Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Busy winter Planning
Most people think that we spend the winter sleeping like bears or taking it easy and having fun. Just the contrary! In the last week we have finished the seed order, and already have had some of the seeds delivered, designed a few drafts of new labels for our grocery store herbs, researched UPC symbols for our products, researched and ordered a new high tunnel - much like a greenhouse that will lengthen our season and increase our yeild - researched and are now ready to order the components for a cooler that will extend the shelf life and safety of our products when delivered to grocery stores and restaurants, updated the web site, cleaned the classroom, spoke to a group of 4-H'ers in Edinburg about growing herbs and gardening projects and the list goes on! We have yet to plan for the 2009 classes and events so any input you have would be welcome. If there is a class you'd like repeated or didn't get to attend in the past, now is the time to let us know. We'll be cutting back the class schedule in 2009 as we have a lot of construction and a few new customers to deal with on the wholesale end and there just isn't enough time in a day. Don't worry though, we'll still have classes and events - just not one each week.

This summer we will finish the therapy gardens. The completion of this area will make us fully accessible to wheel chairs, walkers, and those with special abilities or limitations. We'll also have to erect that high tunnel - good thing the community members have offered to help!

Tonight I will go to Rugby to help them kick off their American Heart Association Wellness challenge. I will be teaching a series of classes on eating local, fresh, and organic. There will be 6 classes held every Monday from the end of January to April. We'll look at ways to shop in your own home town for fresh, local and organic foods and ways to keep on living a healthy lifestyle without dramatically changing the way you cook or eat. It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to it.

This month is a hectic one for us with something booked on the calendar almost every day. I have lots of vacation time from my job at MSU-Bottineau to use - I just can't seem to find time to use it. I'm hoping that later this spring I can sneak away for a day or two to show our little dog Ida in the Rally Obedience ring in the twin cities or Fargo but we'll just have to see what comes. For right now - we're just bobbing around trying to keep one step ahead of this growing business!

Please be sure to drop us a note or keep in touch. If there is anything we can do to help you plan for summer excursions, classes, events, cooking, etc. - contact us! We always love to hear from you. In the mean time I'm sure our winter is going to go by way too fast - soon we'll be planting rosemary and lavendar and putting up temporary greenhouses in the classroom for the herb babies. Stay Warm!