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Black From Tula

Mother's Day weekend is upon us. This is probably the biggest weekend for us at the market. Forecast calls for sunny and mild, so I had better get my sleep tonight because we are going to be BUSY tomorrow! I am hoping this list is our complete inventory as to what we will have at market tomorrow.

****I am looking for real customers to use in my social media settings. If you have a picture, story, or recipe that uses or pertains to our plants or produce, make yourself a part of our lives! That is what I like best about being a vendor at the market ---- our people! I love to talk about life and share the happiness and burdens we have, that is what we are meant to do.****

Muncher Cucumber (burpless variety)
Straight 8 Cucumber (salad variety)
Sumpter Cucumber (pickler)
California Wonder Bell Pepper
Pimiento Pepper
Thai Chili
Serrano Pepper
Cayanne Pepper
Jalapeno Pepper
Banana Pepper
Zucchini
Yellow Straight Neck Summer Squash
White Scallop Squash (Patty Pan)
Spaghetti Squash
Butternut Squash
Blue Curled Scotch Kale (dwarf variety)
Beauregard Sweet Potato
Black Diamond Watermelon

New Items This Year:
Ground Cherry
Tomatillo Verde
Guajillo Pepper
Amana Orange Tomato
Green Zebra Tomato
Ponderosa Pink Tomato

Tomato varieties:
Delicious
Brandywine
Red Cherry
Cherokee Purple
Big Red
Italian Pear
Rutgers
Abe Lincoln
Purple Russian
Indigo Rose
Goldie
Yellow Pear
Red Pear
Golden Jubilee
Pineapple
Black Krim
Roma
Mortgage Lifter

Spring 2016: week two

Aaron and Ethan hard at work.

I have updated the previous post with some more produce plants. Please take a look and see if there is anything that strikes your fancy. I always welcome comments, discussions, questions, recipes, and even jokes if you got 'em!
Here are some farm photos. 

Our chicken coop got an upgrade. Now their castle is lit up so the boys can see when they go out to collect the eggs. 

I'm just the supervisor - after back surgery, I don't do all the back breaking work anymore, that's what husbands and sons are for, right???

I will take credit for being the brains (a little - LOL) and I did help build this beast of a greenhouse.

Aaron's babies....

Just checking to see if anybody even reads my blog. Gotcha!

Columbia Farmers Market 2016 Kick Off!

Spring is upon us and the first farmer's market sale is tomorrow! How is it possible?! We have expanded a little and were blessed to be able to purchase a small trailer and racks so we can bring a lot more plants. I have had many of our friends asking me to list our plant varieties we have tomorrow so here goes...

Muncher Cucumber (burpless variety)
Straight 8 Cucumber (salad variety)
Sumpter Cucumber (pickler)
California Wonder Bell Pepper
Pimiento Pepper
Thai Chili
Serrano Pepper
Cayanne Pepper
Jalapeno Pepper
Banana Pepper
Zucchini
Yellow Straight Neck Summer Squash
White Scallop Squash (Patty Pan)
Spaghetti Squash
Butternut Squash
Blue Curled Scotch Kale (dwarf variety)
Beauregard Sweet Potato
Black Diamond Watermelon

New Items This Year:
Ground Cherry
Tomatillo Verde
Guajillo Pepper
Amana Orange Tomato
Green Zebra Tomato
Ponderosa Pink Tomato

Tomato varieties:
Delicious
Brandywine
Red Cherry
Cherokee Purple
Big Red
Italian Pear
Rutgers
Abe Lincoln
Purple Russian
Indigo Rose
Goldie
Yellow Pear
Red Pear
Golden Jubilee
Pineapple
Black Krim
Roma
Mortgage Lifter

This list is not complete, we have seedlings that need a couple of weeks to fill out and meet our standards. I will update the list as we add plants in future sales. I hope to see my friends at Columbia Farmer's Market!

Spring Wrap Up

Spring plant sales are officially over! Sales this spring were not as good as we hoped they would be - it rained seven of the twelve times we set up at the Columbia Farmer's Market - but we somehow seem to manage, Praise the Lord!


Friday after I got home from work, we went to town to get some change for the market. Coming back home, there was something flat laying in the road that I couldn't avoid running over. At first glance, I thought it was a flat piece of our corrugated plastic from the farm that had blown onto the road. As I ran over it, it made a noise that was definitely not "plastic-y" and sounded more like metal. I said to Aaron, "What was that? A piece of our plastic?" and he said, "I don't know what it was." and didn't seem too concerned. You see, Aaron has played in a rock-n-roll band for many years and his hearing is not what it used to be (imagine that!) and he didn't hear the metallic sound it made. I offhandedly said, "I hope that wasn't our sign." meaning our Humble Hill Heirlooms sign that we made to hang on our tent. Aaron immediately screamed, "Oh my God! It is our sign!!! I left it on top of the truck earlier and it must have blown off!!!"


