Happy Friday, Farm Friends!  It's Spring!
The arrival of this important date has probably never been more anticipated than it was this year.  Gloomy wet and cold days seemed to be the unending norm, and as a farmer they required much patience....something that we need to learn from our dog Gesti (here at the window with her beloved blue stick waiting for us to come in and play)!

Thank goodness the arrival of Spring has been more than just the turning of the calendar -- the past couple of days have been gorgeous!  Even our tiny little peach tree shares our enthusiasm over the sunshine and warmer temps!

We have taken advantage of the nicer weather to continue our building projects.  The raised bed construction has continued -- we finished up the giant rhubarb bed by the greenhouse and added our "Demo Gardens" near the parking and PYO check-in/out area.  The Demo Garden has been a longtime plan for us -- we wanted to be able to have different plants growing there for our visitors to see during PYO and other on-farm events.  It may be a bit of a Noah's Ark of the plant world but it will be able to give you a good idea of where some of your food comes from without having to hike over all of the farm!  We know that 2 of the beds will have the plants from our Kids Garden Kits as well as the Three Sisters Garden (squash, beans and corn).  Hopefully our younger visitors will like those!  Here are a few pictures:

 Later this afternoon we will be planting the first of our onions (they didn't arrive last week)!  Alisa Craig, Walla Walla, Pumba and Desert Sunrise will be the first varieties (all large sweet onions) and we'll be following them up with the first of the bunching onions.  And just a pitch for the Allium Adventure Club -- we still have spaces for the journey and you'll be the first to get goodies in May!  Don't forget to check out the website for more information (http://www.plumgrannyfarm.com/allium-adventure-club) and sign up TODAY!  We are sure that you won't want to miss this grand adventure!  Memberships are available for both 15 and 30 weeks.

We averted a disaster with our bees.  During the terrible windstorm last week, one of our hives was knocked over -- we're not sure if it was the wind or, more likely a confused deer.  Ray found a bunch of comb on the ground with a big ball of bees.  He was able to put it back into a new hive body and resettle them.  Here's what it looked like after all of the crossbars were picked up:

The good news is that Ray visited the hive this morning to see how it was doing and if he could find the queen.  The hive was doing great!  At least 10,000 bees and a very healthy queen!  Here's a picture -- can you see the queen?  She's in the lower left corner of the photo -- getting ready to lay an egg!  Needless to say we were very happy!

Get out there and be (bee?) happy too!  Revel in the sunshine, gather daffodils and rejoice in the beauty of Spring!

Talk to you next week. 

Cheryl & Ray