SELLMEYER FARM NEWSLETTER

I hope everyone is keeping warm and safe this Holiday season! I've not been posting lately but we have been busy. We went up to Grand Rapids, MI last week for the Great Lakes Fruit & Vegetable Expo. On Monday I went on a bus tour of 7 surrounding farms and farm markets while Greg stayed indoors and went to the North American Strawberry Growers meetings. I got to get out and tour farms and farm markets in a snow storm! There were four buses and two got stuck and one of those got stuck twice! But it was fun and always interesting to see how others set up their operations. The rest of the week we attended various workshops and meetings on everything from high tunnels, strawberries, green beans, carrots, soil health, pests in the greenhouse, farmers' market management and GAP certification! The trade show was like walking through a toy shop for produce farmers! Everything from processing machines, machines to plant, harvest, pick, package, and gadgets of every kind to make the farmers life easier. Packing, picking, storage and selling supplies, fertilizers, chemicals organic and non organic, potting supplies and seed companies galore...over 200 vendors in all!!!!!!

Greg is busy making himself a small sprayer to pull behind the new Yanmar tractor to use in the hoop houses and out in the fields. Today the 3 row seeder that Greg bought at the trade show last week arrived! It will be quicker to plant 3 rows at once instead of 1 and this new seeder should be more accurate in only planting one seed at a time instead of several, so less thinning!!

I bought myself a hand held tomato tier. You use it to tie up the tomato vines to the stakes or whatever type of cage or trellis you use. Hopefully it will work as slick as it looks like it should!