Above are some nest that have formed this year. At left is the tail feathers of a barn swallow sticking out of their nest, in which the eggs are yet to hatch, at center is the nest of some robins that tried to nest in our tool lean-too, but we were able to move their nest, along with the hoe it was on into a nearby mulberry tree, and 2 of 3 eggs have hatched, and at right is the nest of a goose, in the hollow of an oak branch that was downed a few years ago. The goose picture is the oldest, the nest has now been abandoned, and we think a hawk or fox killed either the parents or just the babies.
After that is some of workcrew from our workday on saturday.

I forgot to take a picture of the first CSA box, which was a bit more substantial, but here's one of last Friday's:

I was trying to do an entirely picture recipe, but I forgot to take pictures. So the recipe is 1/2 pound garlic scapes, 1/4 to 1/2 pound kale pictured at right), 2/3 cup oil, 1 1/3 cup walnuts, 1 teaspoon salt, and two hot peppers. Then blend or food process or whatever. It tastes good on it's own, or on bread or pizza or pasta or something.

Potluck Schedule
Pesticide Monitoring Field Day
Farm Update

Though we take pictures here on the farm from time to time, it's been fun these last few weeks to have someone that's pretty skilled come and do pictures, and Radford (the person taking the pictures) is great fun and also pretty nice. This is a big project for him, and i'm not if he wants us to repost his pictures, but you should definitely go have a look, here's a link to his portfolio of our farm, from which you can see his other nice portfolios as well.

I'd made cookies with mint before, but for these I decided to strain out the mint leaves this time(cookies on left), though I then used the refuse leaves to make some more cookies (cookies on right)

in this newsletter you will find:
1. Farm Update
2. Request for Farm Labor
3. Potluck Information

1. Farm Update
So last Alice and Nate have been hard at work, tilling, removing trees from cages, putting up the electric fence, and cleaning up our shed for the new year. Other people have been doing things as well, last wednesday we had a somewhat successful grass burn, which should help some of our prairie seeds germinate and grow a little better. Also, Saturday, we had a big work crew out, and we prepared a lot of beds, planted all of our onions, some of our broccoli family crops, and a bit of lettuce. The weather is a bit warm for this time of year, so in some senses we are behind, in that its earlier in the year than we often plant things like broccoli and potatoes, but it's been warm enough to plant those crops for several weeks now, and they might as well be in the ground.

2. Request for Farm Labor
Because of this, we're trying to get those things in the ground, which would go faster if we had more people. This

Saturday, April 7, 1-4PM
we will be having our next workday, and we'll be weeding raspberries, planting potatoes, and various other things. Feel free to come out and help!

We'll have another workday the saturday after that:

Sat, April 14, from 9-12 and from 1-4,
we'll be doing various other things related to food production.

More generally, Alice will be working most of this coming week planting, and would like help planting most of those days. If you'd like to help her out, give her a call at 515-460-1467

3. Potluck Information
Our next potluck:
April 13, at 826 Duff Ave, Ames, IA
Annie Thompson Heuscher and John Dean will will educate attendees about the coal mining practices in Appalacia and elsewhere and lead a discussion about motivations and effectiveness of activism going on to prevent the damage caused by this mining.

more potluck topics coming soon!

hi Everyone,

Today it is officially spring, though it has felt like summer for a week. what a strange year!

email summary (1. ag-arts event. 2. prairie burn. 3. carpooling to the farm. 4. rough farm schedule)

(sorry, i've lost the camera - hopefully there'll be some pictures soon!)

hi all,

This friday is our March potluck.6pm march 9 at Jennifer Garst and Steve Libby's house (708 brookridge in Ames - this is just north of 6th street by brookside park)

Above is a picture of our farm from last weekend. In the left row are dead pepper plants, with no cover crop planted. On the right, you might be able to see dead eggplants, but the main thing you can see is dead radishes, which we planted in the fall. The eggplants were quite pest infested and so the radishes were able to grow well for a good amount of time before the freezes killed them. In the left pic below, you can see dead peppers further down. Here, just to try it out, we scattered some rye and then surface-hoed a bit. It came up kindof sporadically, compared to the rye in the picture at right. We'll see how each looks when we cut it.