What we are up to

We hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday. We enjoyed homemade cranberry sauce (came out really great) and first time making squash rolls – so those were equally as good and very filling. We have been attending seminars and reading trying to get the latest information so we can incorporate into our farming practices. We just signed up for a two day soil conference at the end of January – this will be jam packed with information. We have covered our crops with a second layer of plastic. We have some cold weather coming up and we hope our crops will make it through. Our goal is to provide fresh vegetables to our customers through the end of December.

We have year end paperwork to do and new forms to incorporate into our system for next year. We also have to do a business plan. There is so much work involved in this. I have resisted this for many months but realize I need to do this if we are going to turn this into a successful full time farming business.

This past weekend we continued clearing a “landing spot” for our logging operation where we will be cutting down our pine trees and having them milled right at our property for our post and beam barn to be built this spring. So many things we want to accomplish but the money only goes so far – a little at a time. Very frustrating for me as I am a very impatient person. Of course my husband broke his wrist a couple of weeks ago, so that sort of slowed things down.

Also a reminder that we are accepting applications for our marketshare CSA. We are limiting it to 20 full share memberships our first year. You can find the form here: Marketshare CSA sign up sheet

Market share CSA Sign Ups Now Open

We have finally finalized our CSA sign ups. The form is located on our website: http://www.stillseekingfarmllc.com. We are so excited to be offering this to our customers next year.

Taking Pre-Orders

Thank you to everyone who came out to the market yesterday in the miserable weather to support us. We will be taking pre-orders for Thanksgiving day on all of our products including vegetables. Just let us know what you would like at the market next week (11/15) or you can email us or call us with the order. Pick up time will be on Wednesday 11/21. There will be a market on Wednesday that week, the day before Thanksgiving from 3 to 5. We want to make sure everyone gets what they want. You can refer to our website for current veggies available. We also have blueberry jam (sugarless and regular), peach jam, hot pepper jelly, apple butter, apple jelly and strawberry rhubarb.

Education

Yesterday we were fortunate to attend the Paul and Sandy Arnold talk at Stonehill College, south of Boston put on by NOFA-MA. I have been anxiously awaiting this presentation since we signed up for it two months ago. The entire day was packed full of information and the meals were made with local ingredients brought by attending farmers. 120 of us were there to listen to the Arnolds speak about their 24 years of farming in update New York. This is their livelihood and has been for 20 years. They discussed how they began and have progressed thoughout the years. What a wealth of information. They began by defining what a profitable farm is (their farm). It pays their bills; it pays their health insurance; it funds their IRA accounts each year; it funds their childrens’ IRA accounts each year and there were a couple more that I cannot recall. I was floored. My husband and I want to do what the Arnolds do. We know it can be done but it’s just great to get to hear them talk about it all day long. They have a great system and set up that they have created and fine tuned over the years. They grow year round and sell year round – this is one of our goals. So we will continue to plug away, fine tuning each year, add buildings, all the while trying to increase our income and reducing our expenses. Farming is the wave of the future, and we are climbing on board for the ride.