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!