Breaking new ground and finding surprise peonies!

So, we got a big goal accomplished Tuesday: we broke ground on our back flower field. It's a big one, 60x250 feet. One of the big challanges we're facing as we create our farm is that all of our land has been in grass for so long, we're going from established lawn to new field in one season. I'm sure there are some people who would cringe at the idea of tilling a lovely spread of fescu (or whatever) under to plant a vast, and probably unruly, field of flowers and veggies, but we're exited about it.

Research online indicates that the best way to break new ground would be to plow or disc in the fall, spread some compost, let everything mellow over the winter, and rototill in the spring. We, unfortunately, have such a crazy schedule that we have had to do it all in one step. So, we made 4 passes over the field with a 4-foot rototiller behind a small tractor, and that seemed to do a pretty good job. Not as fine or as deep as we would like, but definitely workable.

We've used 4 different methods to break or new fields so far: we tilled our leek an tulip beds with our small tiller last fall, tilled our greens and herbs bed with our tiller this spring, used a Dingo for our small veggie bed, and used a tractor for the big flower bed. We decided that the Dingo did the best job, breaking things up the finest and going the deepest, but it also left an awfully uneven surface. The tractor was the fastest, but the tiller we pulled with it just didn't go as deep as the Dingo's. I guess every method has its tradeoffs.

Anyway, with new ground broken, we are excited to get more stuff in the ground. We also discoverd a set of peony plants we had forgotten about, and the were ready to bloom! Should be great at the next market. Lots of work ahead, but enjoying it all!

Potatoes!

So, by now our potatoes should be in the ground, but some troublesome logistics are keeping us from getting the field tilled for them.  they arrived in two VERY HEAVY boxes back at the end of March.  Several types of fingerling potatoes, and a huge box full of purple potatoes.  While purple potatoes may sound a bit off, we think we've already got a good market in place for them, and hope to have lots of success.  Anyway, the potatoes arrived, and have been pre-sprouting in our guest bedroom for the past few weeks.

Around the time the potatoes arrived, we also built a small greenhouse in our back yard to expand our nursery.  We build a frame out of an old craft-fair booth, using part of a pallet as the base.  Probably not the most effective green house ever built, but a great re-use of materials we already have.  It doesn't hold heat that well through the night, but during the day it warms up quickly and stays enough above the outside temp for us to move some of our more delicate plants outside for the day.

Getting Caught Up!

So, this being our first year of business, it seems like we are perpetually behind...  So many things to plant, so little time to plant them.  We've also managed to get behind in the blog here, so we're going to attempt to get caught up.

Cook's Market has been at 5 markets now (Emporia once and Topeka 4 times).  We've already learned a lot about how to present our products: flowers and baked goods so far, although our jade plants have been quite popular too.  By far, the best part of these markets has been the people we meet, but customers and other vendors.  The other vendors have such great advice for us, and you can really tell they want everyone to succeed.

Here's a picture of one of our jades:

All of our jade plants come from several jade plants that our relatives have in their yard down in Florida.  many years ago, they gave us some clippings and we brought them back in our suitcases.  I love jade, mostly because it seems to be impossible to kill, and it's cool to have a piece of a plant with a good story behind it.