Happy Friday y’all!

We’ve got all hands out in the fields this cold and windy week and it feels good to be making big progress on a few large projects before the rain comes in and turns the fields into a muddy mess.  

These kind of projects are usually tackled by 3-5 of us, but for the last few days, we’ve had a crew of 8 and it’s been a pleasure to sweep through such grueling work.  Full days of digging clusters of dahlia tubers out of the soil, shaking the moist clumps of dirt off, cutting the stalks, loading them into crates, lifting the crates onto pallets, moving them across the farm, lifting them onto the top of a ramp that slides 15 down to the basement door, lifting them from the bottom of the ramp and carrying them inside, where we stack them floor to ceiling in organized columns for the winter. 

There’s a couple hundred crates each weighing about 40-50lbs, so everyone’s legs, backs, arms, and hands are quite sore from that and the digging, but not as sore as if we had a crew half this size.  It feels good knowing we’re almost done digging and storing dahlias.  It’s always a significant seasonal milestone.

This week we’ve also been digging all the mums out of two greenhouses and potting them up and moving them to our propagation house.  Additionally, we’re repurposing another greenhouse into a propagation house so we can create more mum babies to put into the hands of other growers.  That requires removing the beds, grading it level, covering the floor with landscape fabric, running electrical throughout for fans and lights, trenching for a larger water main, installing irrigation equipment (solenoids and a controller), and building 60 shelving racks for all the new mother plants to live on.  We’ve emptied out that tunnel, which is gratifying, but the buildout still lies ahead.  Some of it is happening right now.  

Speaking of mums, now’s the time to lock in your favorite varieties for your preferred week if you’re looking to grow some: https://3porchfarm.com/collections/heirloom-mum-plugs. They do sell out, so just wanna give y’all faithful readers a head’s up before pickings get slimmer.

Apologies for my absence last week.  My mom and dad, brother and sister in law, and Mandy’s mom and cousins were all visiting, so we managed to fill our bellies and enjoy each other’s company as much as we could and the time slipped away until I found I had missed my deadline.  Wasn’t much to report.  The crew had the week off, so nothing happened here anyway.

I hope y’all had a great week and a little extra time off to celebrate with loved ones.

Tomorrow, we’ll be treating our crew to an early Christmas party.  Low Country Boil, libations, and a bunch of games for the kids, that might devolve into karaoke by the campfire.  Was pretty hilarious seeing a bunch of kids in wigs and fake mustaches running around, looking all serious, with eggs on spoons last time we did this, so we’re hoping for a repeat of those good vibes.

That’s all for now.  The farm store is open today and tomorrow and we’ll likely have the doors open on Sunday afternoon as well. We’ll be at an art event at Comer Coffee this Sunday afternoon, so swing by there if you’re swinging by here.  They’re having drinks and food as well as Marco Battezzati’s art from 12-4 pm.

-Steve