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Getting Ready for Springtime - Planting, Gardening and More
221 Plays11 months ago
On this episode of the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast, Mathew and Carissa share their excitement for the upcoming Springtime growing season. During this episode they discuss things to consider when preparing to plant seeds for the springtime, helpful tips from their own experiences at the farm and more. There is so much to consider when beginning a garden and considering growing some of your own food that it is imperative we take time to consider what we want to grow, how we want to use what is grown, and schedule the planting, growing and harvesting tasks so that we can be successful and have an enjoyable experience.
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Transcript
Introduction and Inspiration
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast. Little Way Farm and Homestead is a regenerative and educational farm in southeastern Indiana. Motivated by the Catholic faith, we strive to inspire, encourage, and support the development of homesteads and small-scale farms in faith and virtue. I'm Matthew. And I'm Carissa. We're excited for you to join us on the podcast.
Spring Preparations
00:00:23
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of the Little Way Farm and Homestead podcast. I am extremely excited because the weather is warming up, the snow has melted, and spring is nearly upon us, which means it is time to begin starting seeds and preparing for the springtime growing season. And that is fun, it's exciting, and it's incredibly encouraging as we reflect upon winter leaving us and the summertime approaching.
00:00:50
Speaker
And so we thought it might be a fun episode to talk about preparing for the springtime, including what do we need to do to prepare for growing season and getting ready for the harvest?
Homesteading Challenges and Solutions
00:01:02
Speaker
What lessons have we learned on the farm over the last year or so that other people might be interested in as they prepare their own gardens this upcoming season?
00:01:12
Speaker
Well, I want to start by talking about lessons learned in general because this was a particular is still a little bit of a particular topic to me that makes homesteading intimidating and scary and
00:01:28
Speaker
gives me reason to pull back and not be willing to go all in on it. So what it is that makes it scary to me is looking ahead to the new year and being afraid of like, what are we going to mess up? Are we going to do too much? Are we going to put too much on our plate and get burnout and feel like failures or want to give up by the end of the year? And this has been my biggest
00:01:52
Speaker
my biggest hold-up in our journey in homesteading and our farming journey so far. And what I'm learning though is that this is simply just a part of life. Every year you try new things, you do the same things that you've done in the past, but you're always learning, well that didn't work so well, we need to switch it up and do it just a little bit different.
Efficient Farming Systems
00:02:15
Speaker
Even as simple as
00:02:16
Speaker
the routine of our how our day works sometimes we're like okay we're eating lunch way too late everybody's getting cranky and we need to move lunch up earlier so it's really just the same thing on the homestead you're gonna take on new animals or plant new plants and you're gonna figure out that you mess something up and you have to readdress it and do it differently the next year and it really doesn't have to be scary and intimidating it's just a part of life so
00:02:44
Speaker
I'm excited to look at the things that we've done last year and the things we want to take on this year and just really be able to see. Well, we had some poor infrastructure or we didn't put enough effort into our fencing and that's really where our time and efforts probably should go this year as well as improving like how we're getting water to different animals.
00:03:05
Speaker
Yeah, I do think that systems are something that people can all consider as a way of improving their experience, not just in how much they're actually able to grow, but also, and very truthfully, just in your overall experience of gardening or of raising animals.
00:03:21
Speaker
And what I mean by that is every day when you carry out a chore, whether it's weeding the garden, giving water to the animals, you're engaging in some sort of a system. Now, some systems are not very thought out. And that's where we found ourselves for quite some time, which means that we did things very difficult in a very difficult manner. I carried a lot of water and five gallon buckets to animals for a long time.
00:03:45
Speaker
This year, I hope not to do that, and we intend to install certain irrigation systems and watering systems so that the amount of time that we spend watering animals is significantly less. Last year, we did something that was, I think, really wise, although we may not have thought it to be very wise at the time, which was that for our large-scale commercial gardens, we installed a wobbler system on an irrigation
00:04:10
Speaker
pathway for those gardens. And a wobbler system is a specific type of irrigation that strives to mimic rainfall and it strives to reduce the amount of water that's spread overhead and it results in evaporation. And the way it does that is by mimicking a gentle rainfall that kind of graces upon the ground.
