BA Farm

The New Bafarm Blog

2011-12-05T00:48:00.003-05:00

Since this past year I have started planting at a new location, I figured that I would start up a new blog. I will still be keeping this blog up, but I will be posting to the new blog now instead of this one.

I sill have a lot of pictures and info to add to the new blog. I have many many photos to add to the Photos Page, and I will also be adding a page with pictures and info about many of the different vegetable varieties we grow.

So here is the link to the new blog:
http://bafarmblog.blogspot.com/

Lots of Okra

2011-08-25T13:30:00.005-04:00

This year the one crop that has done extremely well has been my okra. The plants are huge and beautiful and have been quite productive. So since it is doing so well I figured I would do a post about okra and provide a couple of recipes for how I like to cook it. Many people do not like okra because of the fact that it can be slimy, but that all depends on how you cook it. Here are two of my favorite ways to cook okra.

Okra Patties
Ingredients:
3 cups vegetable oil for frying
1 pound okra, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cornmeal

Directions:
Heat 1 inch of oil in a large skillet to 375 degrees or cook on a medium heat.

In a large bowl, mix together the okra, onion, salt, pepper, water, and egg. Combine the flour, baking powder and cornmeal; and stir that into the okra mixture.

Carefully drop spoonfuls of the okra batter into the hot oil, and fry on each side until golden, about 2 minutes per side. Remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels.

Note: You can also use some yellow squash or zucchini instead of okra. (3/4 pound okra, and 1/4 pound summer squash/zucchini)

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Okra Rice
Ingredients:
1 pound bacon
1 large onion, chopped
3 cups sliced okra
1 cup blended tomatoes
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 cup uncooked rice
1 1/2 cups water

Directions:
Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain grease and set aside for later use. Crumble bacon and set aside.

In the same skillet, saute onion in a small amount of reserved bacon grease over medium high heat until tender, about 3 minutes. Add crumbled bacon, sliced okra, blended tomatoes, and chicken stock. Reduce heat and simmer until okra is tender and falling apart, about 15 minutes. Stir in rice and water. Cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until fluffy.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-03T23:57:00.001-04:00

More Picutures

2011-06-30T22:20:00.011-04:00

From far away everything does not look like much but up close I am finally noticing things beginning to grow. It is definitely about time. Here are some of the pictures that I took today.

Red and some White Kohlrabi

A very beautiful orange Swiss Chard
Sadly this beautiful thing will probably most likely be gone tomorrow, since everyday more and more of my swiss chard keep getting eaten by either the rabbits or the deer or both.

Red Russian Kale to the right, and to the left some still smaller Dwarf Blue Scotch Curled Kale

Sadly one of my better looking basils, variety of which i forgot to figure out
My basils really took all the water issues and soil problems hard but are just now starting to move along, so at least there is hope.

A few rows of sad looking beans, four varieties yellow, green, purple, and striped varieties.
Hopefully they will start looking better now that they are no longer sitting in water.

Some still small but finally growing rows of bell and sweet peppers

One of many rows of once again small but finally growing zucchini and summer squash

Sadly this is one of my larger tomatoes, but as long as is can keep form raining the tomatoes will finally begin to grow and are looking better now. That being said, the bad news is we will not have any tomatoes for a little while now, but the good news is that we should eventually get tomatoes, which after the start of this year will make me very happy.

My Soil Problem Theory

2011-06-28T22:34:00.003-04:00

Ok, so this year I have really been struggling with some major soil issues. Basically a nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency. So lately I have been doing a lot of reading about soil. So I came across a problem called nitrogen tie up, which basically occurs when organic matter decays and breaks down rapidly, in which it basically has to utilize the nitrogen in the soil causing the nitrogen to be unavailable to the plants. I read that this also happens with phosphorus and a few other minerals. I believe that since we have gotten so much rain it has caused the organic matter in the soil to break down much more rapidly than it would in a normal year. Since this is the first year that this soil is being planted in in a long time and some areas had a lot of grass, so there is a lot of organic matter that would be breaking down. I have also noticed that the areas that had the most grass when I was planting are also the areas that are the most affected. So I have started fertilizing with a liquid fish fertilizer that can be soaked in through the plants leaves hoping that it will give the plants a quick boost, which I am hoping will be enough to get them going until the whole organic matter break down process is done, and then the nitrogen and phosphorus should once again become available to the plants.

That being said everything is way behind, but I know I am not alone, many others are having similar issues. I was talking to someone the other day who is way behind due to the fact that their soil Ph was way off, which they have never had a problem with before, really I think they should probably test their soil nutrients also because they may have some issues there too. It seems as I look at peoples gardens they are either growing really really well or not growing at all. I think this year for most it is either a hit or miss, either you got lucky and have a great growing location and conditions or really unlucky like me.

