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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
STATE OF THE FARM ADDRESS MAY, 2009
For those of you who follow this blog, I apologize for not posting in so long. It is crazy at the Farm these days, and not just in the fields. Some days I feel like I am being pulled by both arms, both legs and the top of my head. We are still dealing with The Farmer's illness, which is one of the harder things to deal with at the present time. I have a separate blog for updates on his illness, so I won't post a bunch of stuff about that here. I want to talk about the Farm for a change, so here we go.
THE FIELDS
Things are going well in the field, albiet slowly. Without The Farmer's strong and able hands, we are kind of like the Keystone Kops somedays, but mostly we are getting things done. We have two incredible people working with us this year (Brooks and Benjamin, take a bow) and they are so much help, it is like having a huge weight lifted from our shoulders. They aren't here everyday but put in double time when they are. It is such a blessing to have them and I thank the Universe for sending them every day.
Right now, we have so many things that are on the verge of something big, I can hardly contain myself. Green beans, edamame, corn, tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash!!!
We got our greenhouse finished this winter and it has made a tremendous difference for us because we have been able to get plants ready to put out at the times we used to plant seeds. Of course, we still are sticklers for everything being in the proper season, but we are now on the early edge of those seasons, instead of the tail end. The butternut squash went into the ground this week, and the okra will be in soon. I had to search for yellow wax bean seeds (most of the seed houses had very limited quantities this year for some reason) and I now have those in hand, so we will be planting them soom.
The green beans we plant are varied, from flat Italians to heirloom cornfield beans this year. Cornfield beans are called that because they were traditionally planted at the base of a corn stalk and allowed to climb the stalk, thereby getting two crops planted in the same space. We are going to try that this year but I understand that timing is everything (if corn is too small beans will pull down the plant, if corn is too big it will shield beans from sun....) so we'll see how that turns out.
I will be planting melons and cukes in flats this week, so that they will be ready to plant out in a couple of weeks. They grow incredible fast in controlled conditions and this way I can make sure that my specialty melons have a fair chance at making something. I hate to buy expensive, exotic seeds and them have them rot in the ground befor they come up, which happens sometimes. I have things like Crane melons and Charentais, something called a Toad Melon(because of the skin, I gather)
We have Moon and Stars Watermelons and our old favorite, Sugar Baby. We will be growing Armenian Cukes this year, which are really a weird melon that looks and tastes like a cuke but with less seeds and no "burping".
THE MARKETS
This year we are trying to be at three markets in our area, as well has having a small farm stand at here at our location. We have been open to the public in the past but it never worked out too well, so I am having a little bit of trepidation about that but I hope that it works out okay. We have invited other local farmers to bring stuff over and participate so that should be loads of fun!
We are in Davidson on Saturdays and will be in Charlotte on Saturdays, starting in mid-June. We are at the Huntersville market on Tuesdays and here at the Farm on Wednesdays, so that is a pretty full schedule. Of course, a number of years ago, I tried doing a market every day but Sunday and that didn't work out so well....but it did give me A LOT of diverse experience.
THE FIELDS
Things are going well in the field, albiet slowly. Without The Farmer's strong and able hands, we are kind of like the Keystone Kops somedays, but mostly we are getting things done. We have two incredible people working with us this year (Brooks and Benjamin, take a bow) and they are so much help, it is like having a huge weight lifted from our shoulders. They aren't here everyday but put in double time when they are. It is such a blessing to have them and I thank the Universe for sending them every day.
Right now, we have so many things that are on the verge of something big, I can hardly contain myself. Green beans, edamame, corn, tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash!!!
We got our greenhouse finished this winter and it has made a tremendous difference for us because we have been able to get plants ready to put out at the times we used to plant seeds. Of course, we still are sticklers for everything being in the proper season, but we are now on the early edge of those seasons, instead of the tail end. The butternut squash went into the ground this week, and the okra will be in soon. I had to search for yellow wax bean seeds (most of the seed houses had very limited quantities this year for some reason) and I now have those in hand, so we will be planting them soom.
The green beans we plant are varied, from flat Italians to heirloom cornfield beans this year. Cornfield beans are called that because they were traditionally planted at the base of a corn stalk and allowed to climb the stalk, thereby getting two crops planted in the same space. We are going to try that this year but I understand that timing is everything (if corn is too small beans will pull down the plant, if corn is too big it will shield beans from sun....) so we'll see how that turns out.
I will be planting melons and cukes in flats this week, so that they will be ready to plant out in a couple of weeks. They grow incredible fast in controlled conditions and this way I can make sure that my specialty melons have a fair chance at making something. I hate to buy expensive, exotic seeds and them have them rot in the ground befor they come up, which happens sometimes. I have things like Crane melons and Charentais, something called a Toad Melon(because of the skin, I gather)
We have Moon and Stars Watermelons and our old favorite, Sugar Baby. We will be growing Armenian Cukes this year, which are really a weird melon that looks and tastes like a cuke but with less seeds and no "burping".
THE MARKETS
This year we are trying to be at three markets in our area, as well has having a small farm stand at here at our location. We have been open to the public in the past but it never worked out too well, so I am having a little bit of trepidation about that but I hope that it works out okay. We have invited other local farmers to bring stuff over and participate so that should be loads of fun!
We are in Davidson on Saturdays and will be in Charlotte on Saturdays, starting in mid-June. We are at the Huntersville market on Tuesdays and here at the Farm on Wednesdays, so that is a pretty full schedule. Of course, a number of years ago, I tried doing a market every day but Sunday and that didn't work out so well....but it did give me A LOT of diverse experience.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
You can stop the rain dancing now...
All of those rain dances I did out back, must have worked. Everything here at the Farm is so green and growing right now, you can almost see it happening before your eyes.
We will be picking strawberries for market this weekend. They are wonderful, as usual, this year. Might be a little gritty, though, because we don't have the mulch finished yet. Oh well, maybe that will be a deterrent to people eating them unwashed. That drives me crazy, by the way. Strawberries grow in dirt and sit on the ground, there is gonna be some dirt on the berries. Organic dirt isn't sterile...
I see that happening all the time at farmer's markets. People will buy some fruit and immediately start eating it while strolling the market. While I am a firm believer in the fact that being exposed to things makes your body become resistant to them, eating fruit that has pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and who knows what all else on them, just doesn't seem prudent to me. And I didn't mention all the handling they may have had to get to the table at those markets....
My hens are laying like crazy right now, but everytime it cools off, they do too, meaning that they slow down their laying a bit. It is okay, though, all those eggs go to much good usage.
We will be picking strawberries for market this weekend. They are wonderful, as usual, this year. Might be a little gritty, though, because we don't have the mulch finished yet. Oh well, maybe that will be a deterrent to people eating them unwashed. That drives me crazy, by the way. Strawberries grow in dirt and sit on the ground, there is gonna be some dirt on the berries. Organic dirt isn't sterile...
I see that happening all the time at farmer's markets. People will buy some fruit and immediately start eating it while strolling the market. While I am a firm believer in the fact that being exposed to things makes your body become resistant to them, eating fruit that has pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and who knows what all else on them, just doesn't seem prudent to me. And I didn't mention all the handling they may have had to get to the table at those markets....
My hens are laying like crazy right now, but everytime it cools off, they do too, meaning that they slow down their laying a bit. It is okay, though, all those eggs go to much good usage.
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