November on the Farm

We loved getting to see the Northern Lights!

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like November absolutely flew by. I always feel that the closer we get to the end of the year, the faster that it goes.

The tiniest Canterbury Bells transplants. They are covered well but the jury is still out on if they will survive.

As busy as October is for planting, November was much quieter on that front. I planted some additional foxglove, delphinium, and canterbury bells because the seedlings I planted earlier were destroyed by birds. These transplants were much smaller than I typically plant, so It’s a complete gamble at this point. If they live, great, and if they don’t, I will simply replant some more of them in early spring. Everything in flower farming is a great experiment to some extent or another!

I still haven’t planted tulips. They were late from the wholesaler this year and then I was busy for the next few weekends after they arrived. No worries—I figured I would just plant them over Thanksgiving weekend when I had some free time. Well, freezing temperatures and 7” of snow later had me rethinking that plan. The forecast shows some warmer weekends in a few weeks, so I will either plant them then or experiment with planting in crates instead. I’ve always wanted to try this method, so perhaps the early snow is forcing my hand this year.

Since I already didn’t have tulips planted, I decided why not order some new daffodil bulbs as well? (insert crazed laughter here). Each year my wholesaler offers a discount on remaining bulbs over the Thanksgiving weekend, and the deals were just too good to resist. Daffodils have been one of the biggest surprises to me—I used to think of them as only bright yellow and aggressively cheerful, but there is actually a huge variety in the daffodil and narcissus family. I’m very partial to the double-flowering and large-cupped varieties. Look for these in your spring CSA or in our farmstand for Easter!

(Please note that these are stock photos and not my own images)

One of my highlights for November was attending the National Agricultural Marketing Summit in Indianapolis. I’m so grateful to the Illinois Farm Bureau for giving me a scholarship to attend. I got to meet with a variety of other specialty crop farmers, members of state Departments of Agriculture, state extension employees, and a whole host of other people involved in local agriculture. I came away with some great resources on marketing tactics and tools—not to mention several new friends! There were several great presentations, but my favorite was a presentation from Healthy Harvest of North Iowa. Their website has tons of recipes that feature locally grown ingredients. It’s a really savvy way to connect people who are searching for dinner recipes to their local farmers!

Getting our Christmas tree from Bomke's Patch is one of my favorite traditions!

November was also a sweet time for some family time-- we had multiple Thanksgiving dinners, ate way too much pie, saw the northern lights, got our Christmas tree, and played in the snow. We're looking forward to the Christmas season here and reflecting on how thankful we are for the past year together.