what is winter for?

Dreaming of pest free farming
Dreaming of the seed order
Dreaming of planning sessions
Sleeping and dreaming
Sleeping and eating
Eating and feeding
Oh yeah! wake up & harvest!!

We have had a very mild winter thus far. We are prepared with plastic & hoops & all manner of protection. Up until this week the cold came & went. Replaced by temps that belong in the spring.
I am not complainin mind you. I'm enjoying harvesting without the fingers going numb. And there it is! we still have food we are harvesting! And the people are hungry! For that we are grateful. Its been steady cold for a few days now and we are okay with that too. The sun seems to come out just as we need it.

The not farming part of farming
There is time for a few other things, such as, a new email system, so everyone gets the winter delivery email, and its fancied up with pics and links. Overall it is more friendly to the user. Nice goin Hattie! And I was able to fancy up the old website template with some new photos and hopefully more useful information, check it out.

Returnin' Super Special Guest
We were lucky to enlist a real live master to handle a few of the pesky tasks we didn't know how to tackle.

Andy Shaw, master rot chaser, who usually works with an ever-rotting wooden boat, came by & chased some away from our outdoor shed/ veggie cooling unit. He knows what he is doing.


Then we had a return visit , when he made 3 amazing & spectacular tables for the hoophouse.
No more ( well, less) back breaking bending while we grow the bedding plants! Super Special!


Thanks Andy for your much needed work and your charming presence on the farm.

Since my extent of 'carpentry' is hammering a few nails into the wall...
It was for a good cause to get the tools organized. Added a few years to my life.
Thing of beauty, ain? I like it.
There is a lot more to do than we have done thus far. But that's another day. Time to sleep & dream.

Cat is Lion at Home

ROAR! Bubba loves his Hattie's Garden Grass



Yes, we did get the plastic back on the hoophouse. Thanks to a couple Freemans, and a calm warm day this fall. We planted it up & I'd have to 'check our records' to tell you when we planted, but I tell you it grew so fast & furious, the produce is a little ahead of schedule. Well a lil bit maybe who knows. But I do know it has been a gracious fall as far as temps go. And since it all grew & is near done I think we are going to try some replanting. crazy tawk!


Who you ask is that person in the background? Well, I know its my signature color, but its not me, I'm not that graceful. Its DEB! and next time I will ask her permission and actually put a pic of her face in the blog if she lets me....She is our SUPER VOLUNTEER!

And this is the AMAZING VEG of the week. so sweet & tender. Kinda seems like a cross between Pak/Bok Choi and Broc Raab. You will not be disappointed if you got in under the wire to order this lil guy. Well, what was left after the harvest snacking.....



MERRY HOLIDAY TO YA'LL. HAPPY SOLSTICE....

the secret life

I know you imagine the baskets of fresh produce & us skipping through the rows, plucking a leaf here & there as the birds chirp.... (Queue Edelweiss)

Sometimes it's not very glamorous or romantic, this farming thing.... But it is an honorable way of living. ain it? Today I was weeding the spinach and realize how simple a thing that sounds like and yet, how important it is too. Such a simple task. But it can take all day. Spinach is a testy veg to harvest. Leaf by leaf. tedious some say. Much easier when it's weed-free. So we must. we must. Just try to find the zen.

You can see my fancy new 'tool' there in the foreground, The tines of the rake are adjustable to fit the width of the path between the rows. genius I tell ya! I like me tools I does.

Cheers!

-----THE END

Our bees died.


This most likely happened because someone sprayed a chemical on the lawn or around their house or possibly one of the conventional farms sprayed something creepy. and the bees got it and it killed them. It is really heartbreaking. Dave ( our bee man) said that it was one of the really healthy hives. I'm not sure if he has been back to open it up & take stock, but we hold onto hope that they are raising a queen, and we'll see them again. I really miss them. The garden is not the same.

Please consider all the beneficial insects before you decide to kill one that you don't like or feel you need. thanks.

