Smith's Family Farm

Spring is in the Air. Or is it??????  With such a dry season this year in our neck of the woods. We are starting with a late rainey season. That's alright well take whatever the good Lord Blesses us with. We have a new and exciting CSA program starting this year. Lots of good veggies going into the ground. Spring Crops are looking good, and growing. Finally some longer days and shorter nights are getting the growing cycle in gear.

Farmers Markets are doing fine, lots of new customers coming into the markets. It's been a great pleasure to us getting to know them and introduce ourselves.

Last week the Winter Forage was harvested not a bad crop. I think we had an average of 10 tons to the acre. Now we are in the process of getting the ground ready for the corn planting.

We finished the last plantings of Kale, Chards, Green Onions, Cabbage and Cauliflower. Tomatoes, Peppers and Squash are being planted along with Green Beans and Potatoe's and Sweet Corn.

Get out and off the beaten path. Visit your local farmers market and GET TO KNOW YOUR FARMER.

Another year begins. As we go thru the winter we are in the process of making decisions on which crops to plant for the year. The month of January is a busy month. We will cover the greenhouse and begin our seedlings for spring time transplanting. Some early crops going in will be Cabbage, Broccoli, Chard's, Kale. Also going in will be Tomatoe's, Peppers and Eggplant. These all get planted in January. In the field we will plant Spinach, Lettuce, Onions, Radishes, Turnips, and Asian vegetables.

We are trying to get our CSA program to grow more this season. The last year has been a slow one for our CSA. God willing this year will be better. Sandie will have more time to spend, marketing our farm shares.

Farmers Markets have been gradually growing. Our customers are loyal and truly believe in supporting our family farm. And that has been a blessing for us. It's a great joy when a customer comes back telling us how much they enjoyed our produce. The direct relationships developed have been great. Some are almost like family.  Remember when you buy from a small local producer, that money stays in your local economy.

We have not marketed any product wholesale in the last  7 months. So we have had quite abit of extra ground. This past fall we seeded 37 acres to a winter forage mix, for cattle feed this spring. Then in summer we will plant that ground to grain corn for a organic chicken producer for their feed supply. So we still have a few acres left for vegetable production. Just enough to keep Sandie and I busy.

Thanks for reading my blog. Mike Smith