Coming to a market near you ... the Blue Schoolhouse Farm!

Just when you thought it was safe to go online … out of nowhere comes a new posting on the Blue Schoolhouse Farm blog! Yes, that’s right. We’re back. Mercy, Bill, Noah, Ben, whatever cats are currently living here, and various family members who drop in for extended stays. I really don’t know how you were able to make it through the long, off-season months without hearing about our madcap farming adventures. Ha ha!

The off-season was great. Here’s a quick recap: Noah did well in kindergarten, Ben passed his kindergarten screening, both boys took beginning swimming lessons, Bill made 100 pounds of sausage, and I ran the first-ever Champaign-Urbana half marathon with friends. That’s it! Six months in one sentence … I find that to be oddly comforting.

Oh wait, I forgot that Noah learned the “F” word! Now that’s been fun. Noah came home last week and announced, “Mom, I learned four new curse words today.” I said, “OK, what are they?”, expecting him to list off something innocuous. Oh no. And the rest of this paragraph is R-rated for adult language … Noah answered, “Fuck.” Just like that – totally matter-of-fact. I about fell over. It’s really weird when your little baby (OK, he’s almost 7!) says something like that. I gasped and said, “Well, you’ve hit the jackpot. That’s the big one. The one you can never say again. You just say ‘the “F” word.’ Where did you learn that?” I was expecting him to say that he’d learned it on the bus from one of the big kids. (6th graders will say anything, as you know.) He told me he’d read it on the back of some playground equipment. I guess that’s what we get for teaching kids to read so young! Anyway, I thought I was clear about him never, ever, ever repeating that word in front of me or other adults when he asked “What does the ‘fuck word’ mean?” Once again, my jaw dropped. I told him, “It’s the ‘f word.’ You don’t say the whole word. And in any case, I’m not going to get into details. It means different things depending on how you say it. Just forget about it.”

I thought that was it until we came back from the field later in the day, and Noah had written the “F word” (spelled out, of course) in chalk on the sidewalk along with a list of words that rhyme with it – duck, luck, buck. You get the idea. He had turned it into a little language lesson. On some level, I was glad to know that he could rhyme and spell so well! And we haven’t had any further “F word” incidents since then. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

And while we’re talking about the boys, both Noah and Ben have become big fans of clip-on ties. They found one in a box of clothes, and they’ve never been the same. We had to go buy two more at the resale shop just to avoid a fight over the one they found. They wear them everywhere (Menards, for example and with anything (ever seen a clip-on with a t-shirt?). I feel like I’m living with two little Alex P. Keatons.


In farming news, our new field along Walnut Creek is beautiful. The soil is much looser than our upper field and we expect great improvements in our crops. Time will tell, but right now things look really good. Things in the greenhouse look wonderful. Check out the beets! We’re also including a pictures of the shooting stars (native prairie plant) that we grow in front of our house. It’s our 4 square foot attempt at “landscaping.”



And how have you been? You’d be surprised how often we think of you. And I mean individually. Like “Oh boy, customer X would knock over a little old lady to get this arugula!” So we’re very excited to start bringing you the vegetables that you love in the 2009 season. The first market is set for next Saturday, May 16 from 7:30 a.m. until noon. We will have our stand in the same place, although parts of the market will be relocating to the south side of Washington. You’ll figure it out as soon as you arrive – no worries! (Although you do need to be careful when crossing Washington, as traffic will not be blocked.) This unusual reconfiguration of the market is brought to you complements of … THE RECESSION. The recent economic downturn has hit the City of Bloomington in the pocketbook, and as I understand it (which is always sketchy) they needed to cut back on the expensive overtime costs required to have city employees close off Main Street west of the history museum.

As you have likely noticed, this spring has been a bit wet. From what I hear, a lot of farmers are about two weeks behind with many crops because they weren’t able to get out into the fields at the typical time. Bill managed to get things into the ground here and there when there were 24-48 hour periods of time when the soil was dry enough, but it was really nerve wracking. We called in reinforcements (Read: Friends who are too nice to say “no”) for potato planting, and I spent hours on my knees one day rescuing the garlic from the weedy oats that were growing through last season’s mulch, which was cut too late due to rainy weather issues. I’ve also been spending lots of time in the greenhouse weeding the beets (which look fabulous!).

That’s all to say that we’ve had our challenges this spring, but it’s still looking awesome out there! For the first market, here’s what you can expect:

Beets
Green Onions
Green Garlic
Nettle
Salad Mix
Carrots
Onions
Celery Root
Black Spanish Radishes
Rutabaga

Note that none of the above will be available in great quantities, so I’d advise you to get to the market early. You may want to consider a helmet and elbow pads just in case other customers get frisky over the limited offering.

As always, if you have questions, give us a call at 309-467-9228 or shoot us an email at bluescoholhouse@yahoo.com.

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday!
Mercy