00:04:31
Speaker
This is in contrast to what many people may consider for large-scale gardening where they'll use drip lines. Drip lines don't spray overhead at all, but they also involve a lot more irrigation line in order to get out to more of their cropland. And so systems like that are really important.
00:04:49
Speaker
And it comes down to anything, how you intend to tackle weeds.
Weed Management and Crop Selection
00:04:53
Speaker
Many people become extraordinarily discouraged when they start to plant things because they have to or they choose to till up the soil the first year that they garden. And when you disturb the soil in that manner, you will experience weed pressure.
00:05:08
Speaker
And when you experience weed pressure, sometimes those weeds grow more quickly and more abundantly than the thing you actually wanted to grow. So you've got to answer, how am I going to handle these weeds? And one answer that is not always conducive to a family life is to say, I'm going to go out there every single day and weed every garden or weed all of the garden. That's really difficult. So how are you going to handle weeds?
00:05:33
Speaker
One way we learned how to do it was to plant an abundance of annual crops or cover crops that could smother the weeds out. And that works extremely well. And I strongly encourage people do that. But one thing that I also want to recommend people do is as they're planning their gardens, and maybe that's a good tip right there is to plan your garden out and
00:05:53
Speaker
think of what you want to eat and how you want to bring what you grow into your household so that you actually use it and it doesn't just become waste in the field or compost is what are some things that you are excited to grow?
00:06:09
Speaker
You know, there's something to thinking, well, we want to have the most calorically dense food available in the event that we struggle to get to a grocery store or we can't buy food from a local farm. And that's great. And we'll do that too. And one thing we're focused on this year is growing pretty much all of our food from meat to dairy to all of our produce. I think the only
Benefits of Homegrown Produce
00:06:30
Speaker
exceptions will be things like salt and sugar, probably.
00:06:34
Speaker
Actually, we may have a little sugar through sugar beets and sorghum. We don't have an established bees or maple trees or anything that we can get a good source of sugar from, but we're going to try some sugar beets and see how that works. One thing I think would help people is to make sure that you grow things that you are excited about.
00:06:57
Speaker
As in, if you see a tomato variety that is particularly unique or exotic, but it'll grow well where you are and you're excited about it, try it out. Have fun with it. I would say coming from me, somebody who's never been particularly passionate about gardening, that has always been Matthews.
00:07:21
Speaker
passion and it's something that i've learned through him and alongside him and i've grown an interest in it over the years but i don't particularly come in as the passionate gardener in our duo but so for me something that has helped me like you're saying is to find
00:07:40
Speaker
fruits and vegetables plants that you're excited to grow and that you're excited to taste. And so I think about the flavors that most interest me, which tends to be more fruity flavors, sour flavors. And I look, I read the descriptions of different plants and I pick out things that seem like they, it might interest me. And I'm really excited to
00:08:03
Speaker
plant something new and try it and see if I like it and then if I do like it, how can we use it? And I think it's been fun trying out different varieties and finding the things that we grow have so much different flavor than what you get at the grocery store. And so it's just simply exciting to watch something grow and be able to discover the flavor that exists in all of these plants.
00:08:29
Speaker
I don't think I ever honestly really believed that I enjoyed tomatoes until we first started growing tomatoes and we chose some heirloom and unique varieties. And it was to the point where I think I could have eaten them just raw, not cooked into anything or mixed in anything. The flavor profile was so pungent and so delicious and they varied so much between one another.
00:08:55
Speaker
It was almost unbelievable. It was nearly like eating them for the first time. And what we found is that that's basically the same story across all varieties of everything. Produce, fruit, especially meat. I can say the meat is that we produce that we sell. And I think this has been echoed in a lot of our customers.
