Farm Store Open

Farm store opens at 7:30 till 4:00pm. My mother came up today and whipped up some gooseberry jam. OMG it's wonderful and it will be for sale as well as the Blackberry jelly we made last week. I've been wiped of blackberries over the last 2 days so I'll do one last look see tomorrow morning. We will have the following available tomorrow..

Strawberries
cucumbers
tomatoes
green bell peppers
jalapeno peppers
garlic
swiss chard
onions
Basil, cilantro, dill, oregano, parsley sage, peppermint
Hope you can make it out just to look around and see what's going on here at the farm.

Farm Tour

I've had several people ask me if the farm store was going to be open this Saturday the 23rd since the tour is here on Saturday too. The answer is yes from 7:30 - 4:30pm. If there is something your wanting please call ahead so I can hold some berries for you. Today I made two batches of Blackberry jelly and those will be available on Saturday as well.

The tomatoes, peppers, cucumber should be ready by Saturday as well as the garlic and fresh herbs too.

I do invite you to drop on Saturday just to look around and check things out.

Workshop and Tour

http://extension.missouri.edu/platte/documents/2012%20IntroductiontoSmallFruit(5).pdf

Recipe as promised...

Blackberry Crisp

Crust topping:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 whole egg, beaten

Blackberry filling:

2 tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt
¾ cup sugar (If blackberries are very sweet, cut down on sugar.)
4-5 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
1 stick real butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375°

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt & baking powder. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients & blend in egg, mixing until the topping is crumbly. Set aside.

To prepare the filling mix flour, sugar & salt in a small bowl. Place blackberries in a large bowl & sprinkle with the flour & sugar mixture. Toss gently to evenly coat the blackberries. Transfer the berry mixture to well-buttered oval pot pie dish or a 9”x9”x2” baking pan and sprinkle topping mixture over berries. Drizzle melted butter evenly over the crumbly topping. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar over the melted butter. You may want to place the baking dish on a cookie sheet to prevent spillovers while baking. Bake for 45 minutes.

Serves 6.

Note: You can use this same recipe for fresh or frozen peaches as well. Just add 1 more additional tablespoon of flour in the filling mixture.

Farm Store

I'm opening the farm store Friday the 15th from 3:00 - 8:00pm. I hope you can come out and take a look around.

 I'll post a killer recipe for a Blackberry cobbler later on. That would make a killer fathers day gift. What man could n't pass up cobbler.  My father passed away almost six years ago to date. Blackberries were one of his favorite fruits. Mother couldn't make enough blackberry pies, jelly or cobblers to keep him satisfied. I wish he could have seen all that I have accomplished here on the farm. I miss you dad.

Berry Update

The Blackberries are really come on good now. I'm getting about 3 to 4 quarts a day.  All the Black Raspberries have dried up. That's so very sad because I didn't get any put away for jam for myself. The boysenberries are still producing well and those sell out quick.

I will be at Old Glory & Friends on June 7th which is Thursday to sell more blackberries. If you are interested in pre-purchasing please email me before 12:00pm tomorrow or call me.

I so desperately need rain..................Please keep me in your prayers.

Berry Pick UP

Tomorrow 6/2/2012 I'll open the farm store from 8:00am till 12:00 or sold out. I have several people coming to pick up berries so decided to open till everything is gone. Please call 816-289-7557 before heading out to check availability.

Blackberry, Boysenberry, Strawberry, and Black Raspberry 
Fresh Dill, Cilantro, Kale and Swizz Chard

Today I harvested the garlic and you'll be able to see it hanging in the barn to cure.

This Crazy Weather

My phone has been ringing off the hook with everyone wondering if the berries are ready and if the farm store is open yet. Since the season is getting so close, I thought I'd better create a post to let everyone know what's been going on.

Troubles..Troubles....Troubles is all I can say.

In the spring, we started off with great success. We planted all the new berries early and I was thankful that was over with. It was a lot of hard work planting so many. I jumped over to the vegetable patch and planted all the cold crops, put the summer crops under row covers and started planting tons of lettuce. In March, we received 5 inches of rain in less than 2 hours. The whole garden was under water. I waited for days for that to drain out. While I waited, the weeds took over filling in every spot they could. I spent days reconditioning the garden again and planting more seeds. Then in April, we had another 4" of rain and 30 minutes of nickel size hail. We live on top of one of the tallest hills in Pleasant Hill, so when they are calling for 45mph winds, it's really like 60mph here. That storm ripped the grape vines in two, shredded all the bramble plants that were tied up to the trellis, removed all the newer flowers that were setting fruit and destroyed most of the vegetables that I had left. Also, my chickens were attacked a couple of weeks ago by two dogs that were following the KCPL man around reading the meters. My heart was broken as I saw the chickens laying on the ground dead and feathers everywhere.

