July 27, 2012

Wow! July is nearly over and the fall planting season is here.  We are putting in

green and wax beans, peas, cucumber, radish, beets, kohlrabi, carrots, spinach, kale, chards and collards.

With the rains and cooler weather we have finished the weeding and cleaning up the

vegetable beds for now and are still trying to get the mulch down.  The garlic is drying and smells amazing on the front porch.

We harvested our first zucchini, green beans and okra this week.  The tomatoes are turning their respective colors…

We are planning more perennial beds to go with the red raspberries, horseradish, blue berries and asparagus.  These new beds will be lined with chicken wire buried in the ground to keep the baby bunnies and larger rodents out.  The fall garlic (7 kinds) will be planted there as well as more brassica  (cabbage, broccoli and brussel sprouts) and some greens.

For the farmers market we will have garlic, onions, potatoes, beets, okra, kohlrabi, green beans, and zucchini and a few sunflower blossoms.  

I am new to cooking okra so any favorite okra recipes will be appreciated.

Amanda and Dan completed the run for the guinea fowl this week and they are slowly trying it out.   They were in a small cage on front porch for a couple weeks.  We are enjoying watching their growth.  We are trying to decide our long term plans for them at the moment.

July 20, 2012

Another week on the farm.  The temperature has definitely dropped in the last few days.  We finally got a little rain yesterday afternoon and last night after watching storms go around us for several days.  We are finally putting up a rain gauge to keep a more accurate record of what is happening here.

We hired a couple extra hands to help with the weeding that was becoming overwhelming.  With the weeds pulled we can now go back in and finally mulch, mulch and mulch….which will keep the new weeds from coming in and the moisture we do get near the roots.  The beets, kohlrabi and squash are starting to look good. 

The new Aracuna chicks we purchased in March (36) just started laying their eggs yesterday so we will be having eggs to sell next week.   The new eggs are a beautiful pale green-blue-grey which compliment the chocolate brown of the Maran hens that are still around from last year. 

We will be selling more garlic, potatoes, onions and beets at the Athens farmers market on Saturday @10.

This week we also were able to finally brush hog the middle field for future pasture and Amanda continues to check on the bees in hope of honey soon.

We are also stumped by an interesting moth that seems to arrive in the mornings.

These moths are about two inches tall and four inches wide and are usually near the front porch and plants there. 

Farming is so much about enjoying the little things…. A cool rain. An interesting new moth.  A farm cat that likes to bring gifts like dead mice…..

Another week to celebrate!  

Life on the farm

July 13, 2012

The heat has finally dropped but the drought pretty much continues. Crops are slowly coming in but the quality and amount are dependant on our watering schedule.

Two weeks ago.  With temperatures above 90 most of the week we started earlier than usual with our daily chores and watering and weeding.  We can almost see the plants growing in front of our eyes from morning until evening, with the weeds as always seemingly winning the race.

Two weeks ago on Friday Daniel carefully picked our Lodi apples, our earliest breed, which are green and tart but seriously are so ripe they are (were) bruising on the limbs of the trees. 

We packed for the Saturday morning Athens Farm Market and early in the evening

the derecho storm arrived.  Going out to the porch to bring in the light weight cushions and what ever we could grab, Scott and I ended up running for the cover of the house as the lighter weight porch chairs became projectiles aiming at our heads.

As the winds twisted and turned the trees, seemingly every apple left bounced on the ground and covered the grounds with all the apples missed in our first picking.

As of last night the raccoons have discovered the ripe and ready apples and were driving the dogs crazy in the middle of the night….as the raccoons in the tree munched to their hearts content.

Products available this week at the market include: early potatoes, radishes, green onions, beets, and two kinds of garlic.

Hope to see you at the market on Saturday.