Family Photos

So, we needed a new family photo for our 2011 CSA brochure. The most recent one we had was from Christmas 2009, in which we were all wearing colors that completely clashed with my brown and green brochure design.

We asked Camille to take some portraits for us, and she did an awesome job!

We donned our BCF shirts, all except Dad, who for some reason doesn't have one yet. Not sure how that happened...

Dad and Jacob kept us in stitches by making lame jokes.

Gotta love Jacob's grin...

And of course, MJ had to be in the picture too.

Voila! We got the brochures back from the printer, and they look great!

We need to post the new brochure on our website, hopefully that will happen in the next couple of days. Then y'all can see the whole thing.

-Tricia Ann

Emilie

Family photo shoot post in progress...

-TA

Lots and Lots of Seeds!

I just placed our big seed order for the season. I think every seed company in the world has found out that we are farmers, so we get all of their catalogs in the mail. We have gigantic stacks of them piling up everywhere. I have three favorites - Johnny's Select Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, and High Mowing Organic Seeds.

It's my job to look through them and decide what we'll be growing. So, I spend lots of time reading descriptions of various vegetable varieties, looking at pictures, and comparing types. I choose varieties based on flavor - the best tasting, size, disease resistance, and the number of days to maturity. I also try to pick ones that will thrive in our region. And sometimes I pick ones just because I think they'd be cool to try, like golden beets or red okra.

It's fun, and sometimes I get carried away. I went through four catalogs, circling tomato varieties that I wanted to grow. But when I counted them, there were something like 35 varieties! Obviously, I had to narrow it down. I think I ended up with about 13 varieties.

A few of the new things we're trying this year are (click on the links to see pictures):

Sanguine Ameliore lettuce - a bright green butterhead with red speckles

Orangeglo watermelon - a large melon with bright orange flesh, considered by many to be the best tasting watermelon ever

Lemon Drop tomato - a light yellow cherry that won the Seed Saver's Exchange 2010 taste-test

Purple Viking potatoes - a white-fleshed potato with bright purple skin

And lots more...

We'll be growing around 150 varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers!

My three favorites

Seed order, page two of four

Mickey wondered why on earth I would take pictures of papers when I had such a cute kitty to take pictures of.

Up next will be a few shots from our family photo shoot. Stay tuned!

-Tricia Ann

Leeks

Here are the leeks I planted in the greenhouse a couple weeks ago. I was a little worried about them, since it took so long for them to germinate, but they came up beautifully. I've been really excited about growing leeks since I read about Eliot Coleman's method of growing them. They'll grow in the greenhouse until they're 1/4 to 1/2 an inch in diameter, hopefully sometime in late April. Then they'll be planted outside. So, check back then to see Mr. Coleman's leek transplanting method.

I planted two varieties of leeks - King Richard and Megaton. "King Richard" just sounds like an awesome leek (That's why I ordered it...or one of the reasons, anyway). "Megaton"; however, is not prepossessing at all. Who came up with that name? It sounds like something from Power Rangers. Did they think that someone would see the name "Megaton" in the seed catalog and say, "I HAVE to grow that one!" ?

If all goes well, you CSA members will have leeks in your baskets in July or so.

-Tricia Ann

There are about 37,000 seeds in this 1/4 lb packet.

Christmas Pictures

Here are some pictures from Christmas.

-Tricia Ann

Christmas Eve eve at The Brick, Jacob's favorite restaurant.

He ALWAYS gets...

Getting ready for Christmas Eve dinner

Ahhhh! A balmy Georgia Christmas :)

Washin' all that TN mud off

I love this mirror. It's so much fun.

I made creme brulee, and Jacob torched it for me. It took awhile to get the hang of it. There's a definite art to it.

Voila!

The Un-Cookies were especially good this year.

Cousins reading Luke 2 before opening presents

Eggnog clean-up ;)

Back at home, we had a surprise on Christmas morning. We didn't have a Christmas tree, so Daddy drew one, complete with the red stand that we've had ever since I can remember.

Gimli LOVES to open presents, even if they're someone else's and have already been opened.

Since we don't have much room around here to celebrate, we went with our grandparents to Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant in Franklin. The food was awesome! Go there if you get a chance. Here's mom with a huge, delicious pizza.

After lunch, we went to see Tangled at the theater. I really liked it. :)