My last heartache came when I discovered that the gooseberries possibly might have a fruit fly infestation. I had over 120 gooseberry plants covered with berries (as you can see from the picture above). I had also presold 4 cases of those to an wholesaler until I noticed the problem. So for now I have a huge clean up ahead of me and another lost crop.

So what is it I have for sale? I have Black Raspberries, Boysenberry, Blackberries and few strawberry's. Please take a moment to see the pricing information on the above tabs.

This is a picture of Jake and Holly picking the "Black Hawk" Black Raspberries. If you are familiar with picking black raspberries you know it takes a long time to pick them because they are quite a bit smaller than the Blackberry. It takes approx. 30 minutes to fill a 1/2 pt container. They have been trained extensively on organic practices and farm food safety. My pricing is set based on picking the fruit as fresh as possible and not weeks in advance.  All of the fruit and vegetables are certified organic except for the strawberries that were just planted. I cannot compete with larger wholesale outlets and never intended to. We are a small farm trying to make a living selling the freshest produce available.

This is a picture of Buckwheat growing in future fields. It can get anywhere from 2' or 5' tall depending on the weather conditions. I don't like to leave open dirt in the field.

 

These are a few of the things we were selling at the Greenwood market. From this experience, we learned that keeping things cold is difficult to do when your selling herbs and lettuce.

This brings me to when is the farm store opening............As of now, he don't have refrigeration in the old barn where I would be selling.  If there is something your interested in please email me or call to reserve your order. When I have have customers out here picking up their orders, they always inquire about the organic produce. All the produce on our farm is for sale including the free range chicken eggs. It's in my and your best interest to keep things in the ground as long as I can. I'll pick for you or feel free to get a work out and pick yourself by appointment.

I welcome any shoppers to my garden to see how things are growing and pick only the things that interest you. This way things are going to stay fresher until you need them. Today I picked 2 qts of Blackberries and 5 1/2 pts of Black Raspberries. For now I'm not doing a u-pick this year except by appointment because I believe I can pick the 240 blackberries plants and black raspberries too. Next year will be a different situation.

I will be using my blog site to update you as fruits and produce become available. The berries will be in full swing in about a week. I offer a wide selection of herbs and the tomatoes are setting fruit now. The kale and chard is ready now along with a few strawberries that are still producing.  

I welcome all questions!!!

I left the farm last week

Last week I left for a day or two and got away from the farm. I ran into two wonderful establishments and just had to mention them.

First off Heavenly Oils in Lee's Summit. I know everyone has probably already been there but it was the first for me. First rule they give you samples of the balsamic vinegars and they are meant to be just that.....testers not shots glasses as I soon found out. I continued for awhile shooting down my balsamic vinegars until my husband decided to tell me not to down the whole shot glass there. But they are wonderful flavors. I purchased the Traditioanl age 18 year balsamic vinegar and two oils: the Tuscan herb and Harissa which is an asian hotter oil. I have the harissa oil and the vinegar marinating on some pork chops for dinner. I know they'll be good.....

Second place is a small barber shop in Greenwood called Buzz. It's right next door to Old Glory & Friends. I was sitting there last week selling our produce and needed a haircut real bad. I begged the owner to cut my hair as I knew I might not back in town for awhile. He finally did and one of the best haircuts I have ever had. Now he doesn't tyically cut women's hair as he didn't have conditioner, curling irons or the fancy gel we might expect. But he is all set up for men's haircuts and one of the nicest people I have ever met.  So please all the women who read this don't flock to Buzz to get your hair done. I believe his pricing was $12.00 for the cut... Stop in and see him and tell him you saw this on my blog.

In a few days I'll have a berry report. They are just loaded with berries. Right now I have Swiss Chard and kale coming out my ears.

Farmers Market

I'll be at Old Glory & Friends in Greenwood on the east side of town tomorrow May 18th. I've made a few gooseberry pies and we'll also have kale, swizz chard, buttercruch lettuce, herbs and free range eggs.

The boysenberries are just starting to turn red and they are huge. Black raspberries are red and today I ate two black ones I found. The gooseberries and blackberries are just loaded with berries. I'm watching them daily to be able to time the right harvest for them.

The storms we had a week ago or so brought with it a lot of hail to the berry farm. Last year we had the drought this year hail................But I'm still farming and learning to live with these wild weather conditions. It was hard to walk the fields after the hail storm and see all the leaves riped on the grapes, the stems torn apart on the tomatoes and with 4 inches of rain so quick the ponds of water surrounding all the strawberries. But things have dried out, the lettuce, kale, and chard was cut to the ground level and started over.
This farm life is challenging for sure.

