Alert: Weather moving in

Bad weather moving in tonight. Rain, freezing rain, tons of snow. Winter is one of my favorite times of the year. Beautiful

Things are gearing up for the market season here. I have transplanted seedlings into the cell trays. Yesterday was 100 0r so Genovesie Basil; while today I did Jet Star tomatoes, leeks, and sweet basil. That should be it for a few days when more seedlings have developed their first set of true leaves. So for now, it is back to starting seeds and putting them in the seedling room to germinate. I'm thinkin' more tomatoes, classic eggplants, more herbs. Basically whatever strikes my fancy.

I finally got around to testing the blackberry rolls. I love, love, love the sweet bread that I use. It is easy to make and raises beautifully. I decided to try PourAPie (like you would use the cinnamon sugar for cinnamon rolls). This first try was not a home run but...with a little tweaking, I think we might have a new offering this summer at the farmers markets we go to. Farm fellar loved it but he is pretty easy to please. If it is homemade, he's happy!

Haven't heard from the economic guy since I sent the last e-mail. I have thought of a few more things that our farm business could use: a packing area for cleaning, sorting and packaging of the fresh picked produce and a walk in cooler/freezer. That would make life so much easier.

Met Sam, Jennifer and my Mom (Dee) at McDonalds today for a quick lunch. If you ever want to see a cranky princess, it was definitely Sam in her party dress. She was baaaad.

Gonna go watch Survivor preview. I'm so lame.
See ya on the farm
Charlotte

I'm not listening to that darned groundhog!!!

That darned groundhog saw his shadow today. I really like winter but am ready to gear up for the new market gardening season. I have been reading the Four Season book by Eliot Coleman and have been so inspired. My husband built a seedling room for me in the barn. It used to be the horse barn but we finally got rid of all those wonderful gentle giants and have the chickens housed in there now. Anyway, I have basil, tomatoes, tarragon, chives, leeks, and daisy up and doing well. In fact the tomatoes and the basil will receive their first transplantings today since they have their first set of true leaves. I bought a bender for bending electrical tubing to make small hoop houses and hope to get some of these plants out in the garden (I have some raised beds) by the middle of March. This will be an experiment. Keep you updated.

Our next show is coming up in March and we want to be able to offer some plants for sale there. So I really have to get busy planting and nurturing these little babies along. This show is the Master Gardeners in Terre Haute, IN. It is March 13.

I went out to feed the chicks yesterday. Nothing unusual. They were sqwaking worse than normal but I was a little later than ususal. I started pouring the feed into the trough and saw somthing white with a long tail in the coop. NO, it was not a skunk. (Thank God) A possum had burrowed under the door and was in the coop. Of course, we had no eggs left in the coop but all chickens were acounted for. My farm guy kindly disposed of the possum for me and life got back to normal. You know your a farmgirl when all you do is just close the door and go get a shovel to hit it with. No screaming involved this time.

I got a response from the economic development center man last week. He requested that I set goals and priorities for Appleseed Farm. That was hard for me. Our big goal most of the time is increased revenue in order to stay in business. But I needed to set goals as to how to accomplish that. If you have never done that in your life, it is time to start. I responded with a marketing plan and implementation. Then work on increasing production. Let's see where this goes.

The shop is about 50% back to normal after it was crashed into. The kid got into trouble with the lawman. But I have forgiven if not forgotten. It is hard to forget whenever I see that shop back in drywall and a mess. We are unable to work there now and have to rent a place until it is totally repaired. The poor kid has to do most of the repair work himself (His dad is showing him how) and pay for the repairs, rent of the temp site and the heating bill out of his savings. I feel a little bad for him but lessons must be learned.

I have to get back to the taxes. I am almost done and will have them to the tax preparer today or tomorrow. Glad to get that off my back. One of my new goals is to do this monthly and not have to spend hours going over it in Jan and Feb.

