Frozen Ground

The problem with starting a farm blog in the middle of the winter is that there’s not much new happening and the blogger runs the risk of being all talk. The other problem is that the three people I bribed into reading this thing have all completely forgotten about it due to lack of updates. However, I’ll try to give you an in-depth account of what’s happened, what’s not happened and what needs to happen. I even have a picture!

Greenhouse

I have a greenhouse! It’s in boxes, though. I started to read the assembly instructions and began to have heart palpitations and promptly set the literature in a safe place. Please allow me to repeat this call for help: I have a greenhouse. It is in boxes. I tried to read the instructions and had heart palpitations. I expect every construction proficient person reading this to cause a traffic jam outside my house the moment the ground thaws. I won’t be home. The boxes are in the garage. Thanks ahead of time.

Greens

I plan on growing a lot of greens this season. Sunflower greens and pea shoots can be grown indoors under the cheapest possible fluorescent lights (meaning you don’t need any fancy grow lights, just regular fluorescent tubes). I found a seed source for these two seeds called Ferris Farms (there’s that damn “s” again. Maybe I won’t use their seeds), which is a 250 acre organic farm in Michigan. I like that I can buy the seeds direct from the farm. My test batch, to test this seed source, my system of lights and the organic topsoil I’m using, worked very well. I ate a salad with them the other night and will have another tonight. There's a second batch started. See the picture above!

Overall…

I feel a bit stalled since the ground has mostly been frozen and there’s just enough snow along the tree line, where I’m putting the deer fence, that it doesn’t make sense to put up more of the fence. I’m about a day’s worth of work away from finishing it, but alas…that day will have to wait. It’s storming now and we’re supposed to have 20 below wind chills starting tomorrow, so I don’t think much snow is going to melt in the near future.

Random

I’m drinking tea right now from a recipe a student of mine told me about, and that student got the recipe from Rachel Ray. I guess I embarrassed myself when I asked who Rachel Ray was, but apparently she likes tea. All you do is make whatever tea you like, pour it in a glass jar and cram that glass jar of tea with fresh cut chunks of whatever fruit you want, screw the lid on the jar and shake. It’s good hot or cold. I tend to prefer it luke warm. That’s relevant because fruit is an agricultural product—not one I’m growing—but one that’s grown nonetheless. And it’s really good. The tea, I mean.

Speaking of students…I once tutored this amazing fourth grade student and I refused to teach him any vocabulary words other than anthropomorphize and lugubrious. I was supposed to be teaching him math. Furthermore, I wouldn’t put smiley face stickers on his math papers unless he used each of those words correctly at least twice an hour. This kid had (has) the best sense of humor in the world. Well, I should say, the most generous sense of humor in the world in that he got all of my jokes and at least pretended to think they were funny. As a result of my impractical vocabulary instruction, however, his parents sold me a car that self destructed last Friday.

Okay, the car only self destructed after I ran into a series of trees in an ice storm, which I really shouldn’t be joking about because in reality the car performed incredibly well and probably saved my life. But maybe none of it would have happened had I not insisted on wasting valuable tutoring time cementing the words anthropomorphize and lugubrious into their son’s mind. Carma. (Get it)?

Oh, and by the way…it’s official. I’m going to be doing the Rosendale Farmer’s Market this summer!!!! Woooo Hooooo!!!