Late April 2008

Dear Spring Hill Members,
You may have noticed that this year’s sign-up information did not include a plant sale order. For the past several years we have partnered with St. Stephen’s Church in Minneapolis for our plant sale. It has worked extremely well for us, allowing flexibility for plant pick-up. Unfortunately, St. Stephen’s is not doing a plant sale this year. Given that, I have decided we will not have our plant sale this year.

I do want to offer a couple of alternatives for those heirloom tomatoes and pepper varieties that can be hard to find.

1) Lake Country Montessori School Plant Sale – May 15th & 16th in south Minneapolis. The pepper and tomato plants for this sale are currently being started in our greenhouse! They are being grown in the same soil mix we grow in and will be sold as individual plants in 4” containers – very similar to what you’ve gotten from us in past years. They also offer a variety of herbs, flowers, hanging baskets, etc. You can go to: www.lakecountryschool.org for more information. Unfortunately we’ve missed the pre-order date but you can buy on the days of the sale.

2) The Minnesota Friends School offers a very large plant sale May 9-11 at the State Fair Grandstand. In addition to a very wide selection of perennials, they have a good selection of heirloom tomatoes and peppers. I have heard that it is good to get there early! This plant sale has become well known and widely attended.
You can get more information at: www.friendsschoolplantsale.com.

3) Your local food coop may be a good source for organic and heirloom seeds. In some cases, they may have plant sales.

Finally, for those who come out to the farm in the spring – for our as yet unscheduled Spring Work Day (end of May/beginning of June) - we’ll have extra plants on hand that we’d be happy to send to a good plant-loving home.

Take care,
Patty