size of the structure to build.

The Tuesday delivery will be the same, as well as the Wed., and Sat.. We will be in downtown Wilkesboro on Fridays from 4-8 thru October, so you can make your choices there if you would like. The Harmony Boys (Keaton and Skylar) will be at Blowing Rock on Thursday 4-6pm, Wilkesboro on Friday 4-8pm, and Boone on Saturday 7-12 with fresh squeezed lemonade, and fresh strawberries while they last! Have a great week, Dale, Cory and family.