00:09:19
Speaker
It tastes so different. It's hard to even compare it to what is available in a commercial grocer. And it's not a grocer's fault. It's the production method, the genetics, the feed that are being given to the animals in a way that their lives are carried out all the way up to processing. And that is the exact same way, I think, for produce, for fruit, for nuts, for anything else that you eat off the farm.
00:09:43
Speaker
it tastes so much different. And there's certainly ways that people can do it that are less than optimal. And I think we all can appreciate the need and the desire to really produce good food at this point. And the really exciting thing is, let's say you want to come to us at the farm at Little Way Farm and Homestead and you want to purchase produce from us or meat from us.
00:10:04
Speaker
and we're honored and we really appreciate if you do, but we also strongly encourage you to begin growing in your own backyard because the geography of where you live will help to create a little bit of a different flavor profile and a nutrient profile in your food than even what you can get from us.
00:10:23
Speaker
And I think there is something there that is important to helping solidify the importance of growing your own food, supporting your own family, and encouraging those productive activities that you can do either as an individual, as a couple, or as a family unit. And that is so awesome. So I hope to encourage everybody, even if you drive to us or pick up food from us, we want you to also grow your own food. And we'll show you how we're that excited about it.
00:10:52
Speaker
which is also partially why we raise heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables so that you can buy from us but also your seeds that you get from what we grow can be planted and used again in your own backyard or
00:11:09
Speaker
your kitchen window wherever you are able to plant. I agree that that's something I really hope to encourage other people to do. Find even one thing.
Cultural Connections and Family Experiences
00:11:19
Speaker
Put a tomato plant on your patio or some herbs in your windowsill, whatever you can take on because there's also this sense of pride that comes from being able to raise your own food
00:11:34
Speaker
that can't be replicated from buying like the highest quality food anywhere else that being able to know like I tended to this plant in the small ways that we do it's not it's not huge things that you have to do to
00:11:49
Speaker
steward the life of a plant and let it grow and then harvest its fruits. And being able to take that and put it on your own table and feed yourself or your family is something that can't be replicated. So I highly encourage everybody to plant something this year to grow for yourself, just to be able to have that experience and to be able to taste the difference.
00:12:10
Speaker
One tip I'll give people is a way of seeing all the way through the challenges that might arise during the planting season or the growing season or the harvesting process is to really think of something that you want to make in your kitchen and share with friends and family from your own culinary efforts. Think of something that you want to bake or cook or serve your friends and family and then work towards growing those ingredients.
00:12:35
Speaker
So, for example, maybe you really appreciate pasta sauce and noodles and spaghetti and you really enjoy serving that and that's something that you want to work on. Well, consider planting an appropriate variety of tomatoes so that you can see those tomatoes all the way from seed to the dinner table.
00:12:54
Speaker
and you'll feel the satisfaction and the wonderful experience of knowing that those tomatoes were a part of your experience in gardening all the way through your work in the kitchen and ultimately are serving not only a nutritious meal to your family, but a delicious meal where you'll have wonderful conversations over and experiences with your friends and family. That is one of the ways I think we really need to understand how and what to
Planning Planting and Harvesting
00:13:23
Speaker
grow.
00:13:23
Speaker
It is extremely easy to get the seed catalogs in the late winter time and early spring and get so excited about all the different colors and all the different varieties of everything that we buy in things that we actually will never use.
00:13:39
Speaker
So I strongly encourage, look at what it is that you do cook and what you want to cook. And let's start thinking about how we can grow some of the produce and even raise some of the meat. And if you can't do that, or maybe your life circumstances don't lend you to easily doing that,
00:13:57
Speaker
That's where someone like a small farm can come in and do that. That's where we come in. If you're within a driving distance of us or we're able to ship to you, we would love to provide those extra things for you, especially the meat, because we know it's harder to raise pigs and sometimes chicken and cattle on your own where you live, because your living situation might not be set up to raise cows. But even if you live in a place where you don't have any land at all to work with,
00:14:24
Speaker
you can still use a balcony or a patio or some even warm space with access to sunlight inside of your residence where you can grow things. Even if it's just the basil that goes into that pasta sauce, you can contribute in some way to that meal from your own efforts in growing the food.
