2010 Kicking Mule CSA is SOLD OUT!

And we have you to thank! We are pleased to report that we have filled our available shares for the 2010 CSA season. We look forward to growing food for 15 shares and our local community farmers market this season.

I have attached some photos of our work in progress on the hoophouse. Our goal is to have it up and ready by the end of this month. Our house is full of seedlings of celery, red bulb onions, leeks, various tomatoes and eggplant and peppers. Green shoots push through rich soil at first slowly, and then overnight seem to burst towards the light. We urge them along and give them a helping hand in the watering department.

The snow is all but gone now. I have to say I don't mind if I don't see it again soon. This winter was long and I am absolutely loving the sunshine and warm up that we have enjoyed lately. I cannot wait to get into the garden, and we already have a list of wonderful friends that are gearing up to come and help with planting. We are blessed.

Thanks for your support!

March in MN

We are almost to spring and almost filled with memberships! Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have quite a few new members that have heard about us from last year members, which is the highest compliment we can hope for. Thank you for your trust in us, we are gearing up for a great season.

We will be in the April/May Seward Co-op publication, The Sprout, which will give co-op members a bit of information on our farm and our CSA. We will be at the Seward Co-op CSA Fair on April 24. If we have not personally met you yet, please come to the fair and meet us and many other CSA farmers from MN and WI. We know a few of the other farmers and it should be a lot of fun to see what everyone is up to. If you are still undecided about where you are going to get a CSA, it is a great place to make an informed decision, as there are loads of great hard-working farms represented there.

Currently we are busying ourselves with starting seedlings and getting our hoophouse up and going. Frances played the part of sow midwife last week as her grandpa welcomed 11 new piglets into the fold. She sat directly behind the sow and caught piglets, taking them to the mama to nurse. I see large animal vet in her future! Miles is working on the pork side of things and helping his grandpa with their website and blog for his enterprise, Miles of Pork. In Stephen's "spare time" he is installing a new bathroom with a tub! Oh glorious bath tub!!
Life is good and we continue to count our blessings. Winter has been hard this year, as poor weather has made for many days spent indoors and not many visitors or visits. We are looking forward to spring!

Here are a few photos from the season:

2010 CSA Registration time is here!

2010 is here! Sign-up for for a share of our vegetables, fruits, and herbs soon to reserve your space.
To print a copy of our registration contract, click it to open in a new window; then print it from your browser.
Return the completed contract to us by mail along with your deposit.
Thank You, Molly and Steve

Winter 09-10

We are in the middle of a very cold spell that has followed a very snowy spell. Over our Christmas break we received 24+ fresh inches of heavy, dense snow. This through most of our plans for family out the window, but allowed us to slow down and relax as we found ourselves homebound until a plow finally rolled through. Our friend Val arrived after the plow, bringing with her snowshoes which made the snow fun again. We tracked miles through it, right across fields surrounding our home.

Now cold has settled in, yesterday when I got up the courage to check the air temperature I found it to be -27. The animals are doing quite well, the horse and mule have grown their winter coats and the chickens have lost interest temporarily in being "free range" and have opted instead to hunker down, or roost down as it may be, together. Ah, January in MN.

We have started working on our upstairs bathroom project, and even the kids joined in the demolishing of the old walls last night. We found a wonderful resource in Marshall, MN; it is a reuse store of sorts. We purchased a window and are on the lookout for a sink and tub. We also finally installed baseboards in Miles' room.

In Novemeber Stephen took a spill from Blackie, the Kicking Mule. He broke his wrist in a way that has required eight pins and a plate. This has slowed down our farming plans a bit, but we are still ready and anticipating our growing year. We ordered seeds this week, which I wanted to share with you to give you an idea of what will be growing.

As far as fruits go, we plan to pick mullberries and strawberries. The strawberries were planted last year, and should produce enough to send at least one weeks worth this season. Mulberries are great used quickly on oats or cereal. We are hoping for some apples, plums, pears, and perhaps cherries as well.

