Hi Everyone!  

Finally got a rainy day to stuff envelopes.  All members should receive a newsletter in the mail this week including any pertinent information about pick-up times and locations.  Definitely let me know if there is something that needs clarification or if you didn't get any mail.  CSA pick-ups start the first week in June!  

We have been super busy preparing the fields for planting and actually planting.  Yesterday Dennis and I put a lot of seeds in the ground in anticipation of today's rain.  We even planted some beans, which is fairly early for us to seed beans.  Expect a lot of leafy greens for the first couple of pick-ups.  The spinach is doing pretty well this spring and so is the lettuce.  

We hope you are as excited about this season as we are.  Can't wait to see everybody in two weeks!  Look for your newsletter in the mail.  If you know members who aren't receiving this communication, have them send me an email.  

Happy Spring!

Yeah!  All four of our Icelandic ewes have successfully lambed.  We now have 9 new lambs on the farm.  The cute black and white one in the picture is Felipe.  It is such a relief to have lambing over.  Now I can sleep through the night and don't have to wake up throughout the night to go check the barn for lambing activity.  The lambs are so fun to watch.  It is hard to get work done!  

We are officially sold out of CSA shares for the season.  There has been an overwhelming amount of interest this year.  If you know of any returning members who haven't signed up but want to, have them talk to me.  I saved an extra space for a returning member with a good story!

We are really excited about the season so far.  It seems as though the weather has been purposely farmer-friendly to make up for last year (knock on wood)!  Of course it's only April, anything can happen!  We are harvesting our first greens from the hoophouse now.  Come to the European Market on Buck St. in Bangor tomorrow (Saturdays) from 9-12 to get a salad fix.  We just had an awesome arugula salad for dinner.  We are bringing our fresh eggs to market as well.  Don't buy supermarket eggs when you can get the real thing!   Drop by the farm to pick up some fresh eggs (in fridge in packing shed) and see the new lambs!

Spring Eggs!

It certainly feels like spring at the farm.  Last week we seeded our peas during an unusually warm and dry March.  That is a full month earlier than last season!  We thought we would take a chance at early peas, the worst thing that happens is that we have to replant.  We also got in some spinach and carrots before it started to rain yesterday.  All the onions are up in the greenhouse and looking green.  

Our hens are doing great and laying a tremendous amount of eggs.  The eggs are really fresh and have nice dark yolks.  It's hard to find eggs of such good quality unless you raise chickens yourself.  You can never eat a factory egg again after you've had the real thing.   We have fresh eggs for sale at the farm for $3.50/dozen.  There is a little dorm-sized fridge in the packing shed with eggs in it.  There is a can on top for you to make your own change.  You are welcome to tour the farm while you are here.  We are also bringing our eggs to the European Farmers Market on Buck St. in Bangor every Saturday morning from 9-noon.  We would love to see you there.  

2010 memberships in our CSA have been filling up quickly.  We are pleased to have so many returning members.  If you know anyone who is still planning on signing up, tell them to hurry because space is quickly running out!  It is wonderful to see so much interest in local agriculture.

The sheep are doing well.  Dennis and I went to a sheep shearing workshop on Saturday.  This was a hands-on workshop and everybody got to shear a sheep.  Let me tell you, shearing a sheep is hard work!  We will probably continue to hire a professional to shear our sheep but it is nice to know how to do it.  The girls are due to lamb in a few weeks.  Should be exciting!  I can hardly wait for the grass to grow so we can get the sheep out on pasture and stop feeding them hay.  

Seeded Onions Today

We started the greenhouse today.  We seeded about 100 flats of onions.  At about 250 seeds per flat, that's a lot of onions.  In farming, once you plant the first seed, the rest of the season sort of runs itself.  Now we are committed to watering and caring for these plants until the weather is settled enough to transplant them outside.  Then there is a lot of weeding and watering until time to harvest, when we pull all the onions and cure them on tables in our greenhouse until their tops are dried down.  Then there is a lot of topping and cleaning and if all goes well, lots of onions to keep us through the winter.