12NOV25

Greetings from Baker Heritage Farms;

We hope that everyone had a pleasant, relaxing, and thoughtful Thanksgiving with friends and family. Eastern Oklahoma was windy and warm.

David and Donald went out Saturday and did some maintenance around the farm. They cleaned up the side of the road down to the pasture and had to move another tree that came down in one of our recent wind storms.

Planning, planning, and planning. Planning seems to be taking a lot of our farm time right now. We want to be sure we are properly prepared in 2013 (unlike 2012). We are currently planning the production and cover crops for the production fields and the test garden. We will need to start seeding for transplants in January so we need to know what supplies we will need and how much of what seed to order. To accomplish this, we need to have our production fields planned out so we can calculate the proper amount of seed. We have learned that certified organic seed can be very expensive so we do not want to waste any.

Seeding for the transplants (primarily tomato and pepper plants) will be the challenge as we have never done that before. There are several crops that can be transplanted or direct-seeded and we will also need to make these decisions. Our seeding for transplants will be conducted in our barn and we are not sure how this will work out. We have started purchasing the necessary equipment and will set up the tables right after the holidays (need to put the holiday decorations away before we set up the tables).

If our seeding for transplants is successful, we may look into selling plants during the next season. We will be keeping records so that we can determine the success of each crop and whether we will be able to sell plants on a small scale.

We are also starting to explore certified organic fruit trees. Again, very costly and, in many cases, hard to find. Most will be bare root and will need to be planted between February and April. This means we need to start digging holes now (not fun where we are looking to plant the trees). We will probably limit our plantings in 2013 due to expenses and the work required to prepare the ground.

We will most likely start tilling in December, once we get the plans for the production fields completed. We do not want to till more than necessary to avoid having soil exposed for too long, but we also want to be ready for weather issues to avoid potential delays in planting. This is where the first gamble comes when you are starting a farm.

Until next week;

Blessings from Baker Heritage Farms

"Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." Hebrews 13:16