December 19, 2016

Welcome to winter! It is COLD outside. Dean has been braving the weather every day to care for our sweet animals. The majority of them fared the very cold weather just fine. The cows had their water tank freeze up so Dean went out with a light bulb, my blow drier and my stamping embossing tool to add a little heat to the water line running up into their tank. After a couple hours of negative 20 degree weather he got it fixed. Burr! The cows were very happy.

The other problem with this cold weather is that the eggs freeze so quickly! Even when we sorted the frozen eggs from the non frozen ones before we brought them up from the chicken house I had 4 that froze on the way up. I could hear them crack. Bummer. We had church and then a Christmas gathering on Sunday and we dumped 30 dozen eggs because they were frozen. Oh well. It was nice to get out also.

The sun today is so welcome. It is amazing how 20 above zero can feel warm.

We have our seed order just started. Our goal is to get all of our ordering done by the end of the week. If there are any specific things you got in your boxes and you loved, or didn’t get in your box and you wanted to, let us know so we can order what you love. Thanks!

October 22, 2016

What a beautiful fall this past week! I am so grateful for the sunshine and warmth! Thank you Lord! The season was so wet the last couple weeks we were afraid we were not going to be able to shut the fields down before the snow and freezing weather came. Luckily, we got a good jump on it. We wish we would have had more time to plant a cover crop but we are probably past the good germination weather for cover crop seeds. We are excited about next year already!

The newsletter is ready. This week your new crops are brussel sprouts and gourds. The brussel sprouts are delicious. The gourds are the only things I send out that aren’t edible. Use them for a fall decoration at Thanksgiving.

October 15, 2016

This is the last week of regular season. It is crazy how fast this goes. Here is the newsletter with a recipe for the celeriac root in case you need an idea. Oh and I forgot to put kohlrabi on the newsletter! Sorry.

There are lots of things you can order with your last delivery or next week. Just let us know. Chicken stock, beef, pork, eggs, granola, just let us know what you need. Thanks!

As crazy as the summer is when we are sitting with our kiddos in the winter working on homeschooling and planning for next year we honestly have times where we miss digging in the dirt. We will be back and kicking next season!

October 8, 2016

Good thing there is only one week left of regular season. The frost last night took care of some of our last field crops. That is the end of the basil and the pepper plants The things that are not so frost sensitive, parsley, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and greens are what you will still be getting in your boxes. The frost only helps the brussel sprouts sweeten up. Yeah for sweet brussels!

The newsletter is ready to go. There is a bit in there about the storage of the different crops and some about the lack of storage crops because there was no lack of rain. Thanks for supporting your local farmers through plenty and through lack of winter storage crops. We typically would have 3-4 pallet totes of winter crops such as carrots, potatoes, beets, squash and onions and they just aren’t there this year. I would be surprised if we have anything to speak of left after the season is over. I guess that is the way it is meant to be this year. We are so blessed with so many things. We will enjoy what we have until it is gone. Each year is so different.

October 1, 2016

It feels like fall. The newsletter will help you know what to do with those collards. Enjoy!

September 26, 2016

Here are some long awaited pictures. 🙂

September 25, 2016

Another wet week around here. Will you say a prayer that it gets dry enough for us to get our last 9 rows of potatoes out? It would be nice if our purchasing, cutting, planting, cultivating, hilling and sweating doesn’t just rot in the ground. Well, just like all of farming the weather still controls what the final answer is. Thanks Lord for being in control of it all!

The newsletter is ready. Notice the one kind of produce that has a BEWARE by it! I don’t want anyone to be surprised by this ‘lettuce’. Other than that and the jalapeno I think you can all pretty safely eat your produce. Enjoy this as the year winds to a close.

September 17th, 2016

I am happy to report we only had one day with more than an inch of rain this week. Hopefully we will be able to get into the field to clean out the plants and plant cover crop yet this year. We will see what happens. The new crop for this week is collards. Check out The newsletter for a kickin’ collard greens recipe. I think you will love it. Thanks for supporting us wet farmers! Plus at this moment the mosquitoes are not as bad either! 🙂 Yeah for small blessings.

