Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope this post finds you and your family all well during these random days that occur between Christmas and New Year’s. Our family and the farm has taken a nice break to celebrate and to give thanks and (tomorrow) ring in the new year.

For our farm and the crops that we grow, we usually have a pretty good break right now. This time of year jobs can somewhat be triage or pushed off for a few more days to get a few longer chunks of downtime to just hang with our family. But of course, when the weather is nice, there’s always something to be done to take care of the crops. We were lucky to get a few breaks where we were able to get some weeds sprayed before it started to rain again. We don’t get much snow in our area this time of year usually, (much to our kids dismay) so being able to apply crop protection pesticides in between rain showers, and when the ground isn’t so saturated you’ll get stuck, is always a priority.

Other than that, we are about at the middle of meeting season when there is no shortage of opportunities for farmers go to get continuing education on a multitude subjects. Some of these classes go towards our hours needed to be able to keep our pesticide licenses, alongside market and crop updates that help us stay informed on what’s going industry wide and worldwide with the crops that were growing or hope to grow in the future.

So as the year draws to a close, I just wanted to send a quick update to let you all know that while I’m not posting too much here, the farm is chugging right along. Also I wanted to share a family photo but I failed to actually get one this season, so here is our Christmas card to wish you all a great Holiday!!

And I should mention that of course my goal in the new year is to post more on my blog….so cheers to that! Hope to see more of you and continue talking farming in 2025!!

Mini Bale Project 2024

The kids continued their tradition of baling up mini two-tie bales to sell this fall. We would love to get these to a porch near you!!!

The kids baled and stacked these little cuties. We will have them for sale through us but also through some stores and farm markets. There is a list below of where they will be sold so far. I’ll update other places you can find them through the fall for purchase.

This project started with the kids hand baling grass seed straw that was left on the corners of the fields by our house. Then last year we had a neighbor who helped us actually bale the straw and this year they have their own two string baler to get the job done.

As always I love seeing our kids get an idea and have the ability to follow it through and do a little farming themselves. I was just recently explaining to someone that farm kids just don’t know any different. In their mind this is just what you do, look for opportunity, work hard and you hope it pays off. Love starting that at an early age.

Who knows where this project of their’s will lead in the future. But for now this 10, 8 and 6 year old are having a lot of fun making all these mini bales!

If you’re interested feel free to get a hold of me through the website on the “contact me” form, or email me at brenda@kirschfamilyfarms.com.

Where to buy:

Septembers 5th – Nash and Nichol Fall Favorites
September 14th – Bankers Cup Saturday Market

Upcoming-

Sonnen Farms

Heiser Farms Pumpkin Patch

Wrapping up Grass Seed Harvest

Somedays it feels like we just got started harvesting grass seed this summer. And other days it feels like day 8,537. But irregardless we are wrapping things up on grass harvest of 2024.

It’s gone pretty good. The straw yields are way up. The seed yields are average to up some. It was a strange year with conditions feeling different almost in every field we went into harvest. Lots of setting and resetting of our machines which makes for longer days or at least longer feeling.

We also added two new drivers into the mix as subs when our main two drivers aren’t here. One was our son Hoot, who did an amazing job and took to the job very quickly. Millie also learned to drive the ute, so life looks a lot like getting chauffeured around lately.

Next up is wheat. Which is one of the most fun since it also means the kids get to bale up their small decorative wheat bales for porch decor for this coming fall!! Stay tuned for a chance to get your hands on those cute little things!

Finishing up this crop feels like we finished a marathon that started about a year ago. And one that will start again here shortly as we start to take care of fields for the next years crop, giving some water to start up again, working ground and planting the fields that are rotating, and overall making sure that we set up to reset for another year of farming.

But like I said we still have a little ways to go for this year’s harvest. Wheat, radish and filberts are still left for 2024.