What We Do
Late in 2007, Heritage Prairie Farm began a new system of farming, designed to enable a small farm like ours to produce food during all four seasons. The system, known as Four Season Farming, relies on hoophouses placed directly over the soil to protect the plants during all seasons. Simply put, it means that our farm can bring fresh produce to our customers all year long.
Here we finish the third of four new hoophouses. The houses use solar energy to heat the soil to temperatures above that of the air outside the house. That means we can plant and grow crops almost year-round.
To the right, three different varieties of lettuce are grown in one of our hoophouses. Because of the unique design of the house, we were able to start this lettuce when there was snow on the ground.
Mike and Scott transplant onion starts into prepared beds in the fields. Each bed is carefully measured to be the same size and dimension, which allows us to move our greenhouses over different beds at different times of the year. Spring is a busy time on the farm, with the bulk of this season's planting happening now.
If you are interested in working on the farm for the 2008 growing season, click here for the PDF or here for a word doc.
This is Christafine, the minature donkey. She was brought to us by Field of Dreams, an organization that helps animals that are "in-between" homes and helps them to be healthy in body, mind, and spirit so they can find their forever homes. She has been with us on the farm for a few years.
Pictured to the left is Gandalf. He is our resident draft horse, and is by far the biggest animal on the property. Our plan is to offer carriage rides featuring Gandalf, but as he is a young horse, he isn't quite ready for his debut.
Pictured to the right is one of our goats, Annie. As you can see, we are expecting kids any day now. Annie and her kids will be part of the Farm Critter Camp offered throughout the summer. Click here for more information.
In the foreground is Immajean, identfied by her large white blaze. In the background on the left is Daisy, also curious about our photographer. And in the background on the right is Mr. Matthews. He is a favorite of farm camp kids from last summer, being born only a year ago in April.
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