Now tell me what you are up too. It is cold so I want to hear all about you hibernation projects.
See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Bloom where you are planted

I read that on a plaque somewhere and that it was pretty appropriate. Most people are not happy with their lives. This year I'll be turning 47 and am feeling the pinch of unreached goals. The bucket list syndrome, I suppose. January has been the month to take stock and see if I am truly blooming where I am planted. So let's see:
1. Phone lines (therefore dial-up computer lines) have been down for over a week. Every time it rains hard we lose our phone service.
OLD ME: How inconvenient. Paying for service I do not get. Can't be online when I want to
be., etc
NEW ME: How nice not to have the phone ring all day. Not really unsafe as I do have a cell
phone, can get a whole lot more done without talking on the phone.

2. It is so incredibly cold that I can't get a lot done in the barn without freezing my tushy off.
OLD ME: Just get done the have to stuff and get the heck back in the house.
NEW ME: Do as much as I can, warm up and get right back out there. If it is too cold; do
the necessities and then get the heck back into the house!! (I am not dumb)

3. Not working outside job so no paycheck in my name.
OLD ME: This is a tough one. Having cash in my pocket sure made it easy to get whatever I
wanted within reason. Also meant having easy access to money if Appleseed Farm
needed somthing before I could make the money.
NEW ME: This is a tough one. Upside to all of this is I get to stay on the farm as much as I
want. I can go places when the walls start closing in but who wants too? There is
always the barn, the seedling room, the greenhouse, something needing my
attention.

4. Not enough time to do the "housewife" things
OLD ME: Either just didn't do them or stayed up all night to make sure the house was in
order, meals prepared, etc..
NEW ME: Just don't do them or stay up all night to make sure it is all done. (why hasn't
that changed?)

I could go one but I guess the best lesson for me is that I have always bloomed wherever I have been planted. Sometimes I just need a dormancy period to have a gorgeous flower whenever I want to.

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Has anyone seen my camera?

You know how the old saying goes: A messy desk is the sign of true genius (or something like that). Does that count for your whole house? January is suppose to be the month of organization and get in shape (ie: lose weight). Jan is half over and I have done neither. I wanted to take some winter pictures of our farm for an article I am writing but can't remember where I put my camera. I have searched the house to no avail. Hopefully it is at the shop, I will go there tomorrow to pack up for the show.

I forgot our biggest business news of the month (year). Earlier this month we had a pretty big snow storm. Several inches fell and because of poor budgets in small towns, the roads in Hymera were hideous. To be fair, they were bad everywhere. I got a call from my Mom telling me to get to the shop fast because (wait for it...) someone had hit the building bad. Now this building has stood in the same place for as long as I can remember and nothing serious had ever happened to it. We own it for less than a year and it gets hit by a huge truck with a teenage driver. This poor kid was scared to death but did come up with a great story. Supposedly he swerved to miss someone openning their door to go to the post office and lost control. Honestly, he was going very slowly and had it all under control. Now, I didn't raise 2 teenagers for nothing and since the building was knocked off its foundation, I can only surmise that someone was playing on the slick roads and lost control. What do you think? We are still in the process of repair. Then we have to have the Board of Health back in to check us out. What a headache. But...thankfully no one was hurt. For that we all offered a prayer of gratitude.

Finally got the first of the seeds started today. I seem to have a bluesy month. All I want to do is sleep. I have finished 46 aprons in the last month or so. I think we are all ready for the show this weekend.

I'm trying to decide what to launch next. Definitely has to be something retro or useful. I am trying out a new bread recipe tomorrow using the PourAPie. PourAPie is our own pie filling in a jar. You can see it at our website at http://www.appleseedfarm.com/. I want to try it as a filling in place of cinnamon and sugar. I'm going to try blackberry first. I'll let you know. Anyone out there who knows of a place to get wholesale rhubarb for making strawberry/rhubarb pie filling, let me know. We have planted about 200 plants but will be another year or so until they are big enough to put into production.

Out to the chicken coop. It is wet as it is raining here again. I do get to use the soggy straw in the compost pile so I guess it is a win-win. I'm just thrilled for eggs at the market this summer. Go girls!!!

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Where is the sun?

