Week 22, 2014

I am officially old.  I changed clothes from work the other day donning my worn farm shorts and tee shirt.  Inevitably, I got distracted somewhere between changing socks and getting my farm sneakers on.  I remember slipping on my brown work shoes to bring them to the garage where my house Crocs reside.  Thinking as I did it to consolidate all my shoes in the garage for my return from the farm.  Unfashionably for me I never made the exchange for the farm shoes.  When I got to the farm and stuck my foot out the door to hit the ground running, I noticed my brown dress shoes, blue socks and work shorts.  I stared in disbelief for a minute and then it dawned on me.  I was officially old.  I did turn 40 this year but it hadn't hit home until I saw my brown dress shoes.  I did however, continue to finish the field work.  I figured that people couldn't see my feet from the road anyway.

The weeks are ticking by and crops are struggling with the weather to keep yielding (me too).  Kale has petered out, tomatoes are going down fast due to heat and the heavy rain a few weeks back.  Peppers are just starting to produce.  I have some in pots in the greenhouse and more out in the field.  I am just seeing where we get better yields.  Leeks are just turning ready.  We only had two weeks of sweet onions this year due to poor germinating seeds.  I planted some very late not sure of the outcome, but it looks like they won't size up until next year.  Our herbs have been doing great this year in the pots.  This was a good decision from last year and we have had a much better yield and consistency. 

I have been watching for some peaches this year and they were almost ready.  We had enough for about 1 week pickup.  I went by to check the status early this week and the entire crop was gone.  I'm not sure what took them but I couldn't find a trace.  Usually if it is critters they take a few bites and leave the seeds or half eaten fruit around.  Not this time.  I'm not sure what happened here.  There is always next year to hope for.  This year was bad for tree fruit.  No loquats either.  Our citrus have pretty much succumbed to citrus greening except for a few trees near the greenhouse which are infected. I am trying non-organically to keep them producing.  It would be really unfortunate to lose our great yielding lemon tree.  I'm not sure if we can keep them alive or not.  There are two olives on my tree this year.  This will be the second year of 4 years since planting that we have had two olives.  I only planted it on looks but I am always curious to see if they will ever yield an olive.  Two years when I ate one of the two that were on the tree, I learned that you can't eat olives off the tree.  Trust me on this one.  They apparently need to be brined before eating.  Which I know now for this year if they yield a harvestable fruit.  I'm not sure what I can do with two olives...maybe a martini? 

Our blueberries in pots yielded fairly well.  The boys love to go there first and check them.  Katie has discovered them as well and I could barely pull her away kicking and screaming because she couldn't find anymore to eat.  I hope to add some more for the farm for the benefit of our customers (as well as Katie's) in the near future.

Week 20, 2011

We are slowly wrapping up the season. Thankfully it has gone very well. I am really excited about the peaches, nectarines, and the plums that have produced abundantly. Unfortunately, when they are ready to be picked, they are ready. The peaches have been falling off the trees and every night I pick them off the ground and either give them away or cut them up and freeze them. Jennifer makes a great cobbler. But we get a little bit overworked cutting up peaches at midnight. They attract a great deal of flies, wasps, love bugs, stink bugs, and bees. In fact, I got stung by a wasp while making a blind reach to pick a peach off the tree the other day. I am really looking forward to giving them to our members this Saturday. I would be nice if they ripen a bit over time. Maybe next year I will pick them early and let our members ripen them at home.

The corn, watermelon, cantalope, cukes, zukes, peppers, pumpkin and beans are growing pretty well. I am very disappointed by the new zucchini for us "Costata romanesco". It did very poorly being prone to viruses. Our saved zucchini seeds seem to be doing better. All in all it looks like we will finish well this year.

I had to remove one of the older Dixie Chicks from the flock last Saturday. I did some reading on the matter and figured I had general idea. It wasn't a pleasant task, but in the end it was best and it turned out fairly well. It took a lot longer than I thought. I had a bunch of learning on the job. The chicken ended up as Copper's food for the week. Next time it should be quicker. I think that a whole bunch of folk wouldn't eat chicken if they were left to the task of preparing their meal with a start of a live bird. You really have a whole bunch of time to think about things when you are preparing the bird. I feel that this week I will need to cull out the rooster as he is beating up on one of the older Dixie hens. Her comb is nearly off and he won't let her off of the nest area.

Week 15, 2011

Things are moving along nicely at the farm. Very low humidity with 60 to 85 degrees. The plants are growing nicely. Potato tops are looking good with a little damage from some Colorado potato beetles. The Italian (Nadia) eggplants are finally putting out a crop after being in the ground for 6 months and getting frosted multiple times. I'm not sure the plants realize they are supposed to be mature at the end of 3 months from transplants...well at least they are producing. Onions are starting to swell. I ate my first almost ripe loquat of the season yesterday. Not too bad. They will be ready to harvest in a week or two. The tomatoes are starting to ripen up well. Uncle Matt's cherry tomato is ready to harvest again. They are a farm favorite. I can't figure out what the red garlic is doing. I'm not sure if it has grown too thin or if it will swell in the future. The peaches are getting bigger and I can't wait to taste them. We have a bunch of plums and nectarines that are sizing up this year as well. The beets are almost ready to pick. We will be planting corn, okra, and more basil this week.


Here is a great looking recipe from Jennifer (one of our member supporters) for a mustard, fettuccine, and mushroom dish. Just click this link http://tiny.cc/kpuai Enjoy! If you have recipes to share let us know.