After some phone interviews in January with some delightful applicants, I’m happy to announce that Michelle Lawrence will be joining me at Black Sheep Farm this year to make sure lots of veggies are planted and harvested for this year’s vegetable CSA members! Michelle comes highly recommended by another vegetable farm in my area, so luckily she’s already familiar with our climate, soils, and social possibilities ;P
I’m very relieved to have checked this crucial item off my to-do list before the baby’s born. Otherwise, the vegetable seeds have all been ordered and received…except for my favourite edamame, Beer Friend, which is still not available for ordering yet. Fingers crossed that there will be seeds available to buy! This variety was a crop failure for the grower(s) last year, so I really hope that the same didn’t happen for this year. I’m going to plan my edamame plantings this year with some seed saving in mind so that I won’t be in a seed variety shortage again! Now seedling/direct seeding start dates need to be planned and the field laid out on paper so all will be in order for Michelle to implement when she gets here in May. And at some point before the sheep go out on pasture, the page wire fence for the south end of the farm needs to be put in!
The fence was originally planned to be put up before the end of 2016, but the snow came so fast and furiously in December, that this hasn’t been possible. My hope now is that the field will dry out enough in April for the job to get done then. There’s really no way to tell how dry or wet a spring we’ll be having this year…including for getting into this year’s vegetable field for rototilling! Fingers crossed that all will work out 😉
In the meantime, my days are full with business plan writing for a contract I’m working on, and March will see me back in the tax office for 4 days a week. So back to number crunching for me!