5-16-12. On Sunday, Jim and I spent the afternoon (enjoying the beautiful day) by planting asparagus in our new aspargus field. We planted 600 plants, 400 are "Purple Passion", a wonderful asparagus that is purple until cooked. We love this particular asparagus because of it's great taste, and the fact that it is not "stringy" like the green varities can sometimes be. We also planted 200 plants of the variety "Jersey Supreme", an new green hybrid the is supposed to be and even better produce than it's earlier predecesors. Today, Jim and Jessica transplanted eggplant, okra, cherry & salad tomatoes, tomatillos, and artichokes. More planting will be done tomorrow, hopefully peppers, beans, and cucumbers.
Eggplant going in the ground! 5-16-12.
5-16-12. The press release sent out by Dakota Rural Action (DRA) has been posted to Linda's Gardens web page. We ask that you share this information with all of your family and friends. Thanks so much for your support!
5-4-12. We recieved notification yesterday that we are apporved to accept EBT Cards for the SNAP program. There will still be some paperwork to fill out to formalize the deal, but we should soon be able to process the cards.
5-5-12. We have filed a 'Writ of Mandamus' with the Hughes County District Court which asked for a 'stay' on the project and requested a hearing/trial. Judge Mark Barnett signed the writ which executed the 'stay' and began the process to set a hearing/trial date. DENR is going to file a 'Motion to Quash' (have our lawsuit thrown out); the hearing for that will be May 14th. Depending on the outcome of that hearing, our hearing/trial will be May 18th in Pierre. The original discussion was that the hearing would take two days, but because of judical shortages in the Pierre area, the only open dates are in August. DENR is very adamant that they can't wait that long because then "Brant Lake won't be able to do the project this year."
Again, we send out a big THANK YOU!! to all of you who support us and pray for us.
Wednesday, April 25th. I subbmitted my application to become an authorized SNAP "store" last night. A few follow up documents to send in and then the 45+/- days of waiting for approval begins. I'm pretty excited about this, because getting fresh nutritional food to everyone reguardless of social or economic status is one of my personal primary goals.
Along this same line of thinking, we donate a lot of produce to both the Banquet and Faith Temple Church in Sioux Falls. I''ve connected with a faith based organization called "Society of St Andrew" who coordinates with vegetable farmers to send in volunteers to glean the fields for "left over" produce after the farmer has harvested. The produce is then distributed to those in need. We are trying to get something going here at our farm, but since we're such a small operation it's hard to predict when and how much will be left over. It's one of those things that it needs to be enough to make it worth the drive to our farm to do the gleaning. We will continue to send produce that is left over from sales or doesn't make the "grade" to Faith Temple Church and the Banquet.
