Happy Birthday to Us!

No, not the farm! It's my birthday as well as my sister Elsbeth's. We're not twins, we were born on the same day seven years apart! I want to say happy birthday to my not-twin and also say that today has been awesome.

Mom and I spent the day picking for Farmer's Market, which was fun as usual. We're finally getting more salad mix, so with any luck we'll make it past 10 o'clock before we sell out of it. We also picked our first batch of asparagus! Soooo cool. I happen to love asparagus, so I'm really excited to be able to offer this to y'all again. We'll start listing it on the web site in a few days (so it can recover from today's picking) so watch for it! In other great news, the rhubarb has continued apace, we'll start listing that on the web site on Monday. Both of these items will be sold by the pound, it's the only way we can really sell it efficiently.

Lastly in the good news zone is that we've got fresh horseradish root now as well. Please know that this is the actual root, it hasn't been processed in any way. I can tell you though, horseradish infused vodka is awesome (thanks to our chef friends!).

The last thing I want to say for the day is that I will be taking a vacation at the beginning of next month (May 8-12) to visit my friend who is working on her post-doc in environmental anthropology out in Seattle. She's working with the Discovery Channel to define the impact of changes in Alaskan crab fishing laws on the guys from the show "The Most Dangerous Catch". I'm so excited to see what she's working on! I'll also be out at the Emerald City Comic Con, which is a fabulous two day comic book convention. I'm really looking forward to this year, as it's been three since I was last out there and I've heard it's grown quite a bit. For those of you who are worried, Mom will be doing the picking, so you're still going to be able to get your veg-fix. :)

Okay, well, I'm off. Farmer's Market in the morning, hope to see you all there!

Cheers!

Woo!

Today has dawned bright and beautiful, I can already feel the heat seeping through the window as Mr. Sun tries to blind me (in a basement no less!).

While I'm very appreciative of all this sunshine, I have to say that we could really use some rain at this point. I'm somewhat taken aback by the fact that it's so warm already and the plants seem a bit surprised by it too!

We're about three weeks ahead of where we were last year, not through any work on my part. The asparagus is definitely up, my seeded outdoor crops are starting to emerge and I was stunned to find that the strawberries in our lower beds have started blooming. That's crazy! We're not even to May yet!

What this means for y'all is that the spring crops will be offered to you that much sooner. What it means for us is that we're just a little worried that this is going to be a very hot, dry summer. Let's cross our fingers for a little bit of moisture eh?

Anyhow, I've got an exciting day of digging rows in the greenhouse, so we can plant (yet another) bed of spinach to try to keep up with demand. I hope y'all are having an excellent week!

Cheers!

Oh my! I thought I'd been bad earlier this year! I have to admit, I think of things to say in the blog pretty much constantly, but with 5 a.m. wake-up and a string of chores after that, I'm pretty much dead on my feet by the time I come in of an evening. I really should buckle down and write in the morning so I don't procrastinate so much!

There's so much going on here right now, I have to write quite a bit to catch up, which is just what I deserve! First thing's first!

We just finished our 3rd Farmer's Market of the season and as with the previous two, we sold out of goods. This is great news for us, not so great for y'all. Please remember that you can pre-order goods for pickup at market. This makes us feel a lot better as we don't like running short for you! While this won't continue forever, I hope those of you who are taking advantage of this program are finding it helpful.

On to the more exciting stuff! I've planted our zucchini as well as getting some early basil in (crossed fingers). While there won't be enough for Farmer's Market, hopefully we can get y'all some early stuff!

In other great news, the broccoli is jumping up, we'll be letting you guys have first dibs on that as well. We'll also be adding asparagus and rhubarb to this list within the next few weeks. I know, asparagus? This early warmth has caused the stalks to jump up! I ate a couple stalks with dinner last night, in point of fact. There's not enough to list yet, but there will be! *woo!*

Anyhow, I had better get out and let the chickens loose. It's 6:30 and they're probably all kinds of mad at me! I promise to try to be better about this, and I'll get you some pictures of the fields.

Cheers!

Copyright 2007-2008 Jay Hill Farm/Rowan Rozanski

Blue Jay photo provided by Bill Schmoker Photography