I can't believe that 2015 is over. Done. I'm so looking forward to the blessings the new year will bring us. 2015 was hard! We faced many challenges in our first full year running the CSA. Not all of it was bad, but to be honest the hardships we encountered time and time again did put a bit of a damper on the year. Let's review the first year of Serenity Farm!
January through March were busy starting a large majority of our plants and dreaming about spring's arrival! We constructed our outdoor seedling greenhouse. This is where our transplants grew after initial germination in the house before going to the field.
Early March we transplanted lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli. We direct seeded our sugar snap peas. We also decided to transplant our peppers and cover them with mini tunnels made of perforated plastic to keep them warm, but allow them to breathe during the heat of the day. Well, mother nature had other plans. The night before our first market the temperature was forecast to get down to 35 degrees. It actually got down to 27 degrees, way too cold for the pepper plants who thrive in warm weather. Five hundred pepper plants died and we had to start again! Luckily the tomatoes in the greenhouse survived the freeze and continued to grow nicely.
April continued to be a bit cooler than normal, but we were able to get most of our transplants out into the field. We planted 17,000 onions, zucchini, yellow squash, spaghetti squash, sweet corn, beets, turnips, green beans, carrots, radishes, cauliflower, and the list goes on. In May, well it rained nearly the entire month. On the farm we received fifteen inches of rain. That equates to roughly 1.3 MILLION gallons of rain water that fell on the 2.5 acres where we grow our vegetables. We were unable to put a single tool, seed, or transplant in the ground during the most critical month of gardening.
While it was too wet to be in the field we worked on setting up our irrigation system (ironic since we were drowning in water!) We were regular vendors at the Kansas Grown Farmer's Market at 21st and Ridge Rd. every Saturday morning. We also prepared ourselves for our newest farmer-to-be!
Our newest little farmer arrived on July 7th! The children and I were out in the field helping Brad get some work done on the irrigation lines before the storms came through (yes! rain again!). Well, the rain got to us before we finished up so the children and I were covering irrigation lines in the pouring down rain. Shoveling, wet clay soil is hard work. Two hours after getting done what we could and cleaning up, I went into labor. Joshua took his sweet time getting here, but once he did it was so worth the wait!
2 weeks old
Brad took the two girls to central Missouri at the end of July and picked up our new Idaho Pasture Pigs. Idaho pigs have shorter snouts which makes it so they root around less and graze in the pasture instead. I knew when we bought the van that we would have a lot of cargo room, but I never thought we would be hauling pigs INSIDE the van!
Pigs (and daughters) riding in air conditioned comfort!
Gotta love late summer produce!
Pumpkins growing nicely!
Beautiful peppers and eggplants
We were able to see a beautiful rainbow at our east side drop one summer evening. Several times the family would all load up and go to the drops together. The children loved playing on the playground equipment and Brad and I enjoyed visiting with all of our wonderful members!
The piggies are growing! This picture was taken in late November and they are about four months old. Pasture raised livestock takes longer to grow and pigs are no different. If pictures had sound you would have heard them squealing and grunting. They thought I was bringing them food when I was really just doing a photo shoot!
Happy Thanksgiving! Fresh turkeys were delivered the day before Thanksgiving and the only hiccup with our butchering was that the turkeys were much smaller than we thought. After talking with other local farmers who have raised heritage turkeys we discovered that they usually take a year or more to get up to the size that the hatcheries advertise.
Running through the gardens!
Last three to go!
Ray and I attended the very last market for the 2015 season! Ray and I LOVE going to the farmer's market and seeing our regulars come back week after week enjoying our fresh produce and our amazing baked goods. I was so nervous at first running our booth as I'm not a very social and outgoing person, but as the season progressed I looked forward to the market each week. Thank you to all of you who came and visited us this season!
Our family is looking forward to a wonderful 2016! Follow along with us and see what this new year brings. I have set up an Instagram account SerenityFarmCSA. I aim to put up a new picture every few days, less this time of year, but possibly daily during the growing season! Share this blog post with family, friends, co-workers, and more and help us to make Serenity Farm a success this coming year!
Wishing you all a Happy New Year!
The Dilts family at Serenity Farm
Wishing you all a Happy New Year!
The Dilts family at Serenity Farm
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