It's a new day at gardendwellers FARM.  That's right, we've officially moved.  Never fear, we'll still be here and ready to provide you with the fresh culinary herbs you've come to love, we'll just be doing it from a new and expanded location.  We've grown!  From 5 acres to play on to now 12 acres.  Plenty of room to grow, expand and have lots of fun. 

Our new location opens up all kinds of good opportunities for us and we're really excited.  I'm especially excited to begin growing in the great soil that comes with this place.  I wish we could get out there right now, till, plant, transplant and be ready to go.  Alas, old man winter has a few more months before he's ready to let us do that!

The new FARM has great views, great planting areas, big buildings, a great house and is close to our Minot market.  We have to admit, we're not sure yet what we'll be doing about your Grand Forks customers - still searching for a way to serve them this year but its a tough decision as gas prices are set to soar and time is limited when you're trying to cover almost a whole state with fresh herbs.  Keep reading in the future or watch our Facebook page for updates on where and when to find our product.

We of course will continue to provide herbs to our wholesale customers in Minot and the surrounding communities - so you'll again see us in grocery stores, restaurants and direct sale outlets. I don't want to spill the beans quite yet but we're hoping to be at the North Prairie Farmers Market in Minot as well.  We're really excited about that as this great market (voted North Dakota's Favorite Market of 2011) allows customers to use debit and credit cards making purchases more convenient.

We have much to do this spring including transplanting the small fruits and a few shrubs and perennials, moving the high tunnel and all of our equipment, tilling and preparing the new location and preparing for our 10th, yes 10th, year in business but it will be compounded by helping to educate a whole new group of customers in the Minot area.  Please forgive us if we don't offer classes or large group tours this year - we've got so much on our plate there just won't be enough time in a day.  We're hoping in future years to again offer our Agri-tourism activities and invite you to "Come Out And Play" at gardendwellers FARM. 

Here's a little update for you though, next week we'll begin seeding.  Barry and I spent a couple hours yesterday setting up the grow lights, heater and an enclosed area to give the babies just the right environment for great growth.  Every three years we replant our perennial herbs like sage, thyme, savory and chives.  This would have been year three anyway so starting fresh in a new location did not interrupt our schedule at all.  The perennial seeds will be started indoors and moved to our temporary greenhouses when spring gets a little closer and finally to the new fields by late May.  We have also ordered Rosemary and Italian Oregano plugs that will arrive in March and April.  Last year we had such great success and such beautiful Rosemary we wondered why we had ever tried to grow our own!  So we'll be continuing to order Rosemary plugs and this year, due to the increased demand last year, will be adding Italian Oregano.  Oregano is one of those things that when grown from seed you don't always get the best culinary varieties. It really needs to be started from cuttings to get the quality and flavor we're looking for.

So a big thank-you to all of our loyal customers who have been with us through our first 10 years and a great big 'hello' to all of our new customers we'll meet at our new markets, in our new neighborhood and in our new location.  We can't wait to serve all of you high quality, fresh culinary herbs in 2012.