Farm Report: February 2007
by Kelle Carter

Even though the gardens are resting, we seem busier than ever here on the Research Farm. January and February have had us traveling around the country attending regional sustainable agriculture conferences. Some of these conferences attended by Seeds of Change staff include: the American Seed Trade Association Conference in Tucson, Arizona; Ecological Farming Association Conference in Monterey, California; Southern Sustainable Agricultural Working Group Conference in Louisville, Kentucky; the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin; The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture Conference in State College, Pennsylvania; and of course the New Mexico Organic Farming Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We encourage gardeners and farmers on all scales to attend these very informative and beneficial conferences. If you do, please visit the Seeds of Change booth to say hi and take home some free seeds!

The weather has been very unpredictable these days. Spring seems to be popping up, like the bulbs in my garden, and then I wake up to a new blanket of snow. We have been graced with some sunny 50° days that make everyone want to go outside and cut back the perennial flowers. Other work on the to-do list includes planting poppies and larkspurs, feeding the soil with compost, planting apple trees, and putting in strawberries which we are excited to have added to our catalog of offerings.

Seed cleaning is continuing to keep us occupied; however, the piles of seed are slowly decreasing. We recently purchased some exciting new seed cleaning machines as well as pathology equipment, which will make our seed processing even more state-of-the-art. Emily Skelton, Seed Cleaning and Quality Coordinator, is excited to add to her collection of equipment a new Indent Separator and a Belt Grader. For hot water treating seed, Emily Gatch, Greenhouse Coordinator and Assistant Seed Cleaner, now has a machine specific to this need. As the equipment came from Holland, and has European wiring, we are waiting for our electricians to install them before we can power them up. These machines will increase efficiency as well as improve the quality of our seed.

Now is also the time for farm maintenance that cannot be tackled during the growing season. Joe, all-around handyman, has been busy fixing the roof on our storage shed and installing new pipes for the irrigation in the greenhouse, which is also full of activity. We have begun to propagate the Yacon for sale in April, as well as beginning the cold stratification for any hard-to-germinate perennial herbs and flowers.

We are still enjoying the fruits of our labor from this past summer. The jars of tomatoes are rapidly disappearing from the shelves and the freezer door is having an easier time closing. We are staying well fed with the onions, garlic, potatoes, and winter squash harvested last season, and the greenhouse is now full of lettuce and kale.

I hope everyone has had a nice winter season and is feeling rejuvenated and excited for this coming growing season.

Happy spring,
Kelle Carter
Farm Field Coordinator

Photo Captions: (1) The new hot water treating machine (2) The indent separator machine (3) One of our greenhouses filled with spring greens