90% planted!

The last couple weeks have been wonderful in terms of planting and field work! We had a slow start due to crazy amounts of rain but we have been very grateful for the nice weather we’ve been having! We have had a chance to work up the fields and get 90% of our crops planted!

We start our CSA in July because we are outdoor farmers. We rely on mother nature to to cooperate in order for us to grow our produce. When the weather is uncooperative it forces us out of the fields and behind schedule. Starting after the 4th of July give us wiggle room to work with the weather.

Our 2019 CSA is still open for new/returning members to join! Our fields are looking spectacular and we couldn’t be more excited for this years season! Our tomatoes have been planted, weeded, tilled and pruned! We have also planted peppers, melons, squash, pumpkins, pickles, corn and so much more!

Tomatoes are in the ground!

It was a good weekend on the farm! The weather stayed dry and warm(ish) which gave us the ability to begin planting our tomatoes! Over the weekend we planted close to 1,000 tomatoes plants! We are excited for the weather this week because it continues to warm up and highs in the 70s and even 80s! We will be planting thousands of plants through the week, and not only tomatoes. We have peppers, melons, cole crops and more to transplant to the fields.

We are very excited for the upcoming farm season and are expecting it to be one of the best we´ve had! Be sure to come by the Minneapolis Market on Saturday and Sunday to say hello and pick up some Maple Syrup!

Our first plants are in the ground and our highway has been cleaned!

Our farm season has now entered the next phase, in field planting! We are thankful for the stretch of warm sunny days we´ve had because it´s given us the opportunity to get the fields worked up and prepared for planting. We have planted potatoes, onions, corn and garlic. We plan to start planting cole crops, transplanting tomatoes and more early this week before the rain sets in!

We also worked on cleaning all of maple syrup supplies. This year we had 85+ 5 gallon buckets hanging on the trees, which is a record for us! We prefer the 5 gallon bucket method for gathering sap over the tap and tube method. The tap and tube method typically requires using more harsh chemicals to clean the tubes, which we try to avoid.

We spent 3 hours of Saturday doing our part to keep our world clean and trash free. We adopted a section of County Road 8 that runs between our farm and Highway 13. We are always saddened by the amount of trash we find in the ditches. Dozens of beer cans, soda cans, Grizzly chew cans and more.

We look forward to sharing all of our adventures!

Spring has sprung on the farm!

This weekend has been one for the record books! We have had a large portion of our snow cover melt with the warm weather and large amount of rainfall. When the snow melts this quick we get a lot of water flowing down the hill and it takes the path of least resistance. We have been hard at work helping the water navigate it´s way off the driveway. A couple culverts are still frozen so we have built small channels for the water to follow to bypass it. Who said playing in the mud is just for kids?

We have also started tapping trees and collecting sap for maple syrup! We are excited for this years syrup season. We have over 70 taps placed which is more than we´ve had in the past. We plan to start boiling syrup today, 3/18/19!

The pups have been loving this weather. Warm sun mixed with snow and mud is a recipe for a nasty mud pup filled with happiness! The full pond in the back is lookin´ gorgeous under the sunset.

Reminder- itś not too late to sign up for our 2019 CSA season, check out our CSA page for more information!

We look forward to keeping you updated on the 2019 season as things progress!

2018 CSA Box

We hope that everyone is loving their CSA this year. For those who are part of a different CSA or considering being a first time member next year, here are some photos of this weeks CSA box, it weighed over 27lbs! This box has lots of staple veggies including potatoes, onions, peppers and tomatoes. We also have a few specialties including purple beans, suyo long (asian heirloom cucumber) and a ghost pepper!

The total box included the following: melon, watermelon (red and yellow ), potatoes, onions, beans (green, yellow, purple ), various cucumbers, sweet peppers (green and red ), hot peppers (halapeno, hot wax, ghost ), cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, summer squashes, garlic, tomatoes, lime basil, and basil

Feel free to reach out to us if you're interested in joining our CSA next year!

Roadside Stand Open!

Our roadside stand is now open for buisness!

We are excited to have our roadside stand open for buisness. It will be open every day sunrise to sunset. We currently have zucchini, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, snap peas and summer squash available! More produce will be available very soon, so make sure to check out the stand or shoot us a message to see what's available! (We also have syrup and a limited supply of honey for purchase!)

Notice to CSA members: We have emailed everyone regarding your first week's pickup! Check your emails so you don't miss out! :)

Spring Heat Wave & Maple Sugar!