Organic Farming is Hard Stuff

A lot of people have ask me why I choose organic farming when I starting this berry farm. After yesterday, I was wondering too. I planted the remaining 8 acres in blackberries this spring. I had good intentions of mulching right away to keep the soil moist and deter the weeds. Well time got away from me and the weeds were taking over. I pulled out my troy built tiller and starting down the paths yesterday at 9:00am. At times I felt like I was riding a bull for 8 seconds as my right hand would fly up in the air as the tiller bucked though the weeds. I finished that field 6 hours later and still have a lot of hand weeding to do and then the mulching will begin. Organic farming is very labor intensive and it would have been much easier to just pour herbicide all over everything there.
That is something everyone should consider as they are purchasing produce especially coming in from Mexico. Chemicals that are banned for use in the USA are allowed to be used in Mexico and that product is being shipping directly to us to consume. It is very hard to find vegetables and fruit these days that are grown the USA; which should be your first choice instead of foreign products if you cannot afford organic products. The restrictions that are enforced on organic farmers (which there needs to be) and the high amount of labor that is involved, creates the higher prices on organic produce.  So support your local organic farmer!!!

Updating the farm here in April

This is a picture of the Broccoli growing. I planted radishes in between the rows. Looking good so far.

Theses are my tomatos camping out in their tents. Believe it or not they are keeping very warm in there.

Seascape strawberries in the morning sun.........

Now I don't think my blackberries know its only April. This worries me some. This is only one plant. Wow that's a lot of berries.

The red raspberries have multiple on me..........

We are allowing the red clover to work as a cover crop this year in between the berry rows.

Let's meet Donald. I am slowing giving all the chickens names and I started with this rooster. No one likes him at all. He's the first to come out the hole each morning and he's getting mean on me. One day I told him if he tried to peck me I'd throw him over the fence and let him sleep outside. He made it though the night and hasn't pecked me again. I hope he learned his lesson.  

Garlic is looking wonderful. That's not a bear to the left that's my chocolate lab brownie...................

Lastly my grand babies growing faster than the weeds in my garden. Gracie is on the left and Cole on the right.

Good Grief I've Been Busy

Well there wasn't a party in the garden with the rabbits. Everything is still growing even with all the rain we had. I used row covers on the strawberries and that worked wonderfully at warming up the soil to help the ground dry out.

We have managed to plant all the Blackberries, Elderberries, Black Raspberries, Gooseberries, Strawberries and Boysenberries. That is a total of 3190 including the Blueberries so far. My body is still moving so I have to keep planting as the weather is great. This week more Red Rasp and Gold Raspberries, Grapes, and Rhubarb. I just decided that I'll like to fill the rest of the West field and have requested more Blackberries. Hopefully the grower still has those in stock.

I love working outside when the weather is so wonderful..........I have several Red buds that are down by the east berry patch. Today I just enjoyed all the natural wonders as the birds were chirping. Now the snake that decided to slip though the grass was another thing. I don't like snakes........

Take some time to GET OUTSIDE. It will do wonders for your attitude and mental awareness.

Blueberries

All 610 blueberries have been planted. My grower in Arkansas, where I get the berries, made a huge mistake and shipped two orders together. I thought I'd have a few day's to recover before I began planting again, but I have 500 blackberries and 1,200 strawberries setting in my barn waiting to be planted today...............If the weather holds out I suppose I'll start again today.

We also planted 150 each of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. It was so windy yesterday that I couldn't get my row covers on. Hopefully the rabbits didn't decide to invite their friends over last night for a party out in the field. The brussels sprouts need to be planted today too. I love brussels sprouts! They are so easy to fix........

The chickens are still laying eggs, I'm up to 4 a day.

First Egg

This is my first egg!! The excitment was too much when I was locking up the chickens for the night. I've looked in the nesting boxes for weeks now wondering when those little girls would starting laying. I am so proud of them or I should say proud of ONE of them. Now they all need to get their act together and lay enough for a whole dozen!

The Seeds Have Arrived

My first shipment of seeds hve arrived and more will arrive next week.  It was so fun looking though all the magazines this winter trying to decide which vegetables to order and how much. I'm now looking at all of these packages saying "OMG now I have to actually plant everyone of you". I need about 5 of myself to get everything planted...with that not being possible, I guess I'll just have to work 5 times faster. 

Also, I ordered enough berries to fill the remaining 12 acres and they are set to arrive at the end of March. This will be quite a task if I get the berries planted and the 1 1/2 acres of vegetables about all at the same time. Seems I'll just turn about from planting and everything will need to be harvested. That's when you stop and remind yourself at least I'm not commuting to work each day. My work begins early by just taking a few steps out my back door. I can't wait to get started.....

Happy Planting!

