Richert/Phillips Farms

   On March the seventh we will be attending a CSA event at the Arlington Heights, IL library--we do enjoy this one and hope to see a lot of people there. Also, there will be several other CSA's represented.

    Today we took some time off to go to St. Joseph, MI to look at the frozen Lake Michigan--it was cool!

   Nearly ready to open the greenhouse to start planting--will start to sanitize   the tables, plug trays, walls, and tools, this prevents any diseases that might have crawled  in. It is quite a pleasure to work in the greenhouse when the weather is freezing out and the little seedlings are just popping up--reminds us the season will soon be here.

   If things go well there might be purple skinned potatoes in the CSA baskets this year. Not sure on the sprouts yet--we are growing a second round of them(tweaked how we are doing them). Will have them for sale at the library. 

   There is quite a winter storm outside. At first it wasn't to bad but then as it got latter in the day the drifting and lake effect made the roads unpassable--the road crews have not made it out today to clean um and yet people are still trying to drive on these country roads--four wheel drive gives false hope in many cases and this is one of them cases. 

   We've been inside for most of the day looking through this years preparations for the coming season and decided to add purple potatoes. Also, adding different crops to the high tunnels and green house--just to stir things up abit and get some excitement from same ol same ol.

   well, we got the seeds for sprouts and we will be experimenting with them to see if they can be incorporated into our farmers markets and hopefully CSAs. Sprouts are interesting--the seeds have to be tested and free of diseases. We will use mason jars for the sproutings and that is a lot of jars, about 60 of them. 

   Then the biggest problem we have is how much to charge?

pricing has always bothered use--not enough we loss, to much the quantity is not there. But the fun of growing over rides any problems of management.

God Bless 

Saturday we where coming back from auction when the SUV started smoking and over heating and then just gave up the ghost--to say. The next day Daniel started to work on it in the bitter cold--it was really cold, I know this because when I cracked the door to ask if he was cold or not he really did not give a happy answer. But I still checked on him from the exceedingly warmth of the house every so often. Once mom said, "shouldn't you help him?", A quick response,"this hot cocoa wont drink itself." After several hours of work he found that there is no saving it, its done and over--so we bought a mini van for a couple of grand and 151000 miles on it.

   Luckily, most of our inputs have already been purchased and paid for the coming season. We have been trying to get our high tunnel back up after moving it--hopefully, we will have it done by end of February. One of our new ideas for the coming season is sprouts and sprigs for the beginning of the markets, it seems like a good idea...so, if your a customer of ours look for them items at the next winter market in Palatine or in May at our markets. 

God bless 

   Our friend of many years finely had us over for dinner--he is the one that cooks the sap for us and we split the syrup 50/50. Being a farmer like us a good idea like sharing a meal in the evening always seems to slip by as the years roll on until one day it happens--and that night was yesterday.

   As the white gas lamps lit the house the little ones played contently with the simplest of objects and lots of imagination. The fellas conversation always fell into vegetables, hogs, butchering, bees, syrup and cutting ice on the pond for summer, plus the most important subject of all times in the history of humans fishing--but if another topic came up other than the type of farming the four of us do it quickly changed back to our passion--pretty much everything else is boring and not worth a discussion sometimes a mention, but not a conversation. The gals where in the other room, perhaps talking politics or world domination--who knows.  

   Now I get to the good part--dinner. Never in all my time have I ever thought of having what was served, but it really was good and do try it. We had waffles with home made hand cranked ice cream on top, ladled with warm maple syrup also a scoop of blended berries. And scrambled eggs--it doesn't sound like much but it sure was good.

    May God bless you 

   We have all our book work done for taxes, seeds are ordered, and the field work is done--all before the first major snow fall that is happening today.

   Our biggest problem for years and looks like for all our days of farming will be labor--workers are not readily available. O', there are those that call and some even come out but they never stay--work a few days then never heard from again. Each year the farm goes more mechanical.  

   Sugaring will be the next big thing we do around here, that will start some time in the end of February. Tapping trees, nearly all are maples, a few were not sure of. Lugging buckets of sap to the holding tank and then going to the cooker to boil the stuff down. A lot of work but well worth the effort--holing full buckets around will make a person sweat in cold weather,go figure.

God bless 

This easy weather has allowed us to get our fall field work done early and clean up around the maple syrup equipment months ahead of time--we are pleased.

   This year we were able to enjoy the produce expos much better, because we did not have to think about all the work left at the farms. From 8:30 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. we sat in seminars--they were not bad except for the last ones each day--that is when your head starts to nod as ones eyes get heavy. But, we got through it and added to our knowledge of growing.

   Between sessions the trade show was packed with suppliers and dealers of produce products. Here is when we reinforced old alliances and forged new ones. For 15 years our produce farm has been going and it is amazing how many people(companies) we know and deal with.

    Evenings was always fun, every night we tried new restaurants with our friends--during the season all of us are to uptight and to busy to socialize. But, at the end of the season when the work is done,or near completed we make up for it. 

