Blue Gate Farm News – Volume VI,  Number 1  –  February 12, 2008

What’s up on the farm?

Well here it is half way through the month and we’re just getting around to this month’s newsletter…sorry for the delay.  It has been a snowy winter here on the farm, today’s snow was particularly beautiful with giant crystalline flakes.  We’ve already had more than two feet of snow just this month; it would have been a good year to get a sled for Christmas.  With the almost constant cover of snow, we’re seeing lots of wildlife searching for food.  We’ve been spreading grains for the pheasants and quail so there are a number of them nearby and have seen as many as 24 deer at one time in the hayfield.  Earlier in the winter we saw a pair of Harrier hawks hunting in the area, and just this morning Blue & I saw a Long-Eared owl in one of our pine trees.  Fortunately it is a smallish breed of owl so not much threat to the pullets (who have just started laying eggs!). 

Winter is the season of conferences and meetings for us.  We’ve been to Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Linden and Ames for conferences since the first of the year.  It’s a great opportunity for us to learn, network and catch up with friends who we don’t see very often the rest of the year.  In January we got to escape for a few days to Las Vegas for a friend’s wedding.  Talk about a change!  We’ve been to Vegas before, but not since we moved to the farm.  It is the closest example of a polar opposite to our lives now.  It was a nice trip and the weather there was lovely, but we were glad to come back home, even though it was –15° when we got here.  As you might imagine, all of these short trips added up to quite a bit of time away from the farm, so we owe big thanks to Jill’s parents for taking care of things while we were away.

 Now that the seed-starting time of the year has arrived, it is time to put the traveling on hold.  All our seed orders have arrived and we started sowing allium crops this week.  So far we have completed Copra and Mercury onions, shallots and early leeks.  Onions will be finished this week and next week we start with the tomatoes and peppers, then the real fun begins! 

A membership update: we anticipate beginning weekly deliveries for 2008 in late May or early June (depending on the weather) and running into October.  We have heard back from all but a few of our veteran members and many are re-joining for the coming summer.  For those re-joining, please get us your deposit check of $50 by end of February along with what options you may want.  The balance will be due May 1st – we will invoice you in April and confirm current contact information at that  time.  We have increased our membership ceiling to 30 for this season to accommodate not only our veterans but the growing demands for BGF-CSA.  We have a number of folks on our waiting list but here may be a few spots remaining, so if you know anyone that might be interested in joining us for 2008 please let them know that they shouldn’t dally.   More information on our CSA program with 2008 prices can be found at our website: www.bluegatefarmfresh.com.

 Speaking of the 2008 season, in an earth-friendly effort to save some paper and energy, we are considering changing our weekly newsletter to an email format only instead of paper copies for each delivery.  We will have a list of what is in your box at the pick-up point as a reference and the email version would be sent to you before we leave the farm on Tuesday afternoons.   If a majority of you would end up printing off the e-mail for yourself, the hoped for savings would likely become a net loss with multiple printers firing up instead of just ours.   Please tell us how you would ultimately use an e-mail newsletter so we can chart a course of action.

More next month…

Best from the farm,

Jill & Sean