Seeds are the beginning of everything on a farm. So much life, potential, nutrition, varieity, and culture is contained within each of the millions of seeds we sew over the course of each season. Some seed is expensive - for example, some of the hybrid tomatoes varieties we plant cost over $1 for a SINGLE SEED, while something like radishes or lettuce can cost pennies for a hundred seeds. We carefully plan how much seed we will need for the season, and we don't cut corners - it is important to buy high-quality seed from a trusted source - we purchase most of our seed from about different specialty vegetable seed companies. We don't generally save seed, mostly because it takes significant time and space to do a good job of seed saving, and that has not been our focus. This week however we pulled kale plants for a seed crop. The seed pods are full and ripening - we needed to get them out of the field and hang them in our barn where the seed could continue to mature. When the seed has dried nicely indoors, we will thresh and winnow the seed for next season use. The photo shows the crew loading up the truck with kale plants - now 10 feet tall!
Last week we said a fond farewell to a stellar group of interns. Thankfully Laura and Elliot will be sticking around for the fall, but Maya, Hannah and Brodie will be moving on. Maya and Brodie are local so we hope/expect to be seeing them around! It looks like we'll have a smaller crew this fall but we continue to be blessed by extra hands - we appreciate volunteers! If you'd like to join us and lend a hand in the coming weeks, please get in touch.
There have been requests for Sauerkraut. We jarred up our first batch last week and I'll put some into inventory. There is more coming soon if you don't get in on round one!