00:14:47
Speaker
and the satisfaction that you get from it, the new flavor profiles, the pungent and the power of those flavors and the nutrition associated with them is so inspiring. And I strongly encourage everybody to think of something that you can grow that you will in fact use.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah, you're making me hungry just thinking about all of the food we're going to grow this year. I'm really excited about it. And just a little example to go off of what you're saying. Um, my dad told me recently that he, he got some tomatoes from the grocery store and he made my grandma's old ketchup recipe, which my grandma had a couple of things as she got older, that she continued, she grew up on a farm and then
00:15:35
Speaker
Obviously, like she transitioned into suburban life and didn't raise her food as much as she had growing up. But there were some things that she stuck to and she canned every year and she made every year. We always had ketchup. We always had homemade jams and applesauce.
00:15:55
Speaker
And since she's passed, it's things that my family always remembers and misses. And my dad decided to make her ketchup recipe a couple months ago. And just being able to taste that and have those memories come back to us about my grandma and all the times we would sit around her table eating her food that she made.
00:16:16
Speaker
sparked this passion for him that he decided he's going to grow tomato plants this year so that he can make her ketchup and share it with our family so that we can bring her memory back into our meals and that we can enjoy that food together and i think that's such a special thing and it's so simple it's one plant it's it's tomatoes and to clarify the ketchup is not a condiment ketchup it's more of like a tomato base for pasta sauces and soups but
00:16:46
Speaker
I think that's a wonderful idea. And I think that everyone can think of one small thing like that, that they can grow and they can make a meal or add it to a meal and just having that joy of being able to provide that out of your own backyard and serving your family.
00:17:07
Speaker
And those stories are the type that are incredibly inspiring, I think, because they help to extend this idea of genealogy and culture, and it keeps things moving in a positive way in the home. So often, food has become reduced to just something you have to do to stay alive. I just need some extra calories in order to make it through the day.
00:17:28
Speaker
But the reality is food can be a sort of catalyst for bringing the family together over intensely delicious nutritious food that has a story of production behind it that you are connected to the planting the harvesting and then the use of those things.
00:17:47
Speaker
And there's something in there that can help to bring people together or support people coming together. And those stories are incredibly powerful for being able to call back to your ancestors and who your family is and where your family has come from.
00:18:02
Speaker
and where you want your family to go to. And obviously we all want that to be heaven. And it's such a powerful way that has been so overlooked in modern lifestyle. It's become very sorrowful that it has. But the amazing thing about it is you can begin that cycle again or pick it up from where it is by simply choosing to plant a seed this year. And that is an incredible story of hope and possibility.
00:18:31
Speaker
So let's clarify, what are some things that people can do right now in the coming months to prepare for food this spring and this coming season? Well, if you want to grow your own food this year, one thing you can do and you need to do so as soon as possible is consider what it is that you want to eat in your home or things that you want to cook and then decide which of those recipes do you want to begin growing the food for.
00:18:58
Speaker
This is incredibly important because one way of continuing to motivate you through the growing season, through all of the challenges that you might experience, is to continue to have things that actually are brought into your home that you will use for some reason. To either cook, to turn into a value-added product and sell, to use in your home for something else, whatever it is, it needs to be something that you will actually use.
00:19:23
Speaker
Another thing that you can do now is to consider what you want to grow and go ahead and order seeds today. There are an allotment of amazing seed companies out there that you can order from today, but you want to go ahead and get those seeds ordered so that you are ready and prepared.