I'm going to pause a moment and let that sink in.


A sign that we made by picking out a machined piece of aluminum from a junk yard, sprayed with auto body paint, lettered with vinyl lettering, and lovingly pinstriped, all for the purpose of becoming our advertising symbol to the world, was laying on 24 Highway being blasted at 60 miles an hour tires for about an hour. I was praying my heart out as I turned the car around, the same car I had flippantly zoomed over said sign, asking God to please, please, please salvage our sign. I pulled over and got out. It was laying lettered side up. I picked it up and pushed it into Aaron's hands and quickly pulled into our driveway. We got out and wiped the sign with a towel - not a scratch on it!!! The only damage was the hole at the top was bent from the metal link pressing into it. What a miracle!!!


Anyway, the gardens are planted and the boys are really stepping up in helping their dad on the farm. My body is not what it used to be and I have more bad days than good, but things always work out when it's for the Glory of God. We try to use our home business as a living ministry to our kids and anyone else that comes our way. I will update with some produce pics soon!

Spring Plant Sales Have Begun

My husband has done it again! Another fantastic batch of heirloom vegetable plants to offer for sale at the Columbia Farmers Market. I have been asked by many customers what we have to offer so I am going to post an all inclusive list. Of course, availability varies with all of our varieties according to sales.


Tomato varieties:
Abe Lincoln
Ace 55
Delicious
Italian Pear
Pineapple
Tigerella
Beefsteak
Brandywine
Ponderosa Pink
Rose
Golden Jubilee
Black Krim
Black from Tula
Purple Cherokee
Roma
Tom Boy
Red Pear
Yellow Pear
Indigo Rose
Chocolate Cherry
Red Cherry
Yellow Cherry


Peppers:
Red Bell
Purple Bell
Yellow Bell
Orange Bell
Jalapeno
Poblano Ancho
Habanero
Banana


Melons:
Iroquois Cantaloupe
Black Diamond Watermelon


Cucumbers:
Muncher
Straight 8


Squash:
Zucchini
White Scallop (Patty Pan)
Yellow Crook Neck
Spaghetti
Table Queen Acorn
Butternut


Herbs:
Salad Burnet
Genovese Basil
Sweet Basil
Lemon Basil
Cinnamon Basil
Opal Basil
Fennell


Misc:
Beauregard Sweet Potato slips
Scotch Blue Curly Leaf Kale

Seedling pictures

 Just the beginning...

As always, the ever present "garden cat" Kittums. She sneaks in the warm greenhouse whenever possible, but she can't stay because she tries to bed down in the seedlings.

Almost ready.

Spring sales are almost here

Finally! Longer hours of sunlight and the beginning of warmer days. We have started our seedlings for the Columbia Farmer's Market. Our small greenhouse has weathered another winter in very fine fashion, but the large one is looking a little rough. We will have to re-sheet the bottom three feet, but otherwise, it will make the season. We can't wait to see all of our friends at the Market - sellers and shoppers alike.

This year we have added asparagus, sweet potato slips, kale, brussel sprout, spaghetti squash, Iroquois cantaloupe, lime basil, and cinnamon basil to our list of spring seedlings for sale. We have also expanded the number of varieties of some of our standards. We will have yellow, orange, red, purple in addition to our green sweet bell peppers. We will have over twenty varieties of tomato plants this year - I won't bore you with the names! Just know that we test drive them all and pick the widest range of tastes from savory to sweet.

Now for the long awaited animal story. All winter we babied about six growing boxes with two kale plants in each in the small greenhouse. We prefer kale to lettuce, so we were all excited to have fresh salad all winter long, but it was not to be. Aaron likes to let the chickens out at the end of the day so they can get some gravel, bugs, and greens out of the big greenhouse. Unfortunately, he forgot he had propped the small greenhouse door open to keep the temperature down, and guess what..... chickens love kale! They stripped all but two plants down to the stalk. I will say though, they produced some rich eggs for a few days!

God was with us more than once when the temps were so low, as well. The small greenhouse door had a stick lodged in the bottom and the door was open a few inches on a night below freezing, but the plants did just fine. Another time, the temperature went lower than expected on a night we didn't have f ire in the boiler, and there was no heat circulating, but again, God was good and had mercy on us!

Thank you for reading our family farm blog and supporting local growers - it's good for you and good for us.