Kindred Spirit Farm Blog
Its been a cool Spring and we are off to a slow start. A little over two weeks ago our soil temperature was 44 degrees! Yesterday we got hit with pea and dime size hail which shredded the beets, chard, and lettuce.
The good news is that the soil is in great shape. We
pastured" the hogs on the garden last fall and they did an awesome job of turned and fertilizing the soil. And for the first time in three years, we are getting significant and frequent rain, which is desperately needed to encourage germination.
So here's where we are at on Tuesday, June 2nd. The potatoes and onions are growing well. The garlic and peas and beginning to come up. We've set out transplants of cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, eggplant. We've seeded radishes, carrots, sweet corn, green beans, rutabagas, and turnips. Today we finished transplanting the tomatoes. Tomorrow and Wednesday we'll transpant the peppers. The summer squash, winter squash, cucumbers, and melons are germinating and growing in the greenhouse. We are working as quickly as we can in between the rain showers.
This week's delivery is very light. It will include greens, sorrel, arugula, mesclun mix, lettuce mix, chives, basil, cilantro, and other herbs. We look forward to meeting you!
Spring arrived on our farm this week. This rare year in which St. Patricks Day and Easter occur within the same week. Joseph has told us that this won't occur again for another 152 years. The temperature rose above 40 degrees. The bright sun melted the snow, which created water everywhere, which created mud, which created muddy children and muddy dogs and muddy carpet and mounds of never-ending laundry. Vincent began wearing shorts to school. Mackenzie tried to ride her bike, which was a futile effort as she slipped on the ice patches and sunk in the mud. We let the chickens out of the hen house. We brought the Leicester Longwools into the machine shed in anticipation of lambing.
Then it snowed yesterday and school was closed. Why, I'm not sure? Was it the ice, snow or fog? At any rate, by noon the skies were clear and by evening all the snow that had fallen the night before had melted. That is the essence of early Spring in southeastern Minnesota. Bright sun,warming days, cold nights, wet sloppy snow, and lots of mud. On the farm it is poopy mud. It is not a pretty sight and I look for signs of green.
I am on Spring break this week. I carefully planned for the sheep to lamb now, while I'm home. It's Wednesday and all I have are very pregnant, very uncomfortable ewes. So I wait impatiently for the birth of precious lambs, the phone call from the post office announcing the arrival of our day old chicks and ducks, and the arrival of the second vegetable seed order.
Friends of our farm will notice the new website with lots of changes. OUr old website was created during a time when were were establishing our farm and envisioning our future. We had hoped to create a place that offered renewal and healing to children like ours who had experienced foster care, adoption as an older child, ADHD, FAE/FAS, abuse, and reactive attachment disorder. We built up a wonderful herd of horses that were and are gifted healers. We partnered with a wonderful marriage and family therapist and became certified in equine assisted psychotherapy. Unfortunately, we were unable to receive a conditional use permit. Our request for a conditional use permit set off a reaction among our neighbors and the larger community that we could never have imagined.
We have gone on to do other things, also wonderful and rewarding, that do not require a conditional use permit. Stacey completed the Landstewardship Project's Farm Beginnings Program, we planted a vineyard, and then were totally taken off guard when Joseph and Vincent's birth mother contacted us, requesting that we take her two children that she had after her parental rights had been terminated. And so in a very short time, we were welcoming a twelve month-old and three-year-old. And just as quickly as the vineyard started, we had to abandone it to care for Mackenzie and Tyler.
The summer of 2006 and 2007 we operated a small CSA, raised free-range chickens and turkeys, and a few hogs. We continued to build our flock of Leicester Longwool sheep and Angora goats.
We have been fortunate to host the LSP Farm Beginnings graduation party and the Twin Cities Permaculture group to our farm. Last month Stacey was asked to participate on a panel presentation at the Value Added Agriculture Conference in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The organizers wanted our participation because of the way we have embraced diveristy and have been "light on our feet." That's such a positive and affirming way to describe our situation.
Our old website received such warm and positive responses from people all over the world. It was so moving to recieve e-mails from individuals who were wanting to start a horse therapy program like the one we envisioned. We have learned to let go and be open to new possibilities. We hope that whatever we do, we will bring health and renewal to all that we serve.