Here is the list of vegetables:
Green bush beans
golden and red beets
a spring and fall broccoli
brussel sprouts
green cabbage, napa cabbage and choi
carrots
spring and fall cauliflower
celery
sweet corn
pickling and slicing cucumbers
orient express and rosa bianca eggplant
dino and red russian kale
5-color swiss chard
collard greens
leeks
garlic
green bib, red leaf, and green romaine lettuce
spinach
cante and honeydew melon
red and yellow onions
sugar snap and shell peas
red, orange, mini yellow, and jalapeno peppers
yukon gold and adirondack red potatoes
pie and carving pumpkins
easter egg, d'avignon, and diakon radish,
zephyr, flying saucer, and sebring summer squash
delicata, butternut, honey bear, spagetti, and sunshine winter squash
cherry, roma, and heirloom tomatoes
sorbet swirl, little baby flower, and sweet favorite watermelon
rapini
thai and italian basil
sage
italian and curly parsley
oregeno
chives
dill
mint
cilantro
rosemary
thyme

We order most of our seeds from Johnnys Seed Company. Their web address is www.johnnyseeds.com. We anxiously paged through their 2010 calender and found our favorites from last year, as well as some new additions. If you notice anything missing from the list that you would love to see, please don't hesitate to let us know. As I have said before, we are growing for you and you are our priority.

From all of us at Kicking Mule Farm, have a wonderful new year!

2010 Kicking Mule Farm CSA info

Hello all!

First, thank you to many of you that have already contacted us expressing interest in our CSA for the 2010 growing season. We are very thankful to have your continued support.

I wanted to give you the little bit of information that I have so far regarding 2010. We are hoping to have 17+ deliveries, beginning in June and ending in October. We will have many of the same items we had (though some will be new experimental varieties) as well as garlic, more sweet corn, and the possibility of egg, chicken, and pork add-ons.
We will continue to deliver to Seward Co-op in Minneapolis, as well as Redwood Falls. We may explore a Farmers Market in Lucan as well.
The box size will remain the same, 1 1/7 bushel...which is a LARGE box that will feed 2-3 vegetarians and 4-5 omnivores very comfortably.

The price will be $450 for Minneapolis delivery, with a $50 discount if you pre-pay by Jan. 15. Yes, this is early to get payment, but it will allow us to order seeds, boxes, and finish our greenhouse early to get a nice jump. We may offer an additional fall-share as well (heavy on squash, greens, roots, etc.) but we are still working out the details.

If you are interested or know someone who is, please email us at: stephenmollymiles@hotmail.com. We will be adding a link to download an agreement. WE will be offering 15 Minneapolis shares and 5 Redwood shares.

Thanks again for your love and support, and happy eating!

Week 15--The last of the season

It has come and past. First and foremost, thank you so much for your support this season. It has been met with trial, the occasional error, and a whole lot of growing. We appreciate your support, kind words, and constructive criticism. We hope to see many of you back next season as well.
Stephen forgot the leaflets for each box this week, so I will do my best to remember what we sent this last week:
parsnip
rutabaga
red bell peppers
various hot peppers--Hungarian carrot, jalapeno, and Serrano
banana peppers
Yukon gold potatoes
suprise green bunch--dino or red Russian kale
Japanese eggplant
Rosa Bianca eggplant
green cabbage or brussel sprouts
sage
parsley
Thai basil
butternut squash
delicata squash
red kuri squash
pie pumpkin
bunched yellow onions
and a jack-o-lantern if you requested it.

We will be in touch and let those of you that are interested know what is shaking later this winter. Again, thank you for trusting us to feed you. Let us know what you liked, didn't, and would like next year (garlic is already way on the top of the list). Being a small CSA, you have a big say in what we grow.
Next year we hope to have more of the same, things that get requested, as well as the beginning of our orchard fruit and eggs and farm raised chicken as add ons.

Thanks again,
Steve, Molly, Miles, Frances,
Pippi, Cosmo, Super,
Blacky and Timmy,
a whole bunch of chickens and
a few roosters.

First Egg!

Holy cats! I finally get to report that we found our first egg in the hen house last night!! Hopefully there is more to come because I would love to send a few with each share this week. Keep your fingers crossed for fresh eggs! Go hens, go!