I am still not sure what I am going to be doing about this weeks market at Valley City. I think I am going to have to wait till the day before to really make up my mind if I will be going or not. Right now things are just too unpredictable. My greens are just now starting to look pretty good and I really should have enough of them to be able to sell for this week, except today I noticed that some deer came by and ate about a whole 10 ft. section of some beautiful swiss chard pretty much to the ground, so if they liked it enough to come back for some more, and maybe even bring some friends I could really be in trouble.

Pictures and Update

2011-06-22T16:56:00.007-04:00

Ok, so these pictures don't look like much, but that is because there is not much to look at. Everything is way behind where it should be this time of the year. But hopefully things will be improving very soon. Of coarse we started off with all of almost continuous rain which pushed planting way back. Then about 2 weeks after planted had started I began to realize that things were just not growing like they should, and many plants were showing signs of soil deficiencies, I did a soil test and discovered the soil was very much depleted of nitrogen and phosphorus, not good. After finding out how bad this soil was I had really wished I would have sent in a soil sample (or even just tested it myself) before I had began planting. Anyhow, it is too late to worry about it. I fertilized everything and plan to fertilize again either tomorrow or Friday, depending on when the weather allows me. After the first time I fertilized I did see some improvements and hope to see lots of improvements after I fertilize again. And I have already been thinking about how to improve the soil for next year with manure and organic matter and possibly cover crop.

I am going to have to take some better, up close pictures of things once the get growing really well. But for now I just wanted to post some pictures, so these will have to do.

If you look closely you can just barely see some scallions up front and row of greens (kale, swiss chard, kohlrabi, and collards) behind them.

Rows of beans and to the left some sweet peppers.
This picture is about a week old so everything is bigger now, I will have to get a new better picture soon.

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The Valley City Farmers Market should actually be starting this Saturday June 25th. Unfortunately as of today it does not look like we will be attending it. I hate missing a market day but we just do not have much to make it worth attending. I am thinking and really hoping that we should be able to attend the next market, and I will be sure to let everyone know.

What a terrible year, unable to attend a June 25th farmers market day because we just do not have anything to sell, so sad.

What you eat is very important to your health!

2011-06-20T20:55:00.006-04:00

I have not posted in quite a while and I do have a lot that I have to post about. Since most of my main season crops are now in the ground and it has started raining again (makes it a little difficult to get anything done outside), I will have some free time now to get some posting in. Anyhow I figured that I will make this first post about something very important that I have been meaning to post about for a while now.

About a year ago now my best friend (I have known her since we were kids) started having a number of health issues. One of the more serious was she was having major muscle pain and tightening in of her muscles. It got so bad at one point that she was having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning and even putting on her socks would take her forever to accomplish since she her muscles were so tight she was unable to reach her feet. She was also having severe stomach problems in which it seemed as if everything she would eat upset her stomach. She also began to rapidly loose weight and most of her muscle mass. The list of problems went on and on.

So to make a long story short (for now at least, I am sure I will be posting more about this in the future). After quite some time she was diagnosed with a muscle disorder, which I believe is called dermatomyositis (an auto immune issue) and if that is not right it is something similar. Anyhow just before she was diagnosed we found some interesting information online about some people who had similar problems, to what she was having, and were able to return to good health by changing their diet. Anyhow over the past several months she has switched her diet many times and went to many different doctors. Until she found the doctor that she has been going to now, he is down in Columbus, so it is a drive but I think she would definitely agree that it has been well worth the drive. She has come a long way since she started going to him, she has been slowly gaining back the weight she lost, can now put on her socks again with out a huge struggle and her stomach is now beginning to heal itself. I am not sure what her doctors name is but as soon as I get the information form her, I will have to post it.

Ok, so after all that, on to the importance of what you eat. Basically all her issues come down to the fact that she has a gluten allergy that she has probably had her whole life, which was ignored and got way out of control, thus damaging her stomach and getting her whole body out of wack. Certain types of gluten in excess can be a very bad thing for a lot people and I believe that there are a lot of people out there overdosing on things like fast food (those hamburgers contain lots of fillers that just are not good for you) who are damaging their stomachs, many of which even know it and just deny it. I know people who eat fast food every day and complain about how their stomach bothers them all the time, you think they would realize why. It is what you are eating that is bothering your stomach and it is not something that should be ignored.

Since watching my friend go through what she did, It has made me think a lot more about what I am eating, I know it has not only changed her way of thinking about food, but I am sure it has also changed the way the the people around her think about food, I know it has for me.

My friend is now working on a blog of her own about everything that she has been trough, so that she can hopefully help other people out there with similar health issues. As soon as she is finished with her blog I will be sure to post the link here.

