Our Routine

So I think we're well established enough to be able to say that we have a 'routine'. Granted, it is always changing. But I thought it was fair to spell out the basics here:

Our most successful endeavor so far has been home and office delivery. It started by calling our friends at their homes and places of work and asking if they, their families, and their coworkers were interested in a delivery. We got a lot of positive responses, and we've made a list of people and places that we visit about once a week. The list seems to grow every week, and now we have three businesses and five homes that deliver to regularly!

How the delivering works: Dan and/or I load all the veggies into the back of the car after making some phone calls to see who is interested in veggies today. Then we drive over, and depending on the place, we bring all the veggies inside for people to browse, or we let people come out to our "portable farm stand" in the back of the car.

We also have done special deliveries, such as meeting people at a public location for a delivery. We really strive to be accommodating (I mean, if people want our veggies, they should be able to get them!) and we've made a lot of progress through this method of sale. Even with the farmer's market and whatever else happens, I still see home delivery continuing to be a big part of our future at the farm.

Other methods of sale? Not as much. We are starting the Greenfield Farmer's Market (or "trial market", this year..) which has not been very profitable yet, but seems to be growing! For the past two weeks, it has been just Dan and I, our small vegetable stand, and a couple posters, but this coming Tuesday holds promises of two more vendors -- one who sells goat milk soap and lotion, and one who sells gluten free baked goods!! I am so excited to see who shows up this week.

And our very last, teeny-tiny idea? We are hoping to get a farm stand. We've called a business with a currently unused farm stand set-up and asked for permission to use it and do maintenance on it. We're still waiting on a reply, with crossed fingers!

AND NOW.... Photos!! Just like I promised!

Here's our very first stand at our trial market!

This is how our veggies stay when they are not being delivered or in any other use. It makes our porch quite lovely!

Here's a dish my mom made from multicolored veggies AND pasta! It was so beautiful, and just as delicious!

Another shot of the stand, with a signage-close up. Dan looks so chill. :)

Our little helpers, displaying our veggies! They are so helpful.

So, I know it's not pictures of the garden itself yet... But those are coming soon! VERY soon, now that I have a useable camera! Promise!

-Terra

Friends!

Today's post is about friends - both of the human variety and not.

Let's start with humans. We made our FIRST SALE yesterday!! We sold two 5 oz. bags of spinach to a couple friends of ours (and had some donations, besides!). Plus, there's even more people who are waiting to taste our delicious spinach. It's great to see that there are actually people who want to support us, and will choose our produce over the supermarket's! Even at $4.80 per pound, this is quite encouraging.

Secondly, we have a bunch of animal friends! (I know, usually animals are foes, but keep reading!) First, we have this killdeer who hangs around, often in the early morning. Here's what a killdeer looks like:

http://dckaleidoscope.files.wordpress.com/

He does this funny thing where he likes to run to each bed and stand on top of each one for a moment. It's so cute. And why is he a friend? Killdeer eat bugs that can be damaging to plants! Hooray for natural bug repellents! No silent spring necessary.

Next, there's this little milk snake:

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/

Just kidding! (About the 'little' part) He's about two feet long and Dan almost stepped on him! But he's definitely a friend, because milk snakes are not poisonous or otherwise dangerous to humans, and they love to eat rodents that might otherwise terrorize our veggies. No need for rodent poison either! I love natural solutions.

But I promised photos of the farm, didn't I? Unfortunately, I don't have my camera at the moment, and I was so eager to write this post, but let's see what Dan has on his camera:

Oh yeah... the day the cows ran down the road. We are fielding some cows for another farm, and one day I stepped out of my house and there were cows all over the place!

Okay, any pictures of the field?...

Here we go! There's the cauliflower on the left, kale in front, spinach two rows to the right, and then broccoli all the way on the right side. Even since this picture was taken, the field has gotten bigger and better. But where are the onions? The many MASSES of onions??

There they are! Sooo many onions. I just hope they all survive! And there's me, planting... more onions... and more onions... Man, I am glad that is over. Lets put it this way: In general, we have two rows of each crop. We have EIGHT rows of onions! That's a LOT of onions...

Other photos from Dan's camera? Here we go:

Jackie patrolling timidly...

The field...

Me on the bike that Dan fixed up, biking to the market to get dinner!

And a mother cow and calf straggling behind the rest of the herd...

And I promise... Photos galore are soon to come (from my camera this time! No offense Dan, your photos are lovely). Next time, on Clover Post... The spinach that sold, the raised bed crops, and more!

~Terra