Colvin Family Farm--Fall Update

December 10th, 2010

With the temperature hovering in the mid teens over the past week, the 2010 growing season is officially over! Offseasons are great for regrouping, making new plans/goals, and catching up on farm maintenance (or in this specific case catching up on correspondence)! I'm hoping to rebuild our website soon making it more "usable"--a better recipe page, automatic backup of all our newsletters, weekly picture slideshows, adding customer feedback, as well as adding cool new software that will help us keep in touch with our shareholders--each shareholder will have their own "user account" that would enable them to login to "their" account and view all of their past, present and future--payments, share box contents, as well as a history of their emails & responses. You'll also be able to let our computer know when you aren't going to pickup, and it'll tell our packing list (the biggest bonus for us, [someday you should try to pack shares--remember who said they aren't going to be able to come/figure out which market/which truck/ahhhhh!!!!!]).

And since we start planting again in 50 days, we need to get seed orders made, greenhouses ready, (another one built), see about building a packing shed, walk-in freezer, cooler room, (yes I'm dreaming [don't poke me]), workout next years marketing and transportation plan, etc...etc...etc...

We have several new crops planned for this year: Strawberries, Celery, Radicchio, Fennel, Tomatillos, and more! Check out our all new 2011 crop harvest projection to see where these fit in the season!
Also, we'll have four new varieties of Dry Beans: Pinto Beans, October Beans, Lima Beans and Cannelini Beans! We are planning on renting a combine, that will harvest (yay) and thresh (WHOOPEE) our beans, oats and wheat in quantities that we've been unable to yet!

I'm going to add pictures to try and bring you up to date on what's been happening on the farm--Keep an eye on our website, as I hope to upload a 2010 season slideshow on soon!

We'll see you all next May! Have a great Winter!

Merry CHRISTmas,

Adam Colvin
www.ColvinFamilyFarm.com

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Fall Pictures from the Farm



A Winter morning sunrise--I wish the camera could catch the full spectrum of color!



Right now we're running through figures--equipment, seeds, ideas--Spreadsheets, charts, calendars--even farmers have their Mondays! Please note the items on the table: three (3) coffee cups, one (1) coffee thermos (it holds four cups full of coffee), four Johnny's Selected Seed Catalogs, a laptop computer, and 4,763 other seed/equipment catalogs.



I love the cloud formations we have during the Wintertime! Look at this one!



The same clouds later on--again, I can't seem to catch all of the color--but it was gorgeous!



We've had a little snow, they're calling for 2 inches over the weekend!



Now, back to Fall--we had a friend come in with his bulldozer and backhoe, and clean out the pond. According to Dad's estimates, it now holds ten times more water!



We've all had our fun as kids playing in leaf piles--Right now it's Levi and Charity's turn.



We bought a "brand new" (to us) fifty year old bushog this fall--we've been needing one ever since the last tooth stripped (yes, last tooth) off of the gearbox on the other bushog (it was only 35 years old)--they just don't make them like they used to! It does a great job for $100!



I love how this picture turned out! The bright green chard contrasting with all of the fall colors, and it's set off well by the collards in the back! (incidentally, I didn't take this one)



Now for strawberry planting--we spread compost, bloodmeal, and corn gluten meal in beds, then tilled it in lightly.



The compost is in the background, the bloodmeal is in the upper, left corner, and the pellets are the corn gluten meal.



Then we laid black plastic mulch over the beds.



We bought strawberry plugs from a nursery,



Several of them,



Charity helped by watering the holes before we planted them!



You can see the whole operation here! In the far left, Dad and Noah are popping holes in a neat grid pattern over the plastic, In the far background Isaac is pouring worm casting tea down each hole, and then there's Caleb and myself planting them!



one of the most prolific Fall wildflowers are the common Aster--I like em'!



I also like the "blanket flowers" in Mom's flower garden--when they're done flowering they make neat shaped seed pods (back right).