There is a pile of plastic bins stacked up against the desk in our workshop.

These bins contain all of our hopes, our goals, our plans for 2021.

These bins contain all of our seeds!

There are seeds for more than 500 varieties of 41 different vegetables along with 30+  flowers and a few handfuls of herbs. (I explain in a previous post why we grow so many different things. See https://thiessenfarms.com/2020/02/17/csa-2020/)

There are too many seeds to count – but from these seeds we expect to grow enough plants to fill more than 4 acres of our farm, plus a few thousand extra plants to sell & donate.

All these plants should (potentially) produce enough vegetables, herbs & flowers to stuff 150 CSA boxes every week this summer, feed a lot of hungry customers at our farmers’ market and fill an occasional restaurant order.

No pressure – on us or the seeds!

Of course seeds just want to grow. Our job as farmers is to provide them with the right conditions for growing – especially warmth & moisture. We seed in trays which are placed into this germination chamber. It’s just a styrofoam box that is heated with a slow cooker that is plugged into a temperature controller which turns it on & off as required to maintain the proper temperature. The slow cooker is filled with water which provides not only the heat but also humidity. It works great!

Once the seeds have sprouted they are moved to a small greenhouse attached to the shop where they can grow & flourish. Our first peppers, tomatoes, eggplant & onions are up!

From now until the middle of September (approx. 29 weeks) we will be seeding something every few days.

And we never lose our wonder at the miracle of a tiny seed sprouting, growing and yielding an abundant harvest.

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Another new beginning this spring – Thiessen Farms has a new owner!

Amy has purchased the farm from her parents. She is now the 3rd generation to farm this land. Of course Ron & Lorie are not going anywhere (yet). It’s basically business as usual here, but we are all quite excited about this! Please wish Amy well when you see her.

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Around the farm …

The cover crops have mostly died down through the winter and this patch will be ready for planting later in spring.

This will be one of our main growing fields this season. In 2020 it rested from vegetable crops and grew a cover crop all year. Then we spread manure, leaves & compost in fall. We will lightly work it and grow vegetables here this summer.

We will begin pruning blackberries anytime now.

We have enjoyed some lovely sunshine recently.

This fox wandered through our backyard last week.

The Flynns are so done with winter & cold weather! They are getting a little testy with each other at times.

But after some time apart …

They hang out together again.

Sage on the other hand is mourning the end of winter & her beloved snow & cold.

We are still accepting applications for our CSA this summer.

Please sign up soon!