It is definitely January in Indiana. Gloomy with melting, thawing muddy mess everywhere. I made the mistake of going to the barn in a pair of crocs yesterday. Wet, cold feet are not a good combination in the winter.

The girls (chickens) are finally laying again. We are getting 5-8 eggs per day. Not a good ratio due to all the girls we have but much better than the past couple of months of nothing. Buying eggs from the store hurts when you are paying to feed the girls and they aren't doing their part.

I haven't seen the grandkids since Christmas. We have been passing around the flu (swine flu?) since a couple of days past Christmas. I sure do miss those rugrats. Sam called to tell me she was mad at me because she hasn't seen me. She was coughing the entire time she was talking. What do you tell a 2 year old? Tucker and Lauren are growing like weeds. Wyatt is doing well in school. He seems to like the 4th grade pretty well.

I received an e-mail response from the economic development people about the Hymera project. They have been working closely with the town on infrastructure (water, waste water (that used to be called sewage) and stuff like that. Good for business attraction but not for promoting the town. I plan to meet with the gentleman soon. I'll post as soon as I have the meeting.

Getting ready for our first show of the year. It is in Robinson, IL. It is called a Winters Day in the Garden. If you mention this blog I will give you 10% off your purchase of Appleseed Farm products at this show. Hope to see you there.

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

NEW YEAR NEW ME

Today I decided was the time for a new me. I kind of like the old one but she was way too timid. She was always fearful of what other people would think. I could not talk her into calling gift shops to see if they might be interested in carrying Appleseed Farm products. Well NO MORE!!

I have printed out a long list of gift shops to begin the cold calls. Be warned if you own one, I might be just calling you to chat.

The other aspect of business that scared me is the financials. Not the new me. I will know each month where the business stands and where our money has gone. To paraphrase Heidi from "project runway" One day you have it and the next you don't.

Farm updates: I have a new seed starting room in the barn. It is insulated and heated. It just takes a small bathroom heater to heat it. I hope it doen't send the light bill in overdrive. I plan to begin some seeds tomorrow. A few tomatoes and peppers. Probably some eggplant. The first to the market gets the early customers. Last year I had my first tomato in May. I pushing for mid May this year, so I will have at least a bushel to take to the market.

Speaking of markets, we are going to try for 3-4 farmers markets this year. Our home market which is Terre Haute Downtown Farmers Market in Terre Haute, IN. Last year we tried the Vincennes Farmers Market in Vincennes, Indiana and my Mom loved it so she will return there. I am looking into a couple others, when we have decided I will let you know.

Gotta get supper done. We are eating at home almost every night. We used to eat out 4-5 times a week. I was raised very frugally and I guess that was my rebellion. Getting back to my roots. We have eaten out 1 time this month. Not bad. Let's see if we can keep it up.

See ya on the farm
Charlotte

Where do I go in 2010

Of course I'm not leaving the farm!!! I just have to make goals and plans for the upcoming year (which at this point is half way through the first month).

We have moved our production site for our certified kitchen to Hymera, IN. This is a very small town. In fact, I grew up here. While I have driven through this sleepy little town numerous times, I had not really looked at it in the last 25 years or so. What an eye opener. Closed up businesses, run down houses... You know how most neglected areas are in small town USA. Well, I had an idea. Why not see if we could get something going here. All destination places had to start somewhere. I sent an e-mail to the local economic development district on Jan 10. Haven't heard a thing from them. I know that there are grants and things available for small rural areas with people who are willing to work. So, I am going to follow up and see if I can get somewhere on this. Some ideas that have come to mind are "Little House on the Prairie", Wild wild west era, living farming community, artist colony. What do you think? Let me know if you have any ideas for growth of this area.

The farm is sleeping right now. I, for one am very thankful. I needed the rest. I will begin to start seeds within the next couple of weeks. I can hardly wait. Other than that, we are resting and recooperating from the long spring, summer and fall right up to the Christmas holidays. A lot of people received PourAPie for Christmas gifts this year!

Until nest time..See ya on the farm
Charlotte