Learning All I Can

Even though I’m not working too much in the fields, I’ve been busy reading, attending workshops, watching webinars, filling out organic paperwork, and designing field layouts for Spring production. It’s exhausting trying to figure all this out! But I’ve learned a lot and I'm hoping this old brain of mine retains the information……….. The key points I’m focusing on are: Soil fertility, crop nutrients with crop pests, weed and disease management.

All of this information is helpful to the smaller gardener as well as commercial growers. As I read a ton of information, I reflect on my years as a small gardener and the pests that attacked my vegetables and why the weeds over took my garden. Usually by July, I just give up. I pick through my jungle of weeds and be done with it. Most of my problems had more to do with my soil and the way I was treating it more than anything else.

I always thought that weed-free was good and bare soil was even better. A few weeds here and there wouldn't t hurt anything. But after my learning, I realize now leaving the soil bare depletes the soil of nutrients that living organisms need to feed on the sugars. Keeping the garden mulched at all times is very important.  I invite you to try a cover crop this Fall, keeping the soil covered in the winter, then lightly turned the soil under in the spring. Which brings me to my next point, do not till deeply if you’re tilling at all. You should never deep till the soil because you are not only disturbing the perennial weeds but disrupting the soils macro and microscopic workers.  

Ways to reduce weeds: Growing living mulches between your rows: intercrop or companion planting vegetables: use closer row spacing so you create a canopy where the sun isn’t germinating annual weed seeds. An example would be growing lettuce on the outside of a planned tomato row. The lettuce shades out early weeds and is harvested before it competes with the tomato. The same can be applied to spinach planted between the Brussels sprouts. Do your own research to find which plants work well together as you are putting your garden design to paper.
Did I say paper?………..Yes I’ve learned that a paper design is best. This way you can record where you planted something last year so you’re not replanting it again in the same spot.  So, wherever the tomatoes were last year, move them and plant peas in their spot, then plant cabbage in the peas spot the following year and lastly corn in year 4. Then you will have had a 4 year rotation that should help with diseases and pests! You are also adding nitrogen from the peas in each row every year they are rotated.
It sounds complicated but it’s not after you get the hang of it!

Recently, I sent off 28 pages of paperwork to the certifying agency for my annual review. It seems overwhelming this year because they changed all the form designs and had to refill them all out again. But it's finished and sent off. We are adding a larger vegetable patch this year along with expanding the fruit fields.

More great news! I was informed that we were awarded another high tunnel though the EQIP program. This is going to be a bear to build because it’s 30X96. I guess we’ll get that put up in between planting and harvest times.

Remember to buy your seeds and planting stock from reliable sources. Unhealthy planting stock and seeds brings with it diseases………….don’t opt for something just because it seems like a good deal at the time. So for now keeping reading and get your gardens design now.

The Future Berry Pickers

These are my two grand babies Gracie and Cole having some tummy time on the floor. They were only 4 days apart. I can't believe these girls of mine didn't even plan it that way. These babies are so sweet and they are growing so fast..........I keep telling them that they are going to be the best berry pickers ever and I think they believe me.

Now more than ever I believe certifing the farm organic was the smartest decision I have ever made in regards to these babies. As the babies grow over the next 6 months and will be introduced to baby food products, the girls and I hope to blend our own fresh baby food for them that hasn't been processed in some form.

The mommies are both breastfeeding and these little babies are getting the healthiest diet they can right now.

2012

It's time for an update here on Pam's Berry Farm. I've been busier than a beaver here. My husband returned from his deployment in mid December. I'm so happy he's returned. He's decided to have knee surgery now so he's out of commission for 6 more weeks. But that's OK he needs to rest anyway. We also have had two grand babies the first week of December. Gracie and Cole are so cute and we are ready to spoil them silly. My son is packing up and heading to UCM this spring to stay in an apartment. We are now going to be empty nesters this spring.


So with the holidays behind us and decorations put away, it's time to gear up for spring and get organized. The chickens have gotten big and about ready to starting laying eggs. I ordered all Buff Orpingtons and four Rhode Island Reds. You can see from the picture that a few other breeds have gotten into the mix here. But everyone is getting along so far. They are loving the fact that they can get outside now and scratch around.

This summer we had a well drilled to irrigate all the berries with. That well still isn't producing any water and the troubles I've had with that well is still overwhelming to me. Still working with DNR to repair it or try to get another well drilled. That is the question that I'm currently working on. The lack of water this summer put a toll on the berries and I lost quite a few of them. I've reordered and will replant again this spring. For those of you that know me personally, you know that I'm a very determined individual. If there's a will there is certainly a way to get this done.

I will be attending quite a few conferences this winter and spring. Never stop learning........Knowledge is power.