It was 1 year ago today that we made our first trip to the farmers market as a vendor! Today we are reflecting on the evolution of our farm over this first year of operation.
Those first few markets we only had sunflower shoots, pea shoots and radish micro greens that we grew, but we immediately started to build a fanbase. We started with growing only 4 trays that we would bring to the market and harvest by order. Our first week we made $40.00, which was just enough to buy our family food for the week.
Over the next weeks we experimented with other varieties of micro greens. Some were keepers and many were not. We quickly found the varieties that work for us. Thank goodness this went smoothly and fast, because life took off! Our son Sage was born on September 5th. We were able to keep the micro greens going through his birth and gave us some extra time to dial in our small scale operation while mom was home on maternity leave.
By the end of the first market season in October, we were quickly adding restaurants and other clients that we reached out to with free samples. As all of this was going on, we were just wrapping up construction on our geodesic dome greenhouse and planting the winter crop.
That winter we successfully grew some broccoli, cauliflower, romanesco, kale, chard, spinach and lettuce. It was a success! Minimal heat and the dome flourished all season.
That spring we added some outdoor planter beds and used our micro green compost to fill those beds. Our greenhouse was turned over to peppers and tomatoes for the market and the beds were planted with some veggies for our growing family.
Then, just before the start of the 2017 market we scaled our micro greens up to our current production. We are now growing 80 trays a week and deliver to a few restaurants, health food stores and individuals in our area. We are consistently sold out and will be looking to scale up again this winter.
Just last week we started our trials on oyster mushrooms. If we can get that figured out we will that to our farm roster this coming year!
Its been a busy year for sure. When I look back I am pretty surprised with all of the work that we completed this year. I am really excited to see what this next year brings!
We could not do this without our outstanding community that has embraced our farm and our niche products! We are taking this time to reflect not only on our farms success, but the people and families that have helped us get to here!
Poncha Creek Gardens 