September 10th, 2016

Anyone have a gondola? It is so wet around here it might be easier to canoe out to the crops! Alright, maybe it isn’t quite that wet but we are super excited about the fact that there is barely any rain in the forecast next week. The newsletters is crazy and fun this week. Great recipe for chicken and garlic and a fun rendition of our mud wrestling. 🙂 We have to have fun around here, even we are sloshing through mud and getting eaten by mosquitoes!

August 29th, 2016

Well another week has gone by! This time of the year seems to go so quickly! It may because we are spending time at the state fair this week. If you were there Wednesday through Sunday this past week maybe you saw our state famous bunnies. 🙂 I will be happy to have them, you know my daughter and her bunnies, home soon!

Here is the newsletter enjoy your kale, kohlrabi and other goodies this week! Full shares will get red cabbage too.

August 21st, 2016

Yeah! Daniel has fixed my computer picture download problem. I am so thankful! So here is the newsletter and pictures too!

Two of the kiddos with their 4H animals.

August 13th 2016

Happy National Farmer’s Market week! If you need any farmer’s market staple, let us know. We still have lots of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, basil and summer squash. Feel free to come on out to the farm and get extras. We also have second produce that needs a good home!

The newsletter is ready with some fun recipes this week. Have you tried chocolate paleo zucchini brownies or some delicious salsa? Make a summer saute like we eat almost every day around here. Enjoy these seasonal treats before they too are gone.

Remember, let us know if you need canning quantities of tomatoes!

August 7th, 2016

I can’t believe it is August already! This is wonderful and crazy and sad all at the same time. We are now just about half way through our season including extended season. The wonderful part is the farm is looking great! There are still weeds we need to deal with, but all in all the production is amazing. I don’t think I have ever seen as many tomatoes come out of a tunnel as we got out of tunnel 10 this year. It is overwhelming!

The sad part is two of my helpers go back to college this month! We will miss you Addie and Carl!!!

The newsletter is ready but lacks pictures. 🙁 My new iphone isn’t downloading pictures right. My computer says there are no pictures on my device, but there are. I am still working on it. Hopefully more pictures will come soon!

July 30, 2016

What a busy week! We were very productive this week! Sometimes when looking back on the week I am amazed at what we have accomplished, other times I am just overwhelmed at all that needs to be done! 🙂

Here is the newsletter for the week. Read the difference between the hot peppers. Wish I had room for pictures. So many recipes this week. Enjoy your tomatoes and peppers!

July 23rd, 2016

July 16th, 2016

We are really starting to get settled into our pack shed. We are still waiting on water although we just started working out of a hose we dragged in there. We had 11 calves born already this spring and hopefully still counting! The variety of produce is coming in now! Yeah for lots of different colors and kinds of veggies!

Read about all of this in the newsletter.

July 9th, 2016

Wow life is crazy around here! We are so busy and happy but tired. It has been an amazing week for getting things accomplished. Let us know if you want to come out and help weed! There are lots of weeds around here!!!

Read your newsletter to see the tree that fell though our garage wall and roof in the latest storm, find a great grill packet recipe and check out what will probably be in next week’s boxes.

July 2nd, 2016

Here is this week’s newsletter. Don’t forget Monday delivery will be Tuesday! Enjoy your long weekend!

It has been a pretty good week around here. We transplanted a ton (almost literally) 🙂 of plants out of the greenhouse and into the field. They got a little sprinkle of rain but we are running our irrigation system almost all of the time around here. We could use rain again. We heard it was supposed to be a hot dry year and so far that is pretty accurate besides the pop up storms that are randomly pelting us. We are happy with the boxes and the amount of produce that is ripening early this season. We picked our first peppers and tomatoes and lots more should be coming soon!

