The birds are singing. The flowers are blooming. Yes, Spring is in the air! After mottling through the rain and clouds that Winter offers in our region, Spring is a welcomed friend. Some of us just enjoy the beauty but others choose to get actively involved by planting a Spring garden. We of course are of the latter group of individuals. From herbs to flowers to vegetables – we are planting it all! This year will prove to be our biggest one yet! Why? Three primary reasons:
- Kith & Kin CSA: Beginning on April 7th Bain Home Gardens along with our sister farm, Hawkins Homestead Farm, will begin delivery of our 12 week CSA share. Our members can expect a variety of produce during these weeks. So we have planted many early crops and started later ones for our members.
- Our Family: When we began to grow our own food the goal was to feed our family. We have not lost sight of that goal. Currently we try to eat from the garden at least twice a week. Only twice not because of supply but due to time constraints in harvesting and preparation. This year we hope to increase how much we eat from the garden by doing more canning of things like Tomatoes, Cucumbers (pickles & relish), Okra (pickled), and Green Beans. Other items such as leafy greens, Squash, and Sweet Peas will be frozen in manageable sizes for ease of preparation. This requires more planting than every before!
- Our Customers: Since we began making our organic produce available to the public in the Summer of 2017, we have acquired many loyal customers and new ones every week! We truly appreciate them. We desire to have enough produce to supply them as well as our CSA customers.
As you can see from the three reasons listed above, Bain Home Gardens is definitely taking it to the next level. We have already cleared more space for planting and installed 2 of 4 new raised beds going in this Spring. Still, there is another reason for the mass planting.
As we farm, our goal in not simply to sell produce or even just to eat it. We also seek to educate and inform the public about ways to make better lifestyle choices for the health of their families. This is why we encourage everyone to grow their own food, even if it’s just one Tomato plant. This year we are seeking to educate even further. Just as we must carefully ascertain the source of our food we must also research the source of our plants, seeds, and soil. We have found that some very unsavory practices go into those beautiful Tomato starts you may see at your local garden center. In fact, the very soil that most of these are planted in is itself of a questionable source. Since we have yet to see an organic seedling in any of our local garden centers, Bain Home Gardens & Hawkins Homestead Farm decided – why not? We are happy to announce we are now making our plant starts available to the public! Like our other products, you can buy here on our shop page. Our Clean Starts product line is not something that will be seasonal which is yet another issue we have with garden centers. In our region we grow food year round so there is no reason why we shouldn’t have access to plants that are currently growing. Plants will be added to the shop page as they become available. Clean Starts is only supplying plants – for now. As we become even more proficient farmers, botanist, & educators we hope to offer more products.
To stay alert to what’s new and exciting here at Bain Home Gardens, please take a moment to follow our blog, Facebook, & Instagram pages! We promise more goodness to come – from our family to yours!