I’m just wondering if time could go any faster, I mean - here we are …. ending our first year of being an official farm in what felt like record speed. What an incredible year - full of continuous learning, hard work, and the MOST amount of satisfaction. Starting a farm during a pandemic, definitely had its challenges.

microgreens — *Microgreens, plants and flowers*

I had the winter to sift through catalogs to make my first order. My first order was massive, and I couldn’t wait to get going. We invested in grow lights and trays and started microgreen experiments. It did take a few rotations before I figured out a good grow cycle, learning more about grow mediums and nutrition. I created a spreadsheet with all the plants for the season, days to maturity and last frost date. I have a list of everything I needed to start and when. Pretty soon, I had 6,000 plants growing in my basement. Yea….

*Finishing the barn*

As winter turned to spring, we focused on getting the radiant heat down in the barn, so the concrete floor could be poured. How great to see that finally happen?! We put some back breaking work into securing the barn - digging a rat wall (after the barn was built) - only to dig it every time it rained. Plumbing and radiant heat went down and then the big day for pouring concrete. We still don’t have heat in the barn because I’m still looking for a sustainable, cost-effective way - but hey, the floor is ready for us.

No Til soil prep - It’s important to us that we be a sustainable farm, to not disturb carbon sequestered in the soil. I bought food grade 100 x 48 feet plastic and we put one down in the front and one in the back to kill weeds and prep for our gardens. We left the silo tarps down at least 2 months and then we built the soil using compost and wood chips.

Sowing and Irrigation - This one was another good challenge. We purchased rain barrels - see the post here to learn more. We set up automatic watering scheduling and used our barn roof to collect 1200 gallons of water.

Cooler - Once our harvest started coming in and our refrigerator was at max capability, Burke built an 8x8 walk in cooler. He framed and isolated the room then using a Coolbot and a 5,000 btu air conditioner - we had our walk in cooler. Worked great and was a welcome addition!

Wonderful Tiny Farm stand at the Dexter's Farmers Market.

Farmers Market - We started the season at Dexter’s Farmers Market as they had room for us. We also contacted Chelsea and was put on a waiting list as they had reached max capacity for produce. Worked out pretty great at Dexter, and we met some amazing local farmers and began some new friendships.

Young boy with baby chick — *Chickens*

Burke built out the chicken coop, installed automated lights and door, vents and nesting boxes. Our chickens have the Cadillac of coops, I think. We brought 18 new baby chicks of different breeds and became chicken stewards. Currently, the are grown, sassy and give us plenty of eggs. They are let out for several hours a day to forge for their own food - and everything they eat is organic.

Barn Party - In September, we had our first barn event and invited family and friends to a WTF Extravaganza celebrating missed milestones and my Mom’s 75th birthday. I found a cater who used our farm fresh products for the meal and used a local beef farmer for a fabulous meal. We had a DJ and it was great to share our new home and farm to family and friends.

Vertical Farming - When the farmer’s market was coming to a close, I was asked if I would do the winter market too. At first, I said I wouldn’t, but after thinking about what I could grow and sell during the winter, took me down the rabbit hole of microgreens and hydroponics. I had already set up the microgreens station, but now I was in my head about hydroponics, so I started researching and studying and have set up experiments in the basement. I currently have most every hydroponic system in place (deep water and nutrient filled transport) to see which one will work for us. I do love several components of hydroponic farming - A) no weeds B) no bending and C) water reduction and efficiency. I have questions about the amount of carbon burned, how to make it organic, and what is the total cost. I think renewable energy is the way - but what does that look like.

Greenhouse - One of the big purchases this year was our greenhouse. We purchased a 64x24 foot greenhouse from Grower Solutions. We didn’t get in time to get it installed this fall, so it’s scheduled for the spring - which was a blessing in disguise because it gives me time to think about what we will do in there. For now, we’ll focus on getting the geothermal, double insulated poly up for maximum insulation to increase our harvest months. But …. definitely, I’m thinking hydroponics.

Microsoft Global Hackathon — *Where’s the data? Farm Insights*

Every year my employer hosts a global hackathon where 60,000 of their employees hack for good - and you pick the challenge. This year - I got to take 3 days from work to hack on my farm insights project. I worked with a team from around the globe and we came up with IoT sensors running off a raspberry pi to collect data on sunlight, moisture and temperature - and I’ll probably add PH too. I’ve got energy meters on my basement operations to measure energy consumption and cost and I’d like to find an automated way to store the information for later analysis.
The goal is to understand how much carbon our farm is using and look for ways to reduce that number. But first, I need to understand what the number is and what it means. More on this …

It’s incredible to think about what we’ve accomplished in one year and I look forward to Year 2. The one thing that really surprised me is how very little profit the local farmers make, this thing that is so important to communities - growing delicious, nutritious food that doesn’t travel 1500 miles to get to your doorstep. The story of local food needs to be elevated and farmers need to be able to make a suitable living doing this very important job. Hope you all will join me and vote by using your dollars and buying fresh farm foods from your local farmer.

Here’s to 2022! Looking forward to our business goals of:

Building the greenhouse while figuring out how to keep our heating off grid.
CSA - Build our first CSA program.
Increase yield for 2022 and look for partner opportunities.
Report carbon data and look for way

Year 1 Review

Rain Barrels!