Second Season, Week 7

I was thinking about our farm and where it is going the last few weeks and it occurred to me that we are the first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in Plant City! We are certainly not he first farm, nor the first direct sales farm, nor the first organic farm in Plant City. But we are definitely the first CSA in Eastern Hillsborough County. I have run into a few produce buying clubs that grow a little and buy produce to supplement, but no one to my knowledge is doing what we are doing. It is nice to be a part of history and maybe a start of a legacy for the next generation.



Back at the farm, we (Jenn, Grandad, and myself) have planted about 500 transplants last Sat. ranging from kohlrabi, red cabbage, red pac choi, a few experimental Asian greens, and some tomatoes. We have more tomatoes in the greenhouse still growing. Things are running late this year due to the extended cold weather. We've got no melons to come up, as well as peppers, zukes, and a few others that failed to germinate. We planted another round in the greenhouse to see if we can get them going again.



I am watching with anticipation our trials of garlic, potatoes, winter rye, and different kinds of corn. So far the spinach trial has proven very successful. The early planting trial has proven to be a big fat disaster with all the extended frost we have had.



I have planted three more loquats and am watching the peaches start to develop. The loquat tree fruit that is there has started to ripen and size up. We will probably be picking in a few weeks. The stonefruits have had very poor pollination probably due to the lack of movement of pollinators with the cold.



I will be getting ready to propagate and plant some mulberries, grapes, and blackberries when it warms up.



And still no camera! Stay tuned...

Frosty March

This month has started out pretty cold. The last few weeks we are still getting frost in the morning. Our potatoes have been freeze burnt and then grown out three times now. I'm not sure how much more of this weather they can take. I think that I lost a few bean and corn plantings and will need to replant. I was trying to beat the warmth and the pests by a few weeks. We are about 20 degrees below our normal daily high right now. The good thing is that it will extend our lettuce plants growing a little longer in the season.

I planted a few more loquats to see if we could supplement the fruit offering in the early spring. I will plan on planting blackberries, grapes, and mulberries this year to create a wider sample of fruit other than oranges.

We lost one of the Dixie Chicks a few weeks ago. I believe that a raccoon made its way under the fencing and got one of the girls. My Dad got there before me and took care of the carnage. There were feathers all over the place. It looked like someone shook out a feather pillow near their cage. I have placed posts around the cage to see if that will help and it has thus far. The four birds are laying about three eggs per day. We will begin to give them to our supporting members starting this weekend.

We will be planting eggplant, beans, and our last cool season transplants out this weekend. We finally found some Sustane fertilizer and I am relieved. It has been working the best for us. We tried four bags of a competitors brand with different analysis but it was no match for the Sustane. I can really see a difference in the transplant growth.

We still have no camera but hope to get one soon to show what is going on at the farm.