Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Here at Tubby Creek Farm, we are celebrating the arrival of a litter of puppies. Georgia, the tiny little wirehaired terrier mutt that showed up in early December had four healthy puppies two days before the New Year. We never expected the first on-farm birth to be puppies, but I guess it is good practice for the goats, pigs, and whatever other animals are sure to come. We have found a home for Georgia, but all four puppies will be looking for loving homes in about five weeks. Hint, hint.
As expected, the cold weather has wiped out all but the toughest veggies in the fall garden. The carrots, spinach, garlic, le
eks, and green onions are all going strong and waiting for spring. We hope the kale, chard and beets will make it to the other side with them. We are still eating fresh radishes, Romanesco broccoli, and salad turnips from the garden.
In the greenhouse, the onions are waiting for the soil to dry out enough to get planted. We have just started seeding spring crops like scallions, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and lettuce in the greenhouse. Twenty-eight 2-year old blueberry plants are in the ground. The pace of work is still laid back. We have had time to clear fence lines, build new greenhouse tables, and tackle other projects.
Planning on signing up for a CSA? Please hurry, we’re broke! Spring is almost here and with it a lengthy shopping list for the 2013 season. We need wax boxes for bringing produce to market; harvest crates (so we can stop destroying the wax boxes); blackberry, raspberry and muscadine plants and trellis systems to support them; irrigation supplies, and organic fertilizers that we need to buy in bulk for the season. Each of these things costs hundreds of dollars, and strangely enough we don’t seem to have any money. Your CSA deposit would sure help out. Better yet, go ahead and pay up for your Spring Share or the entire season. Remember, if you pay in full early there is a discount. Thank you in advance.
Join us on Pinterest. Want hundreds of recipe ideas for CSA vegetables in an easy to use electronic 
format? Follow us on Pinterest! Now Tubby Creek Farm has an online bulletin board at www.pinterest.com/tubbycreekfarm. When we find a recipe that looks good, we pin it to our board, which is organized by vegetable. You can easily browse images of the recipes. If you see one you like, simply click and it will take you to the webpage with the recipe. There are even tips and recipes for preserving herbs and vegetables.
Best value ever on Grass-Finished Beef. About a month ago, we bought a grass-finished steer from our neighbor, Bill Plowman, and split the meat with three other families. Hallelujah, is it delicious! While not Certified Organic, Bill’s operation is 100% forage based. His cows graze as much as possible and their diet is supplemented only by hay that Bill himself has grown. They are healthy, happy animals that spend their lives outdoors on green grass. No hormones, no GMO’s. Bill sells whole cows by weight for very, very reasonable prices. He then delivers the animal to a custom processor, who butchers the animal to the specifications of the customer on a cost per weight basis. Bill raises cows because he loves to. He doesn’t do any advertising or marketing. We wanted to help get the word out about his really fantastic product. If you are interested, we’d be happy to put you in touch. Please note that he is only able to sell live animals for custom processing.
