March 25 Friday Farming

Today's post was supposed to be about how we're terracing our garden this weekend, but the four inches of snow on the ground has pretty much nixed that idea. 

Growing things in Montana takes so much damn perseverance; just when you think it's spring the long tail of winter is there to bitch-slap you back into place. All you can do is laugh and adjust your plans. 

We'll have a bit of a conundrum with the Farming 2011 spreadsheet. It calls for me to plant things like spinach and kale and other cool-season crops when we'll be out of town. Looking at the 15 day forecast, it appears that I wouldn't be able to dig in the dirt till at least the second week of April anyway. So I'll shift some things, record for weather, cross my fingers and hope for the best. 

But god I'm ready for spring. We purchased a pack of strawberries at Costco a few weeks ago. They were probably shipped from somewhere south of Mexico, and really cost like a tank of gas to get to me. I felt guilty knowing how out of season they were. And then I ate one... it had no taste! I could have been eating bread for all I could tell. Totally disappointing. 

Tonight we're going to a meet and greet for Montana's junior United States Senator, Jon Tester. He's an organic farmer from Big Sandy, Montana. He's the guy who added provisions to the new Food Safety Bill last fall which ensure  local farmers who sell to consumers, local restaurants and retailers and who see less than $500,000 in sales a year don't have to go through Big Agri-Business in order to sell their produce. So basically, Farmer's Markets. I'm interested to see what he has to say. He's up for reelection in 2012.

On my home front, I'm trying to figure out what "found" item I can trellis my sweet peas up this summer? Maybe a half-buried tension curtain rod? hmm.