Frightful Farmer Face Fluctuation

Please read the following graph with your BEST Vinny Price impression/accent:

So with the impending Nor'easter "scheduled" for our final market day at the HLFM , we had a hard time gauging who would come out & how much to harvest. It's the eve before the eve before all hallows eve, so what are we to expect? A stirring of the weather cauldron is what! MWAWHAahahHa...HAH.

you may return to your previously designated Deny Accent:
This being an October Nor'easter, it's bound to be a cold one. Dang arctic bidness. I think we have used all our 'hold until tomorrow' cards. All we needed was one. more. day. Actually we didn't have to use any cards, before now, really because just about every day that we were at market, it was absolutely perfect, sometimes it rained as we drove home. OH YEAH, once it lightnin & thundah'd during the opening bell. We wuz lucky dat time, and so with this sendoff from Mother Nature Her Highness, I'm feeling a bit blessed. kin I git an Amen.

We will layer up & hunker down and be waiting with all of our wunnerful produce. Please c'mon out and pick up enough to last ya. This is it.. of course , unless you are on the special off season delivery list... and if you don't know bout it & live in the Tri-Town Area, please ask...

BRRRR
Yes today was a forewarning of what is to come, seems we forget the chilly feeling after a summer of heat & humidity & temps you can be naked in & not notice.... You better believe I had the longhandles on today as I will in the morrow....

Since the harvest was in flux, so to speak... we had some time to fiddle around ( not really but pretend with me for a moment ) so Hattie & I decided to try on possible Halloween Costumes!
Here we are in our best garden attire... whachutink?

SKERRY SPINACH FACE

Instead of John Travolta and Nick Cage in Face Off..... a less scary (I hope) me & spinach mask... also note the covered rows behind me....

Can you believe we have spinach leaves
as big as our faces!?!
come get some at the HLFM on saturday!!!



This is Hattie as CAP'N SPINACH HOOK.
( captain hook... get it? I probably didn't need to point it out)

Anywho, thanks for a great market season and we are ready to deliver your goods starting next weekend... Costumes negotiable.... ;) wink... nudge...

See you in the mornin!!!!!!

orange you glad?

It's fall and I know this not only because of the temps at night ( and the fuzzy socks on my toes) but because I have been eating winter squash!! how I love them. at first I eat them just roasted, later I will get interesting. This Kabocha from Greenbranch awaits the knife.... how do you eat yours?


As promised and only a month later than promised, here is a shot that doesn't quite get a good angle on all the plantings in the field.

Take our word for it, there is lotsa food in that thar gard'n.
Them's carrots in the lush center row ...

Ya'll come out to the market this weekend. It's a long one & gawjuss too. We'll have lotsa food.

jimmy cheezy cocopoof

I know its hard to believe, after the 8+ inches we had with Irene & family, but I have to tell you that we realized it was dry today! This time instead of the burnin hot sun and what not, ( but I don't have to tell you that the sun is at a crazy angle.) The Wind, had a little to do with sucking the moisture outta ...ever ...livin ....thang ...on tha... earth.

Chapped lips, tumbleweeds, dust bowl.

There was much watering of seedlings today. No I wont complain. Because this summer when it was a hundred thousand degrees I was dreamin of a wind, even a hot dry wind. Blow-dryer-wind is what we called it in the SW.

Yes I have no photos this week. I hope I don't bore you. please write & tell me if i do. actually write & tell me anything. any ol thang.

So... I can tell you that we have a fall garden planted. AND that is why I have been somewhat silent. The heaping spoonfuls of soil and seed I am hauling around the garden, yes, me, alone, all me, solo, sans hands..... Oh HI HATTIE!, Oh I was just joking... ha ha, hee... heee? ha? ho? hello?
I'm of course being silly, that happens I am told. We do everything by hand so the brain starts to get giddy.

Hattie plowed her bootie off, making amazing raised beds for planting. Then we compost & level each bed for seed. And then the seeding, by hand mostly. yadda yadda.water, yadda, Its really amazing.

Its a beautiful thing. I am gonna take a photo for you, this week. I AM! i will! I SWEAR!

This is all for you my winter denizens! Never fear ! The Cornucopia of Nourishment is at your door just for the asking. So easy. I bring you yummyness. just ask.