Holy smokes January went by fast! Time really does fly when you are having fun! Just what fun have we been having?

MICROgreens by BHG

Today marks week 3 of our microgreen subscription service. So far our members have received pea, broccoli, and mizuna microgreens! We have enjoyed growing all these varieties but much more is in store for the next 5 weeks! Our members will receive sunflower, cabbage, wheat grass & we hope to squeeze in some basil as well!

Our microgreens are a source of pride here at BHG. Since they are grown indoors we watch them everyday. Watching them grow has been a really special treat. Even Mr. Bain Home Gardner (who doesn’t excite about much in the farm world) has expressed how nice it is watching them grow. About a week ago he installed a Wi-Fi Smart Plug just for our microgreen lights. This splendidly takes the place of a timer and if for some reason the lights need to go off earlier than we have already discussed with the Google Home device then we simply say, “Ok Google, cut off the plant lights.” and viola! It is pretty neato!

We are excited that many are embracing microgreens! They are packed with nutrients and really under rated in our neck of the woods. It brought us so much pleasure to see this article in the February issue of the Alabama Living magazine! It has some great tip and info for those who want to grow microgreens for themselves. If you need anymore assistance we would love to be of assistance to you. Just email us any questions you have and we will do our best to help. If you want us to grow them for you we can do that too! This week we have pea microgreens available over on our listings page – so GOOD!

YouTube Content

You may already know that we have started a YouTube channel. This is something that has been in the works for quite sometime. I remember the first time the idea was presented to me. I was completely adverse to it! I was like, “NOPE – WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT?!” What happened? Well in short, COVID! Of course as farmers we do not have more time. However, with so many moving towards digital shopping, even for produce, we wanted to show our customers where and how their food was being grown so we began to record “Weekly Check – Ins” since we are not accepting farm visits. This allows us to be as transparent as possible with our community while remaining safe! Then we realized so many were joining the grow your own food movement and we wanted to help so we begin recording “Weekly Tip” videos. All these were posted to our IGTV channel. It was only one more step to make it official at this point – so we did! We still upload content to IGTV but some of our content is exclusive to YouTube. Have you subscribed? We would love to have you join & follow our journey!

Clean Starts

This year we are doing our plant sale bigger than we ever have before and the star is of course our Clean Start plants! This year we are even including flowers! We have already begin to plant peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and tomatillos since they tend take a bit longer to fruit. By the end of the month we will have started leafy greens, flowers, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini! Keep in mind these are the very same starts we use here so you best believe you are getting some high quality starts! You can see our tentative list of Certified Naturally Grown starts here.

Planting & Growing

We have planted nearly everything in the last few weeks! There is no way we can list it all! However here are some honorable mentions:

• Lettuce has been nearly completely devoured by pests each time we have planted it. We always manage to get a family salad or two but this past year the pest pressure was HORRIBLE. This year may be no better but we are focusing more on examining our crop daily to hopefully stave off disaster. If it all works out we should be adding our salad blends to our listings no later than mid-March.
• Carrots are growing nicely. EVERYONE loves a homegrown carrot! We hear you Wiregrass and have doubled our carrot planting this year! Come Spring there should be plenty enough to go around for everyone!
• Kale has been planted and we love watching those little curly leaves grow! We direct sowed it because it is the easiest for us to grow. The lacinato, rainbow, scarlet and flat leaf varieties will be started this month along with our other starts and transplanted in about a month.
• Turnips are growing nicely. If however you are looking for the larger Purple Top turnips, you will have to wait a bit longer as they take twice as long as our salad turnips which will be ready in March. Purple Top will be ready in April IF all goes well.
• Beets are the least favorite food we grow. We grow it because we know it is good for us and if we are in a pinch (experiencing anemia or fatigue) we will blend it into a smoothie and chug it! We cannot deny the health benefits. We really plant beets for YOU! We are experimenting with some new varieties this year and hope to be able to bring you some sizeable ones this Spring!

Updates

We regret to inform you that Shena’s Baked Goods page will not be opened this month. We have some training to do this month for which we have to prepare for so we are removing some things off our plate so that we can benefit 100% from our upcoming program. We will promptly reopen March 8th. This is also why we are not doing any weekly newsletters until the week of February 22nd. We will, however, post what is available on our Facebook page. Our Farm Sampler basket should return that week as well.

This Week’s Listings

We just did a farm walk through as the sun set. While walking the dog we came across this interesting little fungus called Stinkhorn. We find it kind of cool and kind of creepy at the same time. Our eldest just stopped and yelled out, “Umm, mom? What is this upside down carrot looking thing?” as he bends down to touch. Getting close I immediately recognize what this is from the many posts I’ve seen on Facebook. I exclaim, “NOOOO! Don’t touch it! It stinks!” Well it is supposed to but there is no noticeable odor as yet. Still it sits in the front yard just as pretty as you please! Now on with the produce…

This week we are taking Cilantro down from the page. We will be harvesting what is left and drying it over the next week or so. We will have the following available for ordering:

• Parsley
• Swiss Chard
• Mustard Mix (in very limited supply)
• Dill
• Sweet Snap Peas
• Pea Microgreens
• & our host of jams, jellies, and spice blends & sauces

Remember if you are ordering multiple items we can supply you with an invoice.

Well that’s all folks. See you in March when it officially BECOMES SPING! AAAAAAAHHHHH – FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!