All 14 of us spent about 3 hours working on this poor neglected tunnel. We were just too busy to get to it earlier. Ugh. But doesn’t that after shot look beautiful! This tunnel is the one that lost its cover in the storm. We will try and get it replaced sometime soon. The peppers and tomatoes will love the added heat the solar gain provides.

This just goes to show that it pays to work hard. Teamwork is awesome.

We are almost into our pack shed!!! We are excited about the storage and space there is in there. We will probably realize that it will fill up with necessary items quickly but we are going to use it to its fullest. Tuesday will be a crazy day because the plan is to pack boxes, send them out, have the final electric hooked up in the new pack shed, take all eggs and additional produce out of the large cooler and put it into the little cooler while we move the big cooler away from our garage and next to the new pack shed, hook cooler up to electricity, refill big cooler, poor the cement in the drain of the pack shed and front apron, and then pick all of the produce that will go out in Wednesday boxes, load truck and deliver produce to the Mankato Food Hub and go to farmer’s market in Mankato. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? You could definitely send up an extra prayer for us and our hard working crew that day and all this week.

June 27th, 2016

Next week’s Monday delivery will be on Tuesday instead of Monday because of the 4th of July. Wednesday deliveries will be on Wednesday as usual.

Wow it has been a hard week but next week will be better! We had two weed whips break, the Uhaul broke down, an employee that didn’t work out but in retrospect we are still so blessed! We are all healthy, (well Jean is getting a bit sick but hoping to overcome it soon), the crops are growing great, the animals are healthy, our employees are the most amazing crew ever and have bonded and are uplifting each other continually. Life really is great. We are so blessed.

We also had an adorable little heifer calf this week. She is so adorable and has the same markings as her mom except she is brown with a white face and mom is black with a white face. So fun! There should be many more calves coming soon. Bring on the cuties!

Here is our newsletter. I didn’t have room for recipes on the newsletter this month but there are a couple good links for you to use for ideas on there.

June 22nd, 2016

There was a pretty good sized storm that traveled just north of us this evening. Luckily we think we escaped the high winds and the first cell that came roaring through. The second cell dumped about an inch of rain and small hail. Not exactly what we needed when we just got the field tilled today so we could transplant tomorrow. Oh well, we will transplant the plants later when there isn’t a lot of mud to slog through. Guess the tunnels get to get prettied up tomorrow. 🙂

P.S. Beware of the spicy mesculun mix you got this week. You will see green frilly mustard leaves with arugula and red kale in a bag. This is much nicer on a sandwich than munched on alone unless you like a good kick. Enjoy!

June 18th, 2016

The first week of regular season is finally here! Welcome to My MN Farmer 2016! We have had a pretty good growing season besides the rain and wind. The plants really are looking nice! Here is our newsletter with a list of what is in the boxes, some farm news, drop site etiquette, (that is review for extended season) and a couple of recipes. Enjoy your first regular season box!

June 10th, 2016

It was a miserable storm here today. 🙁 The new tunnel we just put up received some pretty bad wind damage. It is sad to see our hard work need to be replaced so quickly. We also lost a chicken tractor. That building flipped and was thrown and jumbled about 300 feet. We are glad there were no chickens in it at least. They were protected. Our other two chicken tractors stayed put fine. I guess we have a bit of cleanup to do around here along with packing our boxes this week. We can do it with the Lords help. Thanks for supporting us and we are excited to grow for you!

The newsletter is up and ready to be read. Remember your CSA experience is going to be a lot more enjoyable if you learn about all the goodies you have in your kitchen. 🙂 Enjoy!

June 3rd, 2016

Our shed is getting put together! Yeah!!!

The first week of extended season is here! We are so excited to start to share our produce with everyone who
can appreciate it as much as we do! Our newsletter will update you on box contents and drop site etiquette. We are so excited to begin this amazing season. Hope you are excited too!

May 23rd, 2016

Thank you so much for everyone who came out to the farm party yesterday! It was so great to get to know many of you better and there were so many people here I am sure some of you I personally didn’t even get to talk to but I need to say THANK YOU! It is so wonderful to share our farm with you. Wasn’t it fun that one of our mommy cows was nice enough to share the birth of her little bull calf with us too?

