I can't believe it has already been a month since the last post! We have (almost) settled into our new home and finally have been able to stretch out a bit. The basement and garage are still in shambles but everything is moving forward. 

At the greenhouses we have planted all of our tomatoes for 2014 production in our heated houses. We already have a few Sun Golds that are going to be ready to eat any day now! Once we get a bunch more starting to turn we will think about sharing the first local taste of summer. It is hard to believe how great these little tomatoes taste, with a great balance of sweet and tart in a bright orange package. They were a huge hit last year, especially with some little ones who would eat them like candy! I'm drooling over here just thinking about it. We also have some of our bigger varieties flowering and some starting to set fruit, so we will be about 30 ish days out on our first bigger tomatoes if all goes well. Tomatoes in Wisconsin in early May? We are very proud of this and it is nice to see the fruit (literally) of what seemed like an eternity of freezing cold wood cutting and stove loading, and sky high propane prices.

Despite the snow today it really is starting to feel like spring has sprung. We saw the first lightning in the area last night, and Robins are out in full force. Tif and I are very much looking forward to it, even though we have a bit of a taste at work.

The flowers are looking absolutely stunning this year! I think the folks signed up for our class next Saturday (there are still a few spots open here) are going to be really impressed with the quality and variety we have available this year. The flower greenhouse seemed crowded last year so we cut back a little bit, and the flowers have really grown into the space and are really healthy!

My parents just came down last weekend and part of this week and were a huge help! My dad, Jim Sr., helped with some electrical/mechanical equipment issues we were having and my mom, Rhonda, helped plant and clean up. It was nice to have two extra pairs of hands around, and additional expertise. My mom is currently training to become a licensed Master Gardener in Michigan and it was great learning about the class and what she has learned. It is quite the hefty manual!

It's been another few busy weeks here in Westby. Tiffany and I have moved into a new home. It feels great to finally be in a space we can call our own that is separate from the greenhouses. We also grafted tomatoes for the first time about 3 weeks ago. Grafting is the process of cutting two different plants at an angle, and putting the separate halves together. The idea is to get the strongest roots, with fruiting body that is tastier (or has some other benefit) than the rootstock plant. Grafting is very common in fruit trees, and has been in practice in orchards for thousands of years. There is evidence of the practice dating back to 2000 B.C. in China. We are only doing a few plants this year as a trial. We are hoping to see increases in production, disease resistance, and better over all fruit quality in these grafted plants do to their more robust root system.

grafting with half a razor blade.

I was definitely nervous cutting the little beloved seedlings in half when I started the process. I honestly thought I had killed the whole lot! Now that it has been a few weeks though, it seems that all of them survived except for one which I cut at an improper angle. Phew!

Clear line where the Scion and Rootstock meet

We are also getting back from the MOSES conference this past weekend. It was good to meet some fellow organic farmers, and go to lectures to learn about ways we can improve our farm and our practices. We have big plans to encourage native pollinators and beneficial insects around the farm we will be implementing soon! We also learned about building energy efficient cold storage, purchasing a tractor, farm finance and employee management. We also got to meet a few people we have been working with over the last year at DRAMM, Purple Cow, and Four Season Tools.

We moved the soil into the greenhouse to thaw, and flowers are coming in starting this week. The tomatoes need to be transplanted (already!) soon, and the organic compost is en route for them. We are very excited about the coming weeks and it is starting to feel a little bit like Spring at the greenhouses despite the still frigid weather.
We have also announced the first class at Deep Rooted, so be sure to check us out on Facebook, and sign up!

Thanks for checking in!

Jim and Tif

Here we go again!

2013 really did go fast! We apologize for the lack of posts last summer/fall; we were extremely busy, truthfully I don’t think either of us thought one could be so busy. We harvested over ten tons (20,000 lbs!) of tomatoes last year; and though this was a little less than our projected goal we are very happy with the results, and our ability to help supply fresh organic produce to our community. Our tomatoes were sold at a number of local grocery stores, farmers markets, used by delis, and were in school cafeterias last year and surely on countless BLT's at home.

 

Our season ended a little early as we shifted our focus onto building a new hoop house. It is the same size as our greenhouses, but uses all passive ventilation to help lower our environmental impact. We will be growing our 2014 heirloom tomatoes in the hoop house, and we have some very exciting flavors and colors that will be available. We will also have some early and late season produce coming out of the hoop house to help extend the local season deep into the winter months.

In other things non-greenhouse. We spent the holidays in Michigan with Jimmy’s family, which was very enjoyable, and a much needed vacation. We were able to catch up with some old friends, enjoy some ethnic food, attend the Winter Classic hockey game and we even had some time to teach Jimmy how to ice skate, he is a natural!

We are back, refreshed and ready to go! Wood stove is going, tomatoes are growing and we are looking forward to the 2014 season! We will be sure to update more frequently this year, there is going to be a lot of new and exciting things happening this year.