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.

Summer 2013 Is On It's Way

Oh, it's been too, too long! Last time I wrote the boys were just going back to school and now they are just about to get out for summer! We are revving up the plots big time and I have so much to share.

We had to re-sheet the greenhouse because the hard plastic we used last year broke down faster than we thought it would. It was corrugated sheeting we bought at a liquidation sale and it didn't have any UV protection, so.....it cracked up. Literally. It made it one year, good enough!

We decided it was time to pen the chickens rather than put fences up around all the gardens this year. It broke our heart to enclose them but things are too hectic around here to go chasing chickens all day every day. We gave them a nice covered porch area in front of the coop and they are slowly accepting their fate. Our poor white leghorn, who is the smallest but most productive layer we have, laid banty sized eggs the first few times she was so upset.

We are now into market season and you can find us at the Columbia Farmer's Market every Saturday morning. If you have any questions for me please write me. I'll tell you what I know and we'll work out the rest!

I will post some pics of our season so far. God has been very gracious to us and has seen fit to bless us abundantly. If you have a need or you just need a prayer, just ask!

Where's the time gone?!

Whew! Where to begin? The boys are back in school and our second plantings are starting to rev up. Our first planting of pretty much everything: tomatoes, zucchini, patty pans, butternut, and acorn squash has given up the ghost. No amount of watering helps at a certain point. We have even had to jump start our compost pile. We have been adding broken hay bales, yard waste, and broken down manure to the pile and it has just sat and baked, instead of break down. We soaked it with the sprinkler for a whole day and have covered it with a tarp. We'll flip it around here in a while to see if it starts composting. I never dreamed I would see the day that zucchini would be hard to grow and you had to work for compost. One thing I can say with no uncertainty: whenever we have had a need, God has met it. We have food to eat, water to drink, and when a bill comes due, the money always seem to be there.

I only have a short animal adventure story this time. We moved some hay bales out of the end of our greenhouse to make room for planting, and there was a HUGE ground hog den under the pallets. My boys solution? Left over bottle rockets that couldn't be shot because of the fire hazard!! So we let the boys shoot some rockets down in the hole, in the hopes that the critter was in there somewhere and it would scare him/them off. It must have worked, because it sits empty. Now let's just hope we don't have a cave in from the dry ground and huge den!!!

Last but not least, some recipes for Patty Pan Squash:

1) Cut them in slices to make "patties" and throw them on the grill with a little oil and salt.
2) Take the patty slices and put olive oil and Parmesan cheese on them and bake until light brown.
3) Cut in half, scoop seeds out, and fill with cooked hamburger, cheddar, and BBQ sauce and bake. You could also use sausage, mozzarella, and pasta sauce.

Herb growing tips

Annual herbs are meant to be cut and used often. Once an annual herb flowers, it will put all its energy into producing seeds and the leaves will wither. I find it's best to leave at least half of the foliage when you cut some off. If you find you are using it so often it is looking bare, have more than one plant. 

If you grow your herbs outside, and decide at the end of summer you don't want to bring them in, let it flower and put the whole seed head in a zipper bag and grow your own in the spring. Or you can leave the pot or ground alone until next spring and you will have volunteer plants. 

Tomato Grow Box Tips

Here are some tips for my customers that bought "grow boxes" from us:

1) They need to be watered about every other day. If you need to go longer, you can put the whole box in a rubbermaid tub or something similar and fill it about 6 inches with water. The ends are just spot welded, and the water will seep into the box. 

2) They require fertilizer about every 3 to 4 weeks. Any vegetable or tomato fertilizer will do, just make sure they are kept wet afterwards.

3) You can use a tomato cage in the box or put a stake (broom handle, metal rod, etc) in the ground right next to the box to support it. Tie the stems to the stake with old rag strips or yarn.

4) If you have trouble telling the ripeness of the fruit by color, it is ready to pick when the shoulder of the fruit (the part next to the stem) is no longer firm. You must use this method for Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Golden Jubilee, and Pineapple. 

5) All of our tomato plants are indeterminate, meaning they grow and produce fruit for as long as the life of the plant, they do not fruit all at once.

6) If you have any questions, please leave a comment on this blog, or go to my facebook page and like it. 

Thanks, and I truly hope these plants nourish your body and your mind!