Spring is Almost Here!

11:01 AM Adrian 0 Comments

....and Mother Nature has made her timely decision to wait 'til this part of the year to give us the biggest dumping of snow we've had yet? Hmmmm. Mama Nature, are you doing ok? I'm a little concerned.

Many of our seedlings we started a week or so ago are big enough to transplant! We've got lettuces, beets, spinach, cilantro, pak choi, sorrel and kale all ready to go. Our alliums (onions, leeks, shallots etc.) are all being seeded, and I'm sure the garlic will be sproutin' up soon. Perhaps that's what makes this newly-laid blanket of snow so inconvenient! However, with the way this winter has gone, we'll just have to wait a few days for that upcoming, bizarre, rainy 60 degree day, and everything will melt. Seriously, Mama Nature....you ok? I've sometimes wondered whether the people running the weather websites are just going nuts and banging on their keyboards randomly instead of trying to make serious predictions anymore.

Good news, Echollective Farm has just joined the new Iowa Valley Food Co-op (IVFC)! If you're not close to Iowa City, or more specifically, if you live in Cedar Rapids, it's a good way to get your hands on our produce. Click on this link, Iowa Valley Food Co-op, to check it out and order some of our stuff, or even products from other local farmers. We'll put a permanent link in somewhere on our website. It looks like they have a lot of stuff available you can order monthly! Especially ethical, local meat cuts, which is more than awesome to have that available.

We've had a lot of WWOOFer and Internship inquiries recently, which is very exciting! We'll be more than happy to be hosting at least one intern this year, and perhaps a few WWOOFers here and there.

GrantWood Farmers Market is still open! So if you're in the area, and fiendin' for some local greens, potatoes, garlic or onions, we've got all that available. We've had a considerable inundation of spinach and braising mix from our winter plants, and we've begun selling our stuff to Iowa City restaurants, as well as New Pioneer Co-ops. If you wanna taste of our delicious chef-cooked greens on a special dinner night, by all means, head out to the Motley Cow or Devotay to try some! Or you can get some for home on your usual grocery run to the Co-op!

We are more than willing to be flexible if for some reason you can't access these outlets, so if you have a problem, please contact us!

As always for this time of year, CSA Signup 2012 continues! We've got 15 members so far, and we've got room for lots more. So y'all know, the CSA Flyer Sign-Up is temporarily unavailable. It seems that the sign-up part of the flyer is missing! Don't worry, we are trying to look for it. If you want to sign up, please do so electronically, or contact us.

Well, that's all the news we got. See ya next week!