Monday, April 6, 2015

Buying Club Open and More Farm News

Greetings from Dancing Hen Farm

Yes, the buying club will be open this weekend.  Ordering will open early tomorrow (Tuesday 4/7) morning and deliveries will be made on Friday to Bloomsburg and Saturday to Dallas and Forty Fort.  We are starting to add some items to the buying club.  New this week is wildflower honey from The Beekeepers Daughter.  In the next few weeks, we also hope to add maple syrup from our friends at Fork's Mountain Family Farm.  We continue to have our own chicken, eggs and pork and our neighbor's grass fed beef available on the buying club.  If you have questions about the buying club, please do not hesitate to contact us at the farm.

I feel like I have been talking about spring and peas and seeding for weeks!  And it seems I will be talking about these things for a few more weeks.  Well, at least this week.

Big news!  Farmer Don got the first of the peas planted today!  He felt today was his window of opportunity, with rain forecast for the next 4 days.  Now we will watch for these to germinate and do our best to keep the groundhogs out! 

We have also been busy in the seed house.  Cooking greens and salad greens have been seeded.  We are planning on an early cucumber crop in the high tunnel this spring, so these cucumbers were seeded last week and some are already starting to push through the soil.  A couple of flats of tomatoes, again for the high tunnel, were also started.  Farmer Don created a small hot house within our seedling/nursery greenhouse.  He basically built a greenhouse within a greenhouse and uses heat mats and a small external heat source to keep the temperature inside this germination chamber nice and toasty for germinating seeds. 

I can honestly report, spring, I think, has really sprung now.  The purple crocuses which line our front path are now in full bloom.  The later spring bulbs are all up several inches and the daffodils are starting to show flower buds.  We heard spring peepers for the first time this week!  A welcome sound!  The ice has finally melted off the pond and tonight on our walk, Rosie jumped right in!  So wet, stinky dog season has also begun!

Can you believe our first Farmer's Market is less than 2 weeks away?  The first Forks Farm Market is April 18th.  We should have some transplants for sale and maybe a small amount of kale.  Stay tuned for Farmer Don to give me the final list.  As always, if you visit any of the markets we attend, please stop by our table and say hello.  You can find more about Forks Farm on their website.  www.forksfarmmarket.com

This week our farm population will swell yet again.  We are receiving our first batch of pastured chicken peeps.  Farmers Don and Matt will be busy tomorrow getting our brooder ready.  We use a caged off area in our barn's granary for our brooder.  They will be making sure the enclosure is secure to keep out other animals which can harm the peeps.  A fresh layer of peat moss will be spread and the heat lamps will be plugged in.  Feed and water containers will be washed.  The peeps are set to arrive on Wednesday.  They come in the mail!  And we will get a call from the post office telling us when they arrive so we can go down to the post office and pick them up.

More chicken news.  Farmer Don found an egg in the coop with our newest chickens.  We don't expect them to really start laying for another 6 weeks, but it is always exciting to find that first egg!  It also means we need to get their outside accommodations ready. 

Just a reminder, we will try and keep the buying club going until the Back Mountain Farmers Market gets started.  We anticipate some spring greens coming on in the next month or so and these will be made available to buying club members.  However, once our CSA begins, our CSA members are given first harvest, so buying club availability will most likely decrease.

Well, it is getting late and I still have not done the supper dishes!  I will end here with another thanks for your continued support.





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