New Managing Directors at the Farm

Elder and Sister  Bolton were just called as the managing farm directors. Stay tuned for more details.

Tilling the Soil for Transplants

Volunteers from the Sandy  Mid-Valley and Sandy Granite Stakes prepared  the soil for future transplants.

Three (not so) Blind Mice

Our greenhouse was raided by three persistent and hungry mice. They devoured the transplants so our diligent sister missionaries  replanted the bell peppers, hot peppers, and tomatoes. 

A paintbrush was used to level out the dirt on the trays.

Another task that was completed today occurred in the new tool shed. We had many volunteers from the Sandy and Draper Young Single Adult Wards come and organize the tools in the shed. We are grateful for their help!

Soil Prep

Lots of soil prep went on tonight. The crew has been working on shoveling manure to fertilize the beds the past couple of days. With the good help of some volunteers, the task was completed tonight. We also had the tractor out in the field tilling the soil. Very busy night at the farm.

Three hard working volunteers shoveling manure. 

Planting the Leafy Greens

We planted the first veggies of the season tonight--broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. These veggies can withstand the cooler temperatures so they were the first leafy greens to go in the ground after they were prepped in the greenhouse.

Elder Haynes taught us a secret to planting cauliflower in the beds. Two Brussel sprout plants should be placed in the very center of the beds to control insect infestation.

These two plants are the Brussel sprouts that guard the cauliflower from insects.

A few volunteers planting the cauliflower.

Working on the broccoli over here.

Nice, healthy greens.

Pruning the Grapevines

Saturday morning found the sun shining on the farm. One of the day's tasks was to prune the grapevines. Brother White gave us a lesson on how to properly tame the vine. He described how a grapevine has long "runners" that begin to grow and really take off. During the growing process, tiny vines will sprout along the runner and begin to wrap themselves around the branch. These tiny vines act as "chokers" to the vine. Wherever a choker is wrapped, the vine will stop growing right at that spot. So, the task was to find the chokers and remove them. Then we had to trim back the runners so they weren't poking out in the walkways.

Here is a picture of some unruly grapevines that are protruding into the walkway.

A few volunteers pruning the vines.

A choker! See that coil wrapped around the vine. It needs to be snipped and removed.

A tidy walkway with the vines trimmed.

Happy St. Patty's Day from the Farm!

On this fine St. Patrick's Day our service missionaries were out tilling the soil. We're lucky to have such good help on the farm this year!

Sister Leitner watering the carrots.

Greenhouse Seeding

Tonight was a cold night at the farm. Most of the sisters worked in the greenhouse planting seeds, while the men and a few other tough sisters worked outside pruning the grapevines. We had two new sister missionaries join the team--they are both named Sister Leitner. They really are sisters and live together in West Jordan. We're happy to have them on board.

Here they are working in the greenhouse planting celery and tomato seeds.

Here's Sister Leitner working on planting her seeds. The seed packet contained over 500 seeds and barely covered the very bottom of the packet. It looked like it was almost empty.



These teeny, tiny celery seeds were placed inside a plastic cup. A seed spoon was then used to carefully pull one seed out at a time.



One samba celery seed was placed in each hole of the celery crate. You had to really keep track of where you were in the process because the seed was so tiny that you couldn't see it next to the soil mixture.