Thank you Lord for the beautiful day!

May 8th, 2016

Wow! What a gorgeous day it is today! I hope everyone was able to relax and enjoy this Mother’s Day weekend. I especially pray for people who have a hard time with Mother’s Day because of infertility or losing a parent. I have been down the road of infertility for too many years. I empathize with you. May God bless you and bring you peace! Psalm 113:9 Lean on this verse, I did. 🙂

The gardens are growing amazingly! The weather has been holding up well with the absence of rain. We have rain in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon and off and on in the beginning of the week. This should give the plants an needed drink and keep them looking healthy. We are trying to get as much done in the field right now because with rain it is not unusual for field work to halt for a while. That gives us more time to work in the greenhouse and high tunnels which are also looking amazing, besides the little weeds trying to creep in to them. We had our second little bull calf. Joshua named him chocolate chips. He is a cutie!

Our sheep and cows are out on the alfalfa on our property. We will need fill for the packing shed we are putting up and the best place to get it is from the field. This will ruin the alfalfa but we need level ground for our shed so we are borrowing some. By having the sheep and cows graze it we are getting the most out of this crop. Plus they are very happy there!
Construction on the pack shed starts this Wednesday. The excavators are starting with dirt work. We got the building supplies delivered last week. They are ready as soon as the ground is. Exciting times!
We had our first farmer’s market in Mankato. We have so many greens and radishes to sell. This is such a fun time of year when we start getting our first crops in. Yeah for spring!

April 30, 2016

April 18, 2016

Wow! What an amazing day! We finished planting all of the onions today and it took less than a week. This is a record for our farm. We could not have done it without all of our wonderful volunteers. Thanks you so much!!! There is a total of 20,000 onion sets in the ground, 45,000 onion plants we grew from seed and 8400 feet of potatoes! We also transplanted arugula, spinach and a whole bunch of kale. It was an amazingly productive day. Then we came in the house and one of my 21 emails started “Congratulations Jean!” and it wasn’t spam. 🙂 We were awarded the MN Department of Agriculture Value Added Grant. Yeah! It feels so good to know that other people think that what we are doing is worth supporting. We feel like we are doing an awesome thing but having this backing really gives us a great boost. Thank you so much MDA! We are so blessed!

April 3, 2016

Unfortunately our cookies were full so I was unable to update our website for way too long! There has been so much going on around here. We have had lambs, chicks, one bull calf, employees starting, volunteers visiting, a bursting full greenhouse, high tunnels being built and about half of our tunnels have crops in the ground! It has been extremely busy!

Our greenhouse is green despite the snow last week! It just costs a bit more to heat it. 🙂

March 17, 2016 (part 2)

Don’t forget about our annual Baby Chick Day!

Meet our baby chicks, baby bunnies, lambs, piglets, calves and tour our high tunnels and fields! We would love to show you around!

Free to members and non-members.

Sunday, May 22nd
2:00 to 7:00

Your favorite farm 🙂
My MN Farmer
35100 191st Ave
Montgomery, MN 56069

March 17, 2016

It feels like spring around here, despite the date on the calendar! The lambs are almost done popping their heads into this world, the greenhouse is 3/4 full, the high tunnel has its first baby plants in the ground, our baby chicks are here, our pullets are laying adorable little eggs, and the temp in the greenhouse is typically 60 or a lot higher. We are gearing up for another great season!
I could post 1,000 pictures but I will try and just post a few so as not to overwhelm your eyes. There are lots more posted on instagram and facebook. Enjoy these first peeks into spring!

February 16, 2016

It has been a wonderful winter and we are ready to go in our 2016 season. We already have our greenhouse turned on and we have plants sprouting. The first seeds to sprout were the kale but the cabbage, lettuce and spinach soon followed. It is so fun to see the little heads peek above the soil.

The lambs are due to start showing up in about two weeks. Then it will really start to feel like spring! We better enjoy our sleep now!