2015 Farmers' Market Schedule

He likes spinach. This is a good thing.

Happy springtime, everyone!

After a seemingly endless, cold, steel-gray and cloudy winter we are off to a start here on the farm. We are harvesting spring lettuces, spinach, kale, Swiss chard and will soon have radishes and onions. And more seeding and planting continues....

The Stanly County Farmers' Market started this last Saturday, April 11, 2015. The market will run every Saturday, 8am to 12pm, through October. In June, July, and August the market will be open on Wednesdays from 8am until 12pm as well. WIC is accepted at this market.

Then, on May 4th, the Stanly Commons Farmers' Market will open and operate every Monday from 9am to 1pm through October or November - I'm not sure they have an end date - sometimes it depends on what is available. As you can see by the graphic below, SNAP/EBT and WIC are accepted at this market.

See you at the farmers' market!

Can't Write. Too Nice Out. Must Garden.

Meanwhile, dear readers, have a go at these photos. Will write soon, I promise.

Local Food

Fresh Milk

Goat Hoof Work

Not a day goes by, Sis. I miss you.
April 1975 - 2012

Pasture Princess

Sam

Good Times.

Good Morning!

Good Afternoon.

Good Eggs.

From our family to yours - we hope you are enjoying your summer! Find us on Facebook and "Like" us - it's a proverbial adventure from morning until night.

Winning Friends, Influencing People and Cheap Spinach

Today I learned a lesson over again. You can't please everyone all the time. You can only please one person at a time. Today was not my day.

I learned something else, too. Slugs will eat holes in your Wong Bok. They will also eat holes in your Romaine lettuce. Fire ants will take up residence in your raised beds, laughing at you because they know you refuse to use poison (diatomaceous earth slows them down and even makes them move, but then they come back and with a vengeance.) I hate slugs. I'm thinking of inviting them to an all-you-can-drink beer-fest. "Leave your keys at the door, boys and girls!" Heh heh heh.

When I price my spinach, Romaine lettuce, radishes (let's not forget the voles that take tiny, teeny little bites out of the radish JUST as it becomes ripe, the little twirps), turnip and mustard greens for market, sometimes I have to remind myself that here in America, we pay less for our food than most other developed countries. It seems bizarre that I would labor for hours, days and weeks over a few ounces of spinach only to practically give it away. Especially poignant is when people say, "oh, it must be nice to stay home and garden. I wish I could do that." But they forget that there are no acrylic nails here, the hair salon visits are years apart, and that hands are not Palmolive soft - they're more like #50 sandpaper and catch on any nice clothing you may have, but not wear, as it is too muddy, dusty, or you-name-it out there.

Today I learned that I really appreciate all of the things that Captain Strong Arms does to make our lives just that wee bit easier. Like the automatic chicken waterer. And the goat milking stanchion. And the list goes on. He was out there with me in the greenhouse tonight, until just a little while ago, holding the flashlight. Yes, you read that right, flashlight. An 8 am farmers' market in a county 30 minutes from here dictates an evening harvest. We'll see how everything holds up.

I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.

Happy Farmers' Marketing everyone, 'tis the season! Support your local farmers, don't haggle them down on price, and ALWAYS WASH YOUR PRODUCE before you prepare it.

Cheers!

Holding My Own Pen

When it is silent in the greenhouse, there is a lot of time for thinking. No noise pollution - just the singing of the birds - it is quiet. Often it takes some adjustment to hearing your own thoughts - we are so used to being conditioned to always be doing something; listening, watching, reading. I welcome the quiet of the greenhouse. It forces me to think about what I'm doing at that very moment. Being present takes getting used to.

What I thought about yesterday while starting lettuce seeds was, "Who are we?" Instead of the age-old adage, "We are what we eat," which is mostly true, I wondered, "What story are we writing with our lives?"

No answer came quickly, but as I painstakingly prepared the soil-less mix and counted each seed one by one, I began to realize that we are writing our stories as we go along.

Who (or what) is holding your pen?

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Dear Farmer

Dear Farmer,

Thank you for getting up early, going to bed late, and always having dirt underneath your nails. Thank you for  starting seeds in January, February and March, knowing that there might be some cold nights that slow down the growth of, or even kill, the tender seedlings and you will have to do it all over again. And sometimes twice.

Thank you for planning your market garden, while everyone else is playing Farmville.

Thanks for hardly ever taking a day off, and for not having a negative attitude when someone asks, "what do you do for a living?" and then assumes that if you aren't at the farmers' market or on a tractor then you aren't "working."

