My visit to Destiny Farms

This weekend, my parents came in to town to visit from Columbus! We're very close and I love to have them visit/ visit them, so it was great that they came up! Unfortunatley we spent 2 hours looking for Athena on Friday night, so by the time we finally found her (sleeping in a box under our bed), it was too late to do much of anything. Here's the culprit (Helo on left, Athena on right):

La la so we found her and went to bed, and on Saturday a lot of fun adventures happened!

• We picked up our 1st order from Karl Baer, meat guy :) We got 2 pork chops, a dozen eggs, some spicy italian chicken sausage, and a pound of smoked turkey breast. There were a fair amount of folks there to pick stuff up, which made me happy! Karl said he is starting a sort of meat CSA in March, and will be delievering to people's homes every two weeks, rather than going to 4 farmer's markets a week.
• Mike, my parents, and I drove out to Destiny Farms in Brighton to meet Mike and Joni, who are the owners and farmers! Before I ordered plants for the spring, I wanted to see the place myself. They have about 3 acres that they farm on, and it was impressive use of space! They have 2 green houses, about 350 chickens, some goats, turkeys, and a sweet Golden Retriever named Anna :) I feel really good about buying Michigan-grown plants from people I know. I placed my pre-order today, and I am eagerly awaiting planting time!!!
• We then went to IKEA, because is a trip to Metro-Detroit really complete without a trip to IKEA? I'll let you answer that :) I got to see some old co-workers (used to work there), and my parents bought some stuff. I ended up getting these cutes frames, for about $5 each, which was a pretty good price! Each year a local nonprofit, Growing Hope, puts out a calendar, with awesome locally-grown food pictures for each month. I decided to use the old pics from last year, and frame them and put them in my mudroom, which is where I'll be storing most of my put up food for the year! Here's my favorite picture, of carrots:

Cute and cheap- my two favorites! I got 5 frames total, and put 5 pictures in: carrots, raspberries, cucumbers, green onions, and strawberries

That's all for now!

Holy garden plan, batman!

           Lycan-Fry Garden Plan 2010!!!

As you see, the main theme in planting this year is "TOMATOES!". I want to have enough to eat fresh (love love love fresh tomatoes), and a lot left over to can as well- I'm going to get Romas, and some type of cherry I think. Also some zucchini, strawberries, onions, potatoes, lettuce, garlic, and carrots, along with some herbs for an herb garden as well! Let's just ignore the fact that right now, these raised-bed gardens are not yet built.. :)

I'm looking into buying all my starter plants from Destiny Farms in Brighton, MI. I called and spoke with Mike there today- they seem to have pretty good deals on flats of 18 3" container plants, but I don't know.. maybe I could get a better deal on a flat of starters? At any rate- very excited! If you garden in lower MI, check them out- they have some deals if you get your order in before Feb 15th!. Also they build chicken coops and raise chicks that you can buy for nesting or for eventual eating. When Mike let's me take over the yard and turn it into a farm, I will be getting chickens... whenever that might be. I'm going to take a trip up to Destiny Farms this weekend to check things out- I'll report back once I see it for myself!