Wow! This heatwave is getting us ready for a hot summer! 5 days in the low to mid 90s is enough to wear down even the most experienced farmer. When your livelihood is made by being a farmer you have to train yourself to overcome heat waves. It is important to balance your work with plenty of rest and hydration. We enjoy filling our cattle troughs with ice cold hose water and using it as an outdoor ice bath to help us cool off after hours in the hot sun.

In terms of farm work for the week; we haven't slowed down because of the heat! We have full removed all the stakes from last year's tomato field- which was over 2,000 stakes. We typically try to get that job done in the fall after the tomatoes have stopped producing, but unfortunately that doesn't always happen as we'd like it to and then we are stuck doing it in the spring. Over the last week we've had one of our former gymnasts, Ian, out here helping us on the farm. It's always a blessing having young muscle out here on the farm doing tasks like these!

Maple sugar; it's something we have never made before but we've always talked about doing. With this heat wave and the intermittent rainfalls we decided it was time to try it! We did a bit of research beforehand so we knew what to expect and what to look for. From there on we just went for it! It has been a fun experience learning how you can start with drilling a hole in a maple tree to get sap (which is essentially water) and end with fine crystalized pieces of maple sugar! Maple sugar can be used in recipes in the same way as cane sugar is used. It can be used to sweeten drinks, top oatmeal or incorporated into a flavorful rub for meats! Maple sugar is on average twice as sweet as cane sugar, so it makes for a wonderful substitue for making sweet treats and desserts!

New mower!

A new mower may not sound very exciting to most, but living on the farm we have acres of land that have to be mowed! Having a quality working mower can transform the look of the farm! We made it through 2017 using an old mower with 1 working blade and a battery that needed to be charged every time you used it. Now we have a brand new 46" 22hp Cub Cadet mower!

Spring time on the farm comes with many things to do beyond working in the field. There is a lot of upkeep that starts in order to keep the farm looking great! We have many acres of mowing, a treenline that needs to be kept up, flower gardens to be cleaned up and mulched and so many little projects all alround the farm. We could work from dawn until dusk every single day and still not be able to be fully caught up.

When it comes to field work, we have accomplished plenty of that as well! We continue to plant tomatoes, of course. We started three fields of pumpkins, squash and gourds. We have finished most of it but have also been delayed due to wet fields and lack of time. We have also planted onions, beans, peas, radishes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, zucchini and more!

We are off to a fantastic start to our season! We're very excited to have a fantastic farming season with outstanding produce!

5.15.18 Tomatoes and Potatoes!

We are very excited to let everyone know that we have started transplanting our heirloom tomatoes!

This planting is a couple weeks ahead of last years schedule, so we are hoping for some early season tomatoes! The last couple of days we have transplanted over 1,000 tomato plants! We plan to be planting tomatoes over the next month or so. Last year we had an immense amount of rain through the spring which set us back on planting because the fields were too wet. This year we feel like spring skipped us- we went straight from winter to summer weather! This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just as long as we get some rain along with the sunny weather! When it doesn't rain we are forced to be watering the plants by hand.

Along with tomatoes, we also planted potatoes! We planted some blues, some reds and some double reds (red skin and red inside). Potatoes are unique when compared to most produce because to get potatoes for this year we simply plant leftover potatoes from last year!

There are many spring jobs on the farm which we enjoy however trimming apple trees is not one of them... If it weren't essential to do, we would not do it. It's one of our least favorite jobs on the farm but we love good apples so it's a must! When we trim the trees we mainly try to cut off the water sprouts, unless more major trimming is required. If we let water sprouts continue to grow they'll turn into full branches. Water sprouts typically grow straight up reaching out to get as much sun as possible. When trimming apple trees you don't want branches overlapping, growing together or growing straight up. This causes issues as they get bigger. This is why we work hard to eliminate those sprouts to keep the trees growing healthy and producing good fruit!

5.3.18 Outdoor Planting Season Begins

The snow has melted, the ground is drying, the sun is hot and we are ready for the spring weather! We have taken this opportunity to catch up and get back on track from a lonnggg winter!

You have to start by determining when the field is ready to be worked up. Do it too early and it will be too wet and the soil will clump too much. Do it too late and the field will be too dry and won't have enough moisture to promote early seed growth. We are at the perfect spot right now!

We are currently in the busiest time of the spring season, planting. We started working up the ground earlier this week to prepare. Today we planted our first set of sweet corn, so we are prepared for an early batch!

We've also got some garlic coming up! This is always exciting because garlic is planted in the fall with hopes that it all comes up in the spring time! We see it as one of the first true signs of spring around here.

We'll have another update soon, so check in the next couple of days for that! :)