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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Greenhouse / hoophouse is UP!!!

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Up she goes!  This is the frame of our new passive-solar-heated greenhouse (known to vegetable farmers as a "hoophouse" or "high tunnel").  She's huge - measuring 12 feet tall, 72 feet long, and 30 feet wide.

Wishful Acres Farm is now officially part of the High Tunnel Research Program through the NRCS division of the USDA (that's Natural Resource Conservation Service).  The high tunnel was mostly grant-funded through this research program (the program is to determine how vegetable farmers can extend the growing season through Environmentally Friendly ways, in this case by using a non-heated / passive-solar-heated plastic-covered high tunnel to grow through the late fall / winter / early spring).

In return for receiving the partial grant, I am responsible for providing the USDA with 3 years of research data - what crops I grew, how much of each I harvested, and the dollar value.  

It took me 3 years to qualify for this research grant program, so I'm thrilled at our current progress!  The frame is almost completely constructed, and then later this summer we'll put the plastic cover on.

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