1. One of the projects we have been working on lately is repairing  a rotavator so it can maked raised beds. We are planning on growing some of our crops, primarily some tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes and eggplant in these raised beds.  Along with using the raised beds, we also plan to use plastic and trickle irrigation to help these plants along. Growing things using raised beds is really gaining in popularity – you can read a story about raised beds here.
2. I had to laugh when I read this quote; “We stay away from about all fresh nightshades, meaning tomatoes, eggplant, peppers. They’re not local, they’re shipped across the globe, you can drop ‘em out a third floor window and they remain intact, plus they taste lousy.” in this story- link here- I found while surfing the ‘net. The chef quoted was talking about buying produce during the winter months. I laughed because he voiced exactly what I think about tomatoes from the grocery store during the off season months. Happily for us, and our customers, we have already started all of our peppers, eggplant and onion seeds in the basement. About 95% of our tomatoes have been started in flats. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The Good Lord willing, we’ll have some nice fresh produce this summer.
3. March is National Nutrition Month (who knew?). One of the dieticians from Albert Lea Medical Center wrote an article about how to eat nutritiously (link). Pretty basic tips but well worth reading.
4. A couple of weeks ago, we ran out of the garlic that we grew at the farm this past season. That means buying the granulated variety from the store and boy did I get surprised! I purchased some McCormick garlic from an online retailer and much to my dismay we discovered it was from CHINA!  CHINA! How can that be? Isn’t California the Garlic capital of the world? According to my research, the answer is a big NO, China is. Following that upsetting news, I went to the grocery store to check on the garlic available there and lo and behold, CHINA again! I was frustrated and bound and determined to find some United States garlic. So again I did an internet search and discovered that Spices Etc. sells only California garlic in their granulated and powdered products.  All was well again in my world. Now check out this story - FDA urges stronger safeguards for spices – and you might want to check out the sources of the spices you use. I tell ya, reading labels is a full time job now.  (By the way, we hope to have our famous garlic again this year if all goes well.)

Hope you find these stories interesting!