Hello All, and welcome to another J&S MiniFarm growing season! Welcome to our new customers, we hope you will enjoy the fresh fruit and vegetables and will have many delicious and healthy meals to come. For those who are return customers, welcome back as we begin the 2013 garden and vegetable journey. If you have not renewed yet, or are considering joining us for the first time, it is not too late as we are still accepting applications.  However, we will only send 2013 newsletters to active subscribers, so this will be the last newsletter sent to 2012 only subscribers.

 It’s hard to believe we are actually gearing up for the 2013 season. Can you say 9^o F outside! This latest stretch of frigid weather had made us feel nostalgic for those 110 ^o F plus days last summer. But that will probably change when summer rolls around again.

 
We have been busy expanding here on the MiniFarm. Another garden area has been tilled and we will be planting Sugar Snap Peas and Chinese Pea Pods there within the month. Peas (and beans) are good “pioneering” plants to put in new areas as they actually put nitrogen into the soil, using symbiotic bacteria, making it more fertile than before they were planted.

Pea pods

As we mentioned last year, the box garden area ended up having some of the best soil around. Guess all that compost just needed time. We have built two hoop houses in the box to allow us to get an early start on direct seeding spring greens and to harden off the larger plants we will start from seeds in pots. Since the soil is so loose and rich we will also start our first rotation of carrots and baby beets in there.

One of the two hoop houses.

We’ve also added two more rows of strawberry plants. The strawberry crop can be fickle and at the mercy of the weather, but if it is a good year we will have plenty!

The fall planted spinach and garlic sailed unscathed through the cold.  The low temperatures should make for large garlic cloves come late summer.

Garlic coming up through the winter mulch of chopped leaves
 We are happy to report that all our chickens are still with us. The “Biddy Barn Bunker” keeps them safe in the barn, and with the addition of a heat lamp and a blanket covering they stay warm and toasty.

Is that chicken dead? No, just taking a dust bath on one of the rare nice days!

 Our 2013 seed order has already arrived, and we will have some exciting new vegetables to share with you this year (more on that in a later newsletter).  Tomorrow we will be starting our onion and leek seeds, and now that it is official that Punxsutawney Phil has not seen his shadow we can all hope for the early spring he has predicted. Yes, we base our planting schedule on an overgrown field mouse.

 

So, just in case we do not get our promised early spring and you need something to look forward to, here are pictures of two of the returning lettuces, Jericho and Cimarron:

 

 Did that get you into the mood?

 

Until next time,

Jeff and Sandra