Upstate NY has been dealing with an odd winter this year. Not that I am complaining. Snow has been scarce which has resulted in little shoveling, no use of our snow blower and only a few days of icky roads. The cold has been here along with the wind. That kept us inside most of the time, only going out to get the necessary done. I do feel sorry for those who depend on snow for their winter business, but the rest of us; we are liking this. Just hope that we don’t pay the price later on with lower ground water levels.
We started getting ready for 2016 a few months ago with purchases of supplies, seeds, equipment and plants. And getting ready for a bigger run of our mushroom bolts. Ron has major expansion plans for THF. Though we will take it one step at a time. Nothing more than the 3 of us, with help from family and friends can handle. He always has to remember that until he gets to retire from his day job, this project of his is a part time thing. But it does take up most of his thought process. Always has some plan brewing.
We have taken a further step toward official business status. THF now has its own bank accounts. Checkbook and all. Still more to do, but we are not in a huge rush. Ron doesn’t expect to start actually selling product until next year. But we need to be fully set up and ready before then. One of my biggest concerns is the pricing. How do you figure how what you should charge? Has to be enough to generate a profit, but not so high that no one will pay the price. That will be a bit of trial and error, I think. More learning to get done. It is a good thing that both Ron and I are people persons and more than willing to ask for and listen to advice. We are currently taking a web based business class through Cornell’s small farms program. Most of it is still over our heads and probably will remain so. Not planning to have employees to fret over so that will reduce some stress. We are learning one thing only to find out we then have to learn two more things.
I have taken over more of our home garden work. Deciding what we are going to grow and getting the seeds started.  This year we skipped started the seeds in our mini greenhouse with warming pad. Ron already had trays of jack in the pulpit seeds growing down cellar. A few years ago he set up his very own growing center in our cellar.

And it does such a good job that we have used it every year since. The bottom shelf is where my actual food seeds are growing. I am trying yellow onions and celery this year. Along with my usual herbs. Will start the tomatoes and cucumbers in a few weeks. We are cutting back this year, but cannot stop altogether. I truly love have fresh veggies in our backyard.
Back to Ron’s project – he has five trays full of tiny plants. He went out to THF last fall with mesh bags I sewed together and cinched them around the seeds.

Once they were fully ripened, he collected them and put them into a bag of moss and our frig.  This was part of the scarification process.  So we all learn at least one new thing a day – that is a necessary process for some seeds that scratches them and makes them permeable to water.

Interesting to know, you should not handle jack in the pulpit seeds, but always wear gloves. Ron had great success with this project and we have lots of tiny plants doing well.

Luckily for me, while Ron is downstairs checking on his babies, he also checks on mine.