   The seed orders are done for next year and sent off--now what. 

   We finely was able to get our taps out for maple syrup cooking. This cold winter has set sap run back by nearly three weeks, but that is all right the sap is flowing now.

   Soon we will open our green house up and start planting plugs for the fields.

   The season is not here yet, but thanks to the return CSA members we are able to have our seeds and supplies purchased early and the seeds have already been coming in. We are very happy that our farm does not need large loans like before we started the CSA offers.

   The CSA membership money is treated like a loan, funds that are payed early goes to the coming year's inputs. But , I will say if you are a new farmer do not rely on CSAs entirely, be diversified for a few years until you work out the kinks and see if it is for you.

   2013 was a good year for the most part--we decided that because works are hard to find and rarely stay we will adjust our farm so if no workers are around the work will still get done. Though employees and interns would be nice--they will not be relied on.

   What a season thus far-- every year proves to have its ups and downs.

We are hoping to increase CSA membership this year by 65-75 new members. Also, to add some specialty crops to the mix for members. Overall we are pleased with the CSA members--they are a good group of people to work with.

   This years downs where we had no workers on the farm but two and they left before the first week was up. We do not ask workers to do anything we won't do--we are right along side them in the fields doing the same as they are. It takes about 3-7 workers plus ourselves to manage this farm.

   Ups, it was a great year for production for most crops. Yields were up from last year and quality on most items has remained in the tops.

What is going on this weather is jumping all over the place--dry, wet, snowy, raining, cold, warm don't know what to expect from day to day. The good thing is we have gotten a lot done in the buildings, but the taps(maple taps) are not producing like they should. That is all right the farmstead has not been this clean in a long while--if not for the first time ever.

   CSAs are rolling in and we are anticipating turning are wholesale field into production just for CSA members. Wholesale markets take up most of our production over the past many years, but CSAs may pass that portion of the farm. We have always set land aside for commercial buyers, markets, and CSAs by dedicating those fields for that specific purpose. In away by doing that we have several small farms all rolled into one.

   We were planning to be collecting sap for cooking.But, after about half the taps were set a cold front came in and we have been looking for stuff to do. It is a little early to start organizing the greenhouse, yet it beats doing other things around here.

   It did not take long working in the greenhouse, so we decided to tare-apart the plug chamber and redesign and move it into one of the sheds--a plug chamber is where the seeds are started and the temperature as well as the moisture is monitored regularly.

   Having thousands of dollars wrapped up in seeds and knowing that one's entire planting can be wiped out in less then an hour is not a pleasant feeling. So, the plug chamber is very important to a vegetable farm--we enjoy this profession, but from now till harvest and sales we will be tense, on edge, and more serious. Ninety percent of our income is made in less then sixteen weeks and yet it takes twenty plus weeks to get us to harvest and on the other end the remain part of the year is preparing the fields and equipment.

   We drove over to Leon's house today to pick up a tank for to transport the sap collected for cooking and he was quite excited about a contraption he made. The contraption was a narrow box with many holes drilled though the top and a vacuum connected to the side to provide suction for holding the seeds in place. When the box is turned up side down over the plug tray the vacuum is turned off and the seeds fall into place on the tray. He was excited about it, but we had to tease him for a while before telling him it was a good idea.

   Maple sap has a higher sugar count this year, which means less cooking (boiling off excess water). But, brix change all the time according to the weather.

   We are still taking CSA applications but time is running out, so if you may be interested please contact us. We are not planning on taking CSA applications at the markets this year--only excepting them before hand.

   Starting to get busy around here. Cleaning and preparing for sugaring season. Tomorrow we will run a few test taps and with some luck--if the sap is flowing start running all the lines.

   Today we really dug in and got a lot done--we have been taking it easy and being lazy for a spell. That might be why our muscles are a bit sore.

   Most of the seeds are here and nearly all the supplies are on a truck heading this way.

   For the first time in twelve years we were able to take a vacation. Southern Louisiana is the best place I have ever been to and I have traveled the world exploring new places when in my twenties.

   Many people we come across, nearly all the people, think farming is easy. They so often want to have what they call the simple life and yet hold on to the city life of living it up in various ways. But if one wishes to be a farmer that or those people must give up the life style they have completely and embrace the dirt fully--we have a simple saying," are you farming for money or are you farming with money?" Several young farmers who did not give up their previous life styles have lost the farms they had...they blame cost, weather, consumers, gas prices, and what ever else can be thought of--but they do not look at the real reason of not putting the long hours in(some times 16-19 hours the day before market), not knowing tricks of the trade because they are to busy talking and not listening. When a produce farm goes under most of the time it is the farmers endeavors that caused it not the excuses.

   My advice is when you attend a market or any place a small farm is selling goods for reasonable prices make sure that it is a farm that is farming for money and they do not have another job. Because small gardeners are not trying to make a living.

 Jesus Loves