Hope springs eternal.  After a long, cold winter like we just experienced, those words ring true more than ever.  We hope that the blustery winds and deep snowdrifts will fade into distant memories, and they do—spurred on by new leaves on the trees, and sales at the local garden center.  Who can resist spring, with its promise of new life?  Just planting a row of lettuce seeds, then seeing those tiny seedlings lifting their heads out of the soil, is gratifying enough to make one forget all about those below-zero days. 

Do you garden?  Many Wisconsinites do, even if only a few tomato plants beside the garage.  I’ve gardened for as long as I can remember and have fond memories of growing things in my youth—picking and nibbling on homegrown carrots while waiting for Dad to come home from work and, later, keeping a few bedding plants outside of my rental house in college.  Gardening keeps us connected—with the earth, with our food, with each other.  For city dwellers, even a small garden can be a way to feel like one can be, even in a small way, self-sufficient.

At Morning Star Family Farm, this year the focus of our garden will be growing ingredients for products from our processing kitchen.  Strawberries and black and red raspberries will provide a luscious palette from which we’ll create honey-sweetened jams.  If our young orchard makes a sizeable contribution, there will be plums, peaches, and apricots to turn into preserves as well.  We’ve made fresh, raw sauerkraut for ourselves for years; this year we’ll be making some to sell.

It is an experimental year of sorts, as we offer our products to our loyal customers for the first time, gathering feedback for next year’s products.  Is there something you would like us to grow or make?  Drop us a line and let us know.  Our customers are the driving force behind what we do here.  Looking for your feedback is one more way we seek to make the connection between our farm to your table.