00:19:40
Speaker
There are some seeds that if you want them to get started and be usable in the growing season, depending on where you live in the world, you probably need to begin getting them started. For example, peppers and tomatoes and onions all can benefit from being started indoors many weeks ahead of the last frost.
00:20:01
Speaker
The last frost is the last time where we expect reasonably based on historical patterns that you're going to have a frost. Because a lot of those annuals, those are things that don't overwinter and come back continually on their own, those often will be killed by the frost. And so we start them indoors in the late winter or in the early spring, and then we move them outside and we plant them.
00:20:26
Speaker
Examples of them, as I said, are onions, peppers, tomatoes, and many other varieties of annuals. And so if you want those to be productive on your property and to be done so in a reasonable time, you need to get those seeds potentially very soon. We live in southeast Indiana, and so we will begin planting onions
00:20:48
Speaker
and peppers at the very last week of January. We'll begin tomatoes the first week of February and we have a whole schedule of over 60 other varieties of plants that will begin sporadically up and through April.
00:21:05
Speaker
Another thing to consider is based on where you live in the world. You are located in a space with a particular number of average growing days. Growing days are the number of days available where that you have access to reasonable amounts of sunlight and other weather conditions that will allow you to
00:21:27
Speaker
to have a reasonable expectation for growing that particular crop. For example, we grow a lot of pumpkins in the autumn time in order to sell to customers in the autumn time but also to use as animal feed for various animals across the farm.
00:21:43
Speaker
It takes about 90 to 100 days to grow pumpkins. So that means we simply need to know, do we have enough time left in the year to grow those? When you receive seed packets and you buy them, there's going to be seed starting instructions often included with them written on the package, or you can look those instructions up online.
00:22:03
Speaker
And what you'll often get is the earliest date that you can start those plants. But just because you have the earliest date to start those plants does not mean that that is when you have to start those plants. You'll often see this on things like tomatoes, where you can start them six to eight weeks ahead of the last frost.
00:22:22
Speaker
You could also start them later. You just have to be mindful of the amount of time left to grow those plants. How many days does it take them to reach maturity, which means that they are producing their final fruit or they're nearing going to seed where they would be at the end of their annual lifetime.
00:22:40
Speaker
And so as long as you have enough days remaining in your growing season where you live, you can still grow those plants. So it's something to be mindful of. When you get your seeds and it says how early you can grow them, don't necessarily feel pressure to grow them that early if it doesn't make sense for you.
00:22:59
Speaker
But pumpkins can be grown very early in the season, but that's not necessarily when we always want to use them. So we have to time it so that we can use them when we want to harvest them in order to sell them or use them for animal feed or for our own culinary needs. And then you also can be mindful of the storage potential for particular foods and crops and meat.
00:23:22
Speaker
A great example is it is the middle of winter now. It's the late January time and we're just about to begin growing again for this upcoming year. And yet we still have in storage quite a large amount of pumpkins and squash and even watermelons from last year's growing.
00:23:41
Speaker
And so think of what you can store as well as when you can grow, how many days you have in your growing cycle, the number of days it'll take for maturity for the plants that you want to grow, and be very generous with yourself about your expectations for growing.
Local Sourcing and Community Support
00:23:58
Speaker
Grow things that you will use and also grow things that are fun and that you're excited about.
00:24:04
Speaker
Yeah we particularly always enjoy growing watermelon because it's just so fun for the whole family to go out and see as the little baby watermelons just pop out and then we get to go and check on their growth every couple days and it's just something that's always been really exciting for us to to get us out into the garden and checking things out and then you're out there so then you go and look at the other plants and
00:24:31
Speaker
grab a couple weeds while you're out there, harvest something that you see. So having those particular plants that are exciting to watch grow and to harvest and bring in and eat is always helpful to add to the garden. Another tip that I just want to encourage people in
00:24:49
Speaker
For the items that you can't grow or raise yourself, I really want to encourage everyone to start thinking outside of the box and stop using the grocery store as so much of a crutch for your food sourcing needs.
