We enjoyed a nice warm-weather vacation last week on the beaches of Maui...now it's time to buckle down and get to work here on the farm. Wish we could have brought some of the warm weather back with us....our little spot of warmth here is the greenhouse. Note the broccoli plants which will be put outside this week. Today, we planted carrots outside and more broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, scallions, and eggplant in soil blocks in the growing room. Thanks to Kathleen's parents who take care of the chickens, egg collection, and plant watering while we were away.

We planted about 500 flower seeds tonight-one each in a sugar-cube sized soil block. The greenhouse is full of vegetables--lettuce, cabbage, bok choy, peas, beans, carrots, and potatoes--just a little experiment to see what'll grow. And, we sold our first dozen eggs to our own United Churches of Olympia pastor. Now for a little warmer and dryer weather......

Steve McCulloch, owner of Mountain Shadow Nursery brought us virus-free potato plants 'cloned' in his lab. The plants you see here are German Butter Ball. We carefully remove them from the test tube with tweezers and plant them in soil blocks. They stay in the warm growing room for awhile. We are testing this method to see if the yield is greater than from the conventional planting of a seed potato. But, speaking of seed potatoes, we planted 9 hills in the greenhouse raised beds this weekend along with some lettuce, peas, beans, and cabbage. Spring is coming!