Colette and Darrin are getting married this weekend, so we will have some extra guests on the farm, and a slightly different schedule. There won’t be a community dinner this Friday, the 17th, but we will resume the next week. Everyone is invited to our Friday dinners, for a meal at 6 and prayer and/or discussion at 7pm. Please feel very welcome to come to both or only one part, and come even if you don’t have food to bring (did I mention we have a lot of vegetables?)

Last week we harvested our garlic. Since they are planted in the fall, for a July harvest, this was our first garlic crop. It was a pleasant surprise, because some of the plants looked a little puny, but the bulbs look awesome - fat and heavy! Here's a picture of them hanging up to dry.

Now it is definitely summer. Spring lasted a long time and we had an endless supply of spinach and lettuce, but now we have summer clouds, summer storms, and fireflies. Martin was out the other night taking pictures of the fireflies (there should be a few more at the end of his photo album) before taking off on another cross country trip. We'll be glad to see him when he gets back. (Some of his other pictures show off the bugs better, but this one shows off the farm.)

Update
Here's what Nicholas sent out to the list, and i pretty much copied it word for word.

We have started delivering! On Friday we brought boxes to our first 4 members and also the food pantry in Story City, and tomorrow we will be harvesting in the rain to bring food for the rest of our CSA.

Our greenhouse: It’s been a learning experience, and I’m confident that we’ll need to keep making adjustments, but our greenhouse is up and operational. The modest size of 20’X12’ seems hard to fill with seedlings, but should be easy to fill with tomatoes and some fall greens. For now, it also makes a nice picnic area on cold windy days.
here's some pictures of our serious workers, Irene, Steve, and Nate:

Saturday 4/25

We got most of our potatoes in on Good Friday, and the last few on Saturday morning. All in all, with the help of a big Friday crew, and the steadfast work of my mom, Barbara and Nicholas all weekend, we got all the potatoes and onions in the ground.

hello everyone,

The ground is warming up, birds are returning and while we have still only planted things inside, farm life is picking up at the Mustard Seed. I know I have been itching to get into the garden, wondering if I should have planted things already, or if the weather would destroy anything I might plant and I should just be a little more patient. In the meantime, I've thought of something to occupy myself.