00:25:07
Speaker
Obviously, that's how a lot of us have known to source all of our food. But what's been super empowering to me is to push myself to think outside of that and to try to understand how to source my food locally. And that requires a lot of digging around and research and asking people where they're getting stuff.
00:25:31
Speaker
And just like planting and maybe growing your own food, you don't have to source everything in the first year locally. But even finding one thing, like one place to get your pork, one place to get your beef, your chicken, obviously we have lots of local listeners that we love to come out and support us and let us support your food needs for your family. But
00:25:58
Speaker
Finding your local farmers, it might not be as local as you want at first, and that's okay too. But I think that it does a lot for our mindset to be able to get back to thinking about sourcing locally. And another huge aspect that it adds to is it helps you to remember what it means to eat seasonally. Because all of the fruits and vegetables are not available to us naturally.
00:26:27
Speaker
year long and being able to remember and understand when different fruits and vegetables are growing. And even some of your meats, it's not as easy to source certain things at all times of the year as far as meat goes. So starting to think about buying meat in bulk so that you have the meat throughout the year, because that's how a lot of farmers, small farmers are raising the meat.
00:26:52
Speaker
And it's another good reminder too. I think often it's incredibly intimidating for people to buy food from a farmer. There's certain barriers sometimes that are in place there and conversations with butchers and in different processes that can be very uncomfortable. I do wanna say, folks like us who want to make a living selling food to other people and helping others learn how to farm, we wanna make it as easy as possible for you.
00:27:20
Speaker
This listenership is located all over the world. My phone number is very accessible on our website and our email is available. If you have any questions about how to buy from a farmer, you can send me a text message, give me a phone call, or send us an email. And until that becomes so unreasonable that I can't answer every phone call,
00:27:41
Speaker
That's what we're gonna continue to do, and that's what we do. And so please, if you have any questions at all, just reach out to us, send us an email, get in touch with us. We want to help you. We are so passionate about this because we think it's not only good for the world, it's not just good for ourselves, but this way of living is good for our souls.
00:28:04
Speaker
It is a good way of living that supports our relationship in growing in communion with God and towards that eventual goal of being with Him forever in heaven. And that is why growing food is so important to us. And we invite everyone listening to find some way to become a part of that. Plant your own seeds, buy from a local farmer, come visit us on the farm this year when we do our workshops and when we do our classes, whatever it is,
00:28:34
Speaker
Begin today and start building that culture in your family and in your home wherever you are. And if you need any help at all, do not hesitate, please, to reach out to us. That is what we are here to do for you.
Farm Expansion and Community Programs
00:28:50
Speaker
So I just wanted to end this conversation with a few of our ideas and plans for this coming year for this spring and what I'm really excited about. I know one of the things that I am excited about is that we are hoping to bring some pigs out onto the farm in the next couple weeks, months, and it's a whole new animal for us. We have not ever raised pigs before. I have always loved them from afar. I think they're very,
00:29:20
Speaker
cute and unique creatures and I'm interested to see what they're like up close and I'm also very excited to have some pork that we've raised ourselves.
00:29:30
Speaker
Pork's gonna be wonderful. We've got, everything is being scaled up this year, effectively. Last year was a wonderful year. We met so many people on the farm. We hosted a conference. We had people that we have never met before that we are so honored to have met you all who have visited us, who have toured the farm, worked with us for a workshop, or bought food from us, produce and meat.
00:29:54
Speaker
This year, our meat chicken production is... I was trying to think how much it's getting bigger, but it's getting a lot bigger, and we're producing a lot more pasture-raised chicken, which is extremely exciting because it's a super regenerative aspect of the farm. And we've also found a unique way of not having to feed them any soy. Everything is non-GMO or organic in feed. And this year, we're even moving away from corn for them, which is extremely exciting.
