INTRODUCTION
Barlow Roots Newsletter - 5/7/2026

We woke this morning to overnight lows that dropped to 25 degrees! It has been cold but that is just a little too cold! Our apples, pears and cherry tree are all budded out, so we will see how they fair. Frankly our apple trees are so full of flowers losing a few would be OK. The pears not so much. Our tunnels stayed above freezing so all should be OK there. Our outdoor veggie beds are way behind so no major concerns there. We are ready for it to warm up!

Baby goats are here as well as our baby pigs! More details on that below.

Check out this latest update from our homestead and garden! Thanks as always for reading.

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Enjoy this weeks newsletter!

HOMESTEAD UPDATE
Baby Animals, Spring Projects, Summer Plans

Baby animal season is pretty fun around here! We had only one pregnant doe this spring as the other doe was a bit too young to be bred in the fall. Opal has been a fabulous goat for us, she’s a great milker, has a nice temperament and is quiet (we’ve found this is a big deal with goats). She delivered two baby girls a couple of weeks ago, all is going well and the babies are growing great. One is black and white and the other has markings similar to her mother. Ingrid is milking in the mornings and we are enjoying the bounty of fresh milk, it is sooo good.

I made the drive to pick up baby pigs on Saturday. It was a blessing to meet a lovely new homesteading family and learn about them. The piglets look great and are doing great. We still have them tucked away in the barn as the temps are cool and we are letting them acclimate. After losing a pig last year and having another sick pig we decided to vaccinate for a sickness called erysipelas. It lives in the soil and has been an issue for our pigs over the years. The vaccine is given orally. I was concerned but it went really well. We just filled a syringe (no needle) with the proper amount and the pigs are so curious they let us put in their mouth and squirt it in. We will need to do a booster in a few weeks. We are also doing some deworming for the pigs. As they leave the barn we plan to have them do a little work tilling up our pasture where we have some invasive weeds. We will slowly work our way towards the pig pasture where we will move them in permanently.

We’ve been working on projects here and there when time allows. Turning compost is a big one these days. A lot of our time early in the spring has to be committed to the garden, getting everything set up there and getting the farmstand open.

This summer we have some trees to cut down and some wood to cut up and split for next years burning. I am hoping to get the kids involved helping me with some of that work. Beyond the tree work we will just have to see what we can get done. I have a little list of bigger projects but also recognize that time is sparse! So we will see.

MARKET GARDENING
Farmstand is OPEN! Crops Look Good

Garden work continues! We are continuing to plant new things weekly, nurture the plants we have in the ground and harvest now as well. The farmstand opened on May 1, right on time this year. We’ve had salad mix, radishes, arugula and super salad available. All those greens are growing in our tunnels. The outside beds are really struggling with the temperatures being so cold. So the question will be how long we can limp along the tunnel crops until the outside beds can catch up. The problem of course is soil temperature, when the dirt is too cold the seeds just don’t germinate well. The forecast looks a little warmer over the next couple of weeks so here’s hoping.

The tomatoes are doing OK. The cold temps have them basically in a holding pattern but with our row covers and the high tunnel we are able to keep them pretty toasty during the day. Last night we got down to 35 degrees in the tunnel, under the row cover. They will be fine but they certainly don’t like it!

With the temps staying cool we have been postponing some plantings which means two things. It messes up our plan and timing of the plan. Remember we plant multiple crops in each bed each year. So when the beets are 2 weeks late, it messes with everything downstream as well. The other issue is just keeping the plants alive in the trays. They are desperate to get out of the trays. So far we are doing OK but again, warmer weather would help!

The farmstand opening went really smoothly. We have a new computer system in place for self checkout and it has been working flawlessly. It is a little more intuitive for people and we hope for an elimination of some of the issues we struggled with in the past. It was a pretty big undertaking getting the stand cleaned up and ready for opening day! A winters worth of garage projects, snow blowing, tools everywhere, etc. We got it done in the nick of time and all looked good. We always start a little slow, which in some cases is OK. This year we’ve got a great supply of veggies and are looking for a few more people to come through the doors! 🙂 We’ve never really pushed for traffic off the road, we have our one little sign on the driveway and I think most people find us online. But we are working to get a few signs made to make it more obvious we exist to all the cars who pass by daily. All the fun things with owning a business!

We still feel strongly for our mission of feeding people good food, meeting people at the stand and sharing the love of Jesus through this work.

CLOSING
Update on the Kids

The kids have been deep into their own little worlds and activities. We’ve been working hard on school at home, doing a few concerts and recitals and each of them (except Anikka) have been doing sports. Espen and I made the trip to Washington DC and it was wonderful. We went with another homeschool dad and his son, who is a good friend of Espen’s. I was blown away by the experience! D.C. has never really been in my mind as a spot to visit but it was all just very cool and seeing the history of our nation firsthand was very fun. Anikka is also doing great, she is happy, sleeping great, eating great, busy, chatty and all the best things about being 3 years old! We are in a busy season, but it is a blessing to watch our kids blossom and find their way!

Thank you as always for reading and for following along on this journey. As always I would love to hear from you. If you have questions or suggestions just reply to this email and I will be in touch.