New Life

Photo by Jacob Godsey

New life surrounds me.  We got 50 baby chicks on Monday and they are adorable!  We surprised several of our Working Share members and it was a pleasure to see them holding the chicks and introducing them to their new home.

​During my walk this weekend around the farm I saw tree buds bursting, patches of grass reemerging, and the birds building their nests.  

Inside our hoop houses we are transitioning the beds from winter crops to spring crops.  We are also finding beneficial critters (toads and salamanders) and pests (aphids and cabbage looper moths).

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Photo by Nydia Aguilar De La Cruz

New life is also being created at Stone Coop.  We are revamping the website, improving our farmers market, evaluating our crops, and expanding our customer base.  We are also being more active with our Facebook page and YouTube videos.  This ties in with our bottom line.  We finally have a realistic budget, solid QuickBook's information from 2015, regular employee meetings, and designated management responsibilities for our hoop houses and fields.  And our crew is stepping up to the tasks we need to get done.   

The next step is to give myself some of this new life juice.  I just realized that I have scheduled classes, dinners, and markets for myself 7 of the next 8 weekends.  Why do I do this?  I promised myself 2 whole days off, 3 weekends a month but I didn't schedule these days off, so they got filled up with commitments.  No wonder I am not full of spring energy.  I never got my time to hibernate, rest and fully relax.  So it looks like the farm's schedule also needs to include scheduled weekends off for me.

Recommended Viewing: Nydia shows us how to make soil blocks and explains why we use them instead of using cell trays.

Photo by Nydia Aguilar De La Cruz

Did you know that these beautiful moths are something we dread seeing? They are cabbage looper moths and when they appear we know they are laying eggs on our kale plants and other crops in the brassica family.  The cabbage loopers are voracious eaters and one of their favorite meals is Lacinato kale.  They are also great at camouflage.  Can you see it?