00:30:22
Speaker
because we think it produces a healthier meat. We'll continue to have beef for everyone. Well, I shouldn't say for everyone, but we'll continue to have beef available as quick as we can. We have a small beef herd and the beef goes really quick. So if you're ever interested in beef from us, you got to put your name on a list so that we can get in touch with you as we have it available, because that's just one of our things that does not stick around for long. It's hard to keep it in stock even for our own family. It goes so quickly.
00:30:51
Speaker
Pork is going to be awesome. I'm excited to add goats and sheep by the end of the year as well. And then also considering adding some turkey this year to provide turkey for people in the autumn months around Thanksgiving time. And then one of the things that is extremely exciting is that our garden space is getting even bigger.
00:31:11
Speaker
For those of you who have visited us, sometimes it's a little overwhelming how much garden space is in cultivation. And we do remind people that it's not just for our family, it is commercial. We sell produce to others and we sell produce wholesale, specifically garlic.
00:31:27
Speaker
And this year we're adding more garden space, a few more thousand square feet, and we're increasing our use of cover crops, our favorite of which continues to be buckwheat due to, well, it's a whole other episode on buckwheat, why I love buckwheat so much, but it is such a powerful cover crop to use during the spring and summer months on the farm.
00:31:49
Speaker
And overall, system improvements across the whole farm. And I guess even beyond that is I am ecstatic to introduce some of our summer programs for children and for adults across the farm this year. And we'll talk about that in the next week, I think is when those will be released, as well as our upcoming farmer network, which will be announced in the next week.
00:32:14
Speaker
And I am so excited about these things, not just because it's our farm growing, but because so many other people are getting into homesteading, into farming, and are being encouraged and inspired to produce their own food. And that can create such resilient communities. And it is a foundational element to strong societies. And it's exciting to see what the future is going to look like. And whatever God wills, so be it.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think that one of the things that I am really excited for this year is the opportunities that there will be to meet more of our listeners and people that support our farm and have supported this whole adventure that we've been on and are looking to do the same things themselves. It was fun last year, but I know we have some really cool opportunities this year that we're going to be able to meet a lot more people.
00:33:11
Speaker
Oh, you know what else is gonna be really exciting this year? That is a little bit different and sometimes people don't think they can do this. We're producing grain this year for the family.
00:33:20
Speaker
Yes. For the family, we're seeing, we're going to try it out. We're going to see how it works, how much we can raise and harvest ourselves and store it. It's not something I don't hear a lot of people talking about taking on raising their own grain, but it is something that can be harder to source locally. So I'm excited to see how it works for us.
00:33:41
Speaker
This is going to be an awesome year. I am so excited from it.
Family and Farm Growth
00:33:47
Speaker
And I'm incredibly encouraged right now because the weather is getting warmer. And though we had an extremely mild winter, I'm excited for all of the things that are coming in the spring months and the summer months, and even all the challenges that I'm sure we're going to encounter this year. I'm excited for all of it. I can't wait.
00:34:05
Speaker
This might be also a good time to mention that we're probably pretty excited to add another little baby to our family this summer. Yes, we do have a fourth child who's going to be born in the middle of harvest season for garlic.
00:34:21
Speaker
which is why we're trying to start our peppers and onions and tomatoes a little early. Maybe we can harvest them and get them canned before the baby comes. But we'll see. Anyways, we thank you all for joining us again for another episode of the little way farm and homestead podcast. We look forward to announcing our summer program information, our growing schedule, and for contacting many of you this up in the upcoming weeks for meat reservations. If you're interested in that,
00:34:47
Speaker
And otherwise, if you have any questions at all, comments, suggestions, guest recommendations, or even if you're considering advertising on the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast, just send us an email anytime at hello at littlewayhomestead.com. Thanks for joining us and happy growing. Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast. Check out the show notes for more information about this episode and be sure to tune in next week.