We planted our garlic in the fall last year, it starts growing in the spring, and we harvest it mid-summer. So what are we doing now that it is winter in Minnesota? All 5 of us sisters live and work in the Minneapolis-St Paul area, but we are still engaged with the farm all year long.
Last weekend we held our Annual Planning meeting. We met for 6 hours and reviewed our vision, values, and business plan. It was a lively meeting where we talked about possible new crops and animals for the farm, created more detail about our individual roles, and started planning our summer garlic growing and harvest activities.
We are attending the Sustainable Farming Association in St Cloud, MN next weekend, and the MOSES Organic Farming conference in La Crosse, WI at the end of February. We are eager to learn even more about garlic, but we are also eager to choose additional crops or maybe even animals for the farm. Our farm is 110 acres, and we are only actively using 1 acre for the farm house and the garlic. We would love to develop several lines of business for the farm. If you have some exciting ideas, tell us all about them!
Bees might be good because they won’t require daily attention, but cattle will give you the biggest ROI. (If Elena votes for puppies, I support that too! ?)