Thank you for wearing out a pair of boots in one season, only to realize that you get what you pay for and finally break down to buy the more expensive but better-made boot that will last many seasons.

Thank you for buying the seeds that have not been treated, and for not using chemical and synthetic fertilizers on the plants to make them grow faster. Thank you for thinking of so many things months and years in advance to facilitate what you are doing now, early spring of 2013.

Thank you for having the courage to put yourself out there, to learn something you've never done before, to be vulnerable in a world that appreciates a 401(k) more than it might appreciate a crop of vegetables.

Thank you.

Farm School Field Trip & other useless info

Because I know all of you readers plan your days around mine, I thought I'd give you some useless information:

I'll be headed out early on our first field trip for Piedmont Farm School. I've got my muck boots ready and my camera packed.

Oh, and the duck is laying eggs in a nest.  Just sayin'.

The radishes popped up today. I could almost see them in motion.

Yesterday's egg count: 12
Today's egg count: 10

Keep calm and farm on,

Where My Seedlings Get Their Start

There is always a sense of urgency during this time of year. I call it the "hurry up and wait" session. There is so much to be done in the garden area, and if you're anything like us, you've been inundated with the deluge of water from the clouds lately, making a lovely mud soup out of the area that needs to be tilled.

Looks like a bunch of junk, huh!?

No entry. Unless you want to lose your muck boots in the 12" deep mud. I survey the untouchable landscape with some anxiousness. I NEED to get in there and plant the cabbage, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower seedlings that are getting far too big for their infant carriers and either need to be transplanted or potted up.

Digging, welding, and more. Captain Strong Arms had his work cut out for him.

But I digress. I may be getting ahead of myself, because after all, this greenhouse has only been up since late fall of 2011. We came by the 1938 Lord & Burnham beauty just in time. She was going to be torn down. Can you imagine? In order for her to fit in the space which we needed her to reside, she had to be shortened a bit. This meant that the supporting beams and cross-braces had to endure some fabrication. I just make the sandwiches, folks, let that be clear. Captain Strong Arms is to blame for all the hard work here.

It looks like.......a ?

See that look? That means, "put the camera down and bring me a sandwich," to which I happily oblige. If it means I don't have to hammer here, "hold this" there, and stand with my arms over my head for what feels like hours, I'm all about the sandwich. 

Suddenly, there she is.

 I digress. Again. Hardening off will have to occur before transplanting, but potting up requires a step up container-size wise and more potting soil or soil-less mix. Then, they'll begin to need fertilizer as they won't be getting the nutrients they need to get to the next size.

What I'm trying to embrace, here, is that all good things come in due time. "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." Lau Tzu

I'm grateful that Captain Strong Arms has the vision, tenacity, and know-how when it comes to tearing down and re-building something like this. I've watched him time and again repair something, restore a part of the house, all with little investment (use what you've got mentality) and the results are always shining.

Thank you, dear husband, for working so hard around this small-timey farm, making our lives that wee-bit easier.

I'm really glad my seedlings have a nice place to wait.

So, this is where my seedlings get their start. And I am so grateful. Even if I have to wait for the rain to stop and the mud to dry up. All good things come to those who wait. I'm going to hurry up and wait. Meanwhile, I'll be starting more seeds.....and watching over the seedlings, assuring them of their future.

How are YOUR seedlings waiting?

What to do with your raised beds at the end of December

Of course it would be ideal to say that at the end of harvest, the raised beds were cleared and prepped for winter. Alas, if you're anything like me, they are not. So, what to do if you've procrastinated with the best of us?

First - dig in.

Clear all the debris you can see on top, removing spent plants and any leaves that might have blown in when fall came our way.

Now is a good time to get an assessment of your soil done, too.  Contact your local Cooperative Extension office for further instructions on how to get your soil tested for FREE.Ideally now is the time to do this, because when spring arrives, the offices will be very busy and your results will take longer to come back.Whether you intend to plant some early cool crops or wait to plant the main summer crops, the results of your soil test will determine what it may need if anything.

I was pleased to see this worm in the dirt!

The hardest part of this is cleaning up the piles of your labor. Currently mine are still where I left them. I had to come inside and devour a bowl of homemade version of pasta e fagioli soup leftover from yesterday.

And so dear fellow slackers, there you have it.

And, photo-bombed, bigtime, by Bob. Thanks, Bob.

And then, here came the dogs:

And this one, in particular, was very serious....

And another dog is not quite so serious....

Whatever lofty things you might accomplish today, you will do them only because you first ate something that grew out of dirt.
- Barbara Kingsolver