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.