Farm To Fork 2011

Wild Hare Farm is proud to be participating in this year's Farm to Fork
picnic at the Breeze farm in Orange county. We are very excited to be paired
with Acme Restaurant from Carrboro. Owner/Chef Kevin Callaghan is
fantastic and does a tremendous job supporting local farms. Come by and see
us and the great folks from Acme, plus check out the culinary delights Kevin
creates with our produce.

It's Tomato Time at WHF

We look forward to tomato season all winter and spring. We have
been harvesting several varieties, such as these beautiful Cherokee
Purples from our hoop houses for a couple of weeks now. The
volume of tomatoes is starting to significantly increase and within
another week or so we should also have field tomatoes. Here's a nice
look at some of our hoop house tomatoes.

2011 Piedmont Farm Tour

Wild Hare Farm is participating in the 16th annual Piedmont Farm tour. It's a great opportunity for us to show our farm to long time customers and to meet new folks.

We are a small sustainable farm and we are Certified Naturally Grown.

For more information on the Piedmont Farm Tour visit Carolina Farm Stewardwardship assoc web site.

Parrot Tulips

I usually add some comment about color or stem length or something to indicate how nice the variety of flower featured is. In the case of these parrot tulips it is simply not required. In a word, these tulips are awesome ! We just starting pulling these and should have them for roughly 2 weeks.

The little flower that could

If you are not familiar with ranunculus then check them out, if you are familiar then you already know, these guys are fantastic. They have a great vase life, come in multiple brilliant colors such as red, orange, yellow, white, pink, etc. They start as a small tight bud and open up to look very similar to a rose. Needless to say, they really brighten up a room. We have these now and should have them through Easter, possibly a little longer.

March Madness

We are not talking basketball, although being in the heart of Tobacco Road with one half pulling for Duke and one half for UNC can lead to lively and interesting debates. The cats can't help break the deadlock as they all pull for the Clemson Tigers (go figure) and the poodle pulls for the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The Wolfpack was not really an option for the poodle as both the Duke/UNC members have thumbs and either one of us would take him the animal rescue shelter if he started any of those howling shenanigans and wolf finger puppets like they favor in the RBC Center.

Getting back to the topic, March Madness for us is 3+ days of above average temperatures (close to 80 deg) and all our tulips think it's summer. Not a great picture from my cell phone, but that is an 8ft table. About 3 inches deep in tulips across the 8ft span. The table was covered not once but 3 times in about 2 hours on Sat morning alone. Trying to harvest and process hundreds of tulips in an hour then get them in the cooler before they blow open is our version of March Madness.

Pink

Normally I like red, orange, yellow in tulips, but the pink tulips we had this year were just bad ass as you can see from the picture. Oh yeah, the whole time I was pulling them I had Pink's "Get The Party Started" running through my head, go figure.

Greenhouse Ballet

Our Greenhouse is small, very small. It is a conventional Quonset style house, uses a propane heater with 2 layers of poly, etc . There are several reasons for it's size: minimum space to heat, construction cost, matches our hoop house frames, as well as others.

We pack it. I mean cram it full of tray starts, flowers in crates. I've even considered using duct tape for ceiling attachments. I am kidding about the duct tape, but barely.

This all sounds great, small tight house which uses less gas which is good for our wallets and the environment and it's easier to manage as everything is all in one spot.

Now comes the tricky part. Watering. Luckily we are both skinny (even though we both eat like wolverines). It requires a dance somewhere between ballet and a halfback coming through the line of scrimage.

When our greenhouse is completely full, it sometimes require both of us to snake the hose through the house around crates and benches along our tiny walk ways. Motions have to be planned and choreographed to ensure nothing is broken, knocked or in general trashed.

We should sell tickets for cheap entertainment as some form of demented farm version of Cirque Du Soleil. Folks would of course have to sit outside and watch through the door as there is no room for them inside the Greenhouse.

Tulips for Valentine's day

"They're Here". Our first tulips of the 2011 season, just in time to give to your sweetie for Valentine's day. For Saturday's market we also have paperwhites and anemones. We'll hope to have tulips of various colors and types through April.

Paperwhites

For market this Saturday we'll have several bunches of cut paperwhites along with turnips, radishes and spinach. The paperwhites are a clear white flower as the name implies, they are fragrant but not overpowering and will add a little early spring ambiance to your home. Quantities of produce and flowers will increase as warmer weather approaches so be sure to shop early.

The days are becoming a little longer and our work days are increasing as well. We are busy filling our greenhouse with seedlings and tending the crops in our hoop houses. We are also attending more farm related meetings/presentations. However we still have time to sit by the wood stove and enjoy a good book.....for a little while longer.

First market of 2011

Tomorrow will be our first market of the New Year. Should be a chilly start to the day but we are looking forward to seeing everyone. We'll have turnips, radishes, spinach and some very pretty paper whites, some of the nicest we have ever grown.