January Newsletter: Happy New Year!!!!

We have been a little busy around the ol’ homestead so I’m just now getting around to newslettering today when it is a frogstrangler of a rain outside.

We can never seem to get all of a single project done at one time.  Instead, we have half a dozen projects strewn about the farm getting worked on depending on availability of parts, or tools, or if it is too windy or too wet, etc.

The one project we got started on and finished all in a row was making new cold frames.  Simple step by step instructions are probably available online somewhere, but, well, we’re us.  We saw a video, did some counting, looked around at the materials we already had on hand, and placed an order to have what was missing delivered from Home Depot, because they usually deliver the next day, and for free, up here.

Cold Frame Construction

And, of course, one of the parts we needed was wrong.  I’m not saying they delivered the wrong piece, we flat out ordered the wrong piece. So, we packed up the two dozen wrong things we ordered and drove to Scottsboro. Projectus interruptus.  

This is where I drilled myself in the thumb. Don't ever do that. ~S

You know that thing where the computer for the store says they have 20 of the thing on the shelf, but they really only have 12…but wait maybe there are more up high and the associate has to get the giant mobile scissor lift which requires a dude to drive it and two more dudes to act as the ‘safety’ watch…yeah, that thing.  Turned out they have thirty more of the part we needed, so we bought all they had for future builds.

Progress

The new cold frames will also be used for seed stratification since it gets cold enough in late January and February.  Stratification is not strictly required for many seeds, but quite a few of 60+ new herbs will get much better germination rates if you do. 

Seed stratification - just the January lot!

So anyway, here are the four new cold frames we built. 

Cozy!

They are hinged and spaced so I can access all the little plants that need winterizing before being planted out, but also need to be kept from frost. If you really really want step by step instructions, I could probably rough it out for you, just ask.

Open for that good rain.

Project two, planting 250 more willow starts.  Here is the thing about willow…it realllllly wants to make roots and grow.  They make rooting hormone powder from willow.  So instead of buying rooted willow this year, like we did in the spring last year, we bought sticks.  Twelve inch long willow sticks with a sharp end on one tip and two or three buds at the other.    Ground prep took longer than the actual planting.  We laid out hundreds of feet of 13 foot wide fabric mulch to be the weed barrier, and of course the wind lifted it up by morning.  So, our best friend on the farm, the landscape timber, got deployed along with replacing all the staples that came loose. 

Willow gets planted 1' apart. It seems crazy but it works.

So, the idea is, poke a hole in the fabric, shove 8 inches of the willow stick into the ground, and water it.  By spring, new growth and roots.  Yeah, well, not so much with the shoving.  We are doing this patch as a ‘no till’ area. We have found out over the last three years that sometimes tilling just brings up all the weed seeds that were too deep to sprout before we brought them to the surface. Which means, this ground here is as hard as a carp.  First attempt at hole-poking was to use a piece of rebar to poke a hole.  We needed a three pound sledge to drive the rebar into the ground deep enough, then three hands to pull it back out.  After three rows, we decided that was entirely the wrong tool. My bride, however, is brilliant.  One more trip to the hardware store later, we have a two foot long, ⅝ inch diameter masonry drillbit.  Which works like a dream.  We planted the next nearly 200 plants in the same time it took to plant the first fifty.  And because we can't seem to do anything by half, we realized we have a ton more room for willow starts, so we ordered another 600-ish from two different willow farms, just for variety. 

So many colors!

After those two projects, the rest has seemed simple.

We changed our greenhouse from a quaint and picturesque potting shed to a full on production factory for our seed starting empire.

Less pretty but more efficient. And if you can be one thing, you should be efficient.

Planted a ton of new fruit trees, and started a ton of new fig tree cuttings.  Next year, we should have over forty producing fig trees of six or seven different varieties. 

Green Ischia Fig

We also planted about 300 daffodil bulbs.  These are not for the you-pick section, but once they get established, I’m sure the flowers will be available as cut flowers.

Daffodils

We are planning three new gardens this year; a bonsai garden with maple trees, a dye garden with plants grown exclusively to be natural dyes, and  a ‘witch’ garden which will be mostly herbal remedy plants but also some that are not strictly for internal use but more like for practitioners.  (We will not be giving herbal lessons or practitioner lessons…you are adults and can do your own research and make your own decisions. But we will be happy to supply you with material when they are seasonally ready.)

Magick!

But all is not just prep work here at the farm.  We also take time to learn new things and network with other farmers.  The 2026 ASAN Food & Farm Forum coming up is going to be a good opportunity to do both of those things.

And finally, we just got word that the Huntsville Food Hub is aiming to be open again by February!  This means that Stacy will start taking bread orders again! This season, Stacy will be offering a single variety per week, rotating through Original Milk Bread, Cinnamon Milk Bread, and Pain de Lait rolls (which you can order in batches of 2, 8, or 16). As you can imagine, it is easier for her to make more of a single type of bread than to split her efforts into four different recipes and production times. Keep your eyes peeled so you don’t miss the first day of placing orders!

Pain de Lai rolls.

Also keep your eyes on our social media as Stacy will be working on a variety of chestnut recipes this year in anticipation of our fall harvest.

Chestnut chocolate flourless cake!

It has already been a busy and productive year.  Cheers to you all for supporting us, for supporting the Hub, the Food & Farm Collaborative (did you know you can shop them online as well??), and for supporting local farmers and farmer’s markets.  We all work our faces off, you guys make it worthwhile.