End of the season--a post-mortem

Something Bill and I are really good at is discussing something into the ground. We can talk about a topic for hours, analyzing minute details over and over and over again. While it can strangle a relationship, this kind of musing for a business is pretty good. We try not to make the same mistakes over and over and are always trying to work smarter, not harder and finding a better way.

So, the season of 2007 is over. Done. Although, with the rain this week, we both thought about one more time......nah, I am done (for a while) with getting up at 5am on Saturdays. How did this season work out? Was it better than other years? What worked and what didn't?

Just to be clear, we only recently started keeping records of stuff that didn't matter to our tax lady. She doesn't care how many tomatoes we sell, just that we record everything correctly. She keeps us on track and out of jail!

In 2007 we:

• planted more acres than in previous years--we bumped up to the 25 acre mark
• brought back our CSA and started with 18 members
• opened markets in Peoria and Pekin as experiments
• were present at the market in Decatur all season (we only went about 7 weeks in '06)
• grew more varieties than before (I think about 30 or so--can't find my seed orders)
• planted 1,000 tomato plants-by hand
• germinated all transplants (in other words, everything except the corn) from seed at our house in Bloomington. Once large enough, plants went into the greenhouses at the farm
• welcomed my other brother, Jim and outstanding helper, Brenda as day laborers. They joined Shawn, Karen, and Kyle P. These five people (and some others that worked a few days here & there) are the reason all the produce got picked and ready for market.
• Had mostly women running the show! I got to be in charge for about 3 whole days while Bill was in Canada fishing and Larry was in WI fishing. Karen & Brenda picked sweet corn early in the morning and then came back to help with melons and all the other stuff. They rock.
• lost most of our early crop of watermelon and almost all but a handful of squash and pumpkins to the rains in July. We got about 8" in a weeks time and all this water sat in the low spot where these crops were planted
  

Next year, I am going to try to keep track of how much of something we haul around. During the peak season from mid-July to September, we picked an average of 500 tomatoes on a Friday night. Since at that time we had 4 truck going to different markets (Bloomington, Springfield, Decatur & Pekin), it got divided up according to market size. By the way, Bloomington far & away is our best market, dollar wise. All the markets are great, which is why we keep going to them and they all keep improving. We know other farmers who keep track of the poundage that they bring to market. This is something that I am going to attempt to try next year. I probably won't get everything, but it will be close.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good year. In farming, there is always something to worry about and once you think you got a problem licked, another one pops up to take its place. We'll have a short period of down time, then the seed catalogs start coming and we'll start ordering! I already have my garlic for next year and will be getting that in the ground after the weather cools off. Apparently Bill and I still have a lesson or two to learn from our garlic guru, BD.

If you've stayed with me this far, whatcha doing this Saturday? If you need pumpkins or other fall decor, run, don't walk to ISU's Horticulture Center's Autumnal Festival, Saturday, October 6 from 9 am to 4 pm. Our very dear friend, Jessica Chambers, is the woman behind this fabulous area and event. The Hort Center will have pumpkins and gourds, scarecrows and a corn maze. This is a great family outing with activities for the kids and lots of room to run and get up close to all kinds of plants. What Jessica, her students and other instructors have done the last few years to this little corner of ISU is just amazing. If you can't spend the day, drive by sometime. The Hort Center is located just off of Raab Road, past Lincoln College. Proceeds from the sale of the the pumpkins, gourds, and other fall items benefit the Hort Center. I'll be there and I hope to see all of you!