Flower Business, Produce, New Garden Shed

This has been our delivery week of our CSA baskets.  It actually is such a surprise to me each time we put a box together, how amazing nature is in rewarding us with the gifts of our labors.  This week in the basket, we had carrots, beets, cherries, peaches, apricots, squashes, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, some lettuce, snow peas. And it isn't even June 1st yet!

Our Farm flower membership is doing fine.  Would like more members but I just haven't had time to advertise that much about it.  This week's delivery had bouquets of glads, sweet peas, a few roses, some straw flowers, hydrageas, butterfly bush.  

Most of the flowers I am growing in the back fields are annuals and they haven't started blooming yet anyways.  The hydrageas are georgous, as usual and every color is blooming all around the yard.

Frank is building me a garden shed in the back area to keep tools that we need to use in the vegetable and flower growing areas.  It seemed like every time I needed a certain tool, I had to walk to the old shed closer to the house to get sometime and it was so inconvenient.  "Wish and you shall receive" with my Frank, he really is an incredible builder.  Here is a picture of it about 1/2 way there.  We are using old galv. barn siding we bought from a friend and Frank built me a sliding barn door.  I will take a picture of the finished building on the next blog because I would like your opinion on what color I should paint the door.  We were at Home Depot this week and they were still having their sale on some 12" x 12" concrete pavers for 88cents.  So I bought some and we are going to put a path of the pavers into the shed to make it easier to roll a wheel barrow, etc. and to keep weeds and mud out of shed. And of course, it will look cute!!!

Most important.

The stuff piled on the side are all my tomato and plant stakes that will be put behind the shed for storage. Hope you come back to see the finished shed next time.  From our Windmill Farm!

We delivered another round of CSA baskets to our members.  They were pretty full with zucchini, gray squash, small cucumbers, strawberries, kale, onions, carrots, beets, snow peas and fava beans.

Along with delivering the produce, we delivered our fresh country bouquets this week to our new Flower CSA members. 

We only have a few members so far, but are hoping as the word gets out more and more people will join and enjoy receiving a bouquet delivered right to their work or their front door twice a month or once a month. 

Needless to say, we were pretty busy but did get away for Mother's Day to go visit the family and had a wonderful BBQ at the kids house.  The In-law Bakers were there two so it was fun catching up and visiting with the other set of the "parents". 

The Edible Shasta-Butte Magazine will be out soon.  I finished writing the last article for the magazine's special section where they followed our farming life for the 4 seasons.  It sure has been a wonderful experience because Candice and Earl, owners have made it so easy for me to tell our little story of what happens here at Windmill Farm.  It also has been fun meeting some people who contacted us after reading it in the EdibleShasta-Butte magazine.  Two people are now CSA members of our farm and they would not have known about us if it wasn't for the publication.  If you see the photos on their main page, there is one of our little roadside stand.

The wild and crazy thunder and lightening storm that hit a few days ago has us worried as we don't know how much damage the wind and rain had on our "almost ripe" cherries and apricots.  Rain will cause cherries to split and then get mildew inside the cherries.  We did pick the one cherry tree that had the most ripe cherries just because we knew if they stayed on the tree any longer, we might have lost all of them.  Frank and I have decided that this fall we are going to plant 20 new cherry trees.  There is no greater thrill than to have fresh cherries.  And since it is one of the first fruits starting up in the season, people are dying to have something fresh to eat.  I was told that Sam's Club had cherries that were $7 a pound!!!  Good grief you could almost buy steak for that pound price.

Hasn't food prices just been a shock??  I can't believe how much even a pound of ground beef costs.  We used to occasionally have bacon on weekends when the family came to visit.  The last time I went to the grocery store bacon was like $18-$20 for a 2 lb. package.  That is just horrible.  Families really have to become smart buyers to be able to afford these prices.  One good point might be that more people will consider growing their own vegetables this year to help with the cost of food and that would be a great experience for the whole family.

With the rain, now that means lots of weeds in the fields.  So if you don't see a new blog in a few days, that is where I will be!! Weeding.