Anyhow, I have much more to talk about within the next couple of days and will have to post again tomorrow. I still have to let everyone know about how everything that is planted is growing, maybe complain again about this terrible weather that we have had so far this year. Also I have to talk about some exciting purchases that I made today, a food mill and a really awesome little meat grinder/mincer/pasta maker, I think it is the coolest little thing. It does not look like much but after trying it out it seems to work surprisingly well for a little thing, and best of all it was really cheap!

No More Rain Please

2011-04-19T21:00:00.003-04:00

Sadly the area pictured above is actually where my lettuce needs to get planted. A little wet wouldn't you say? I am really starting to wonder if I am ever going to be able to get my lettuce seeds planted. It better stop raining before the end of the month so I can get them seeds in the ground without worrying about the seeds rotting or washing away. Of coarse first of all it has to dry out enough to be able to get tilled.

What's Growing In The Hoophouse

2011-04-18T20:17:00.005-04:00

Wow it has been a really long time since my last post! No worries, I am still here, and hard at work. Here is a quick update on how things are growing in the hoophouse.

Right now in the hoophouse, I have a bunch of different varieties of lettuces, baby swiss chard, and baby beet greens (once they are thinned will eventually grow to full size beets). I do still have a hand full of full size swiss chard plants that were actually planted last spring.

Sadly today I had to pull out all my kale and a few other things, since they were beginning to go to seed. But do not worry within the next couple of days I will be replanting the kale and also planting mustard greens and possibly a few other types of greens.

Tomorrow I plan to take pictures of inside the hoophouse, and will also probably do some picking and thin the beets.

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Now if only it would stop raining it would make it a little bit easier to be able to get things planted outside. It would also help with being able to till everything.

My Christmas Gifts

2011-01-06T13:24:00.004-05:00

Don't worry everyone I have not fallen off the face of the earth, yet anyhow. December is always a really crazy month, and I usually do not post much during that month, but apparently this year I decided I was not going to post anything at all. So now I guess I have to make up for it.

Anyhow on to my Christmas gifts. I got two things this year that I have wanted for a while and could really use, but have never actually purchased myself. One is a halogen light, which I am so excited about. In the past I have used a bunch of other forms of lighting to help me get some extra work and picking done at night. But nothing ever really seemed to be bright enough. So I have really been wanting to get a halogen light since they are so much brighter than anything else I have used before. I am not sure why I have not just bought one myself before, after all they are not that expensive, and are far worth the investment. But it does not matter because I now have one and know it will for sure come in handy. I did not get to take a picture of my halogen light because it is currently out in the hoophouse, since I just came in to take a break from working out there. And since I am taking a break I did not feel like going out there to get a picture of it.

My second Christmas gift that I got which I am very excited about is a really nice big dehydrator. I usually dehydrate a lot of vegetables and have always wanted a nice big dehydrator that can dehydrate tomatoes faster than 4 or 5 days with a lot of rotating.

My New Dehydrator

I have always wanted to dehydrate vegetables and herbs to sell. I just have never been able to dry enough in my old dehydrator with no fan or temperature settings to be able to sell. I can also very easily dry my homemade noodle in it much easier than my old one.

There are so many things that can be dried in this dehydrator! On the top of the dehydrator there a bunch of things listed with their drying temperatures, which include: Herbs, Living Foods (not exactly sure I want to know what living foods are, but I can assure you I will not be drying anything living in my dehydrator), Raising Bread, Making Yogurt, Vegetables, Fruits/Fruit Rolls, Meats/Fish, and Jerky. I can hardly wait to really get to use it and see how quickly I can dry things that would take me forever before.

BA Farm Thanksgiving

2010-11-26T21:39:00.009-05:00

I am very proud to say that everything that was part of our Thanksgiving diner was grown by us, except for the turkey. Here is what we had:

Pumpkin Bread Stuffing
(I made my stuffing a little different this year I will post exactly how I made it soon)

Yukon Gold Potatoes

Our Frozen Bi-color Sweet Corn

Our Frozen Green and Yellow Beans

Mixed Colors Candy Carrots

Butternut Squash and Apples

Beets

Even our centerpiece was grown by us. I made it using a one of our pumpkins (as a candle holder), and everything else I cut from outside. I love making centerpieces, and can not wait to start making my Christmas center pieces out of our many different varieties of pine trees that we have everywhere.

I hope everyone had a very wonderful
Happy Thanksgiving!

Anyone interested in a CSA?

2010-11-20T15:19:00.001-05:00

We have been thinking about starting up a CSA for the past couple of years now, but I think next year just may be the year that we actually start offering CSA shares. I have not yet got all the details together yet, but it will probably run beginning of June (possibly sooner) through early/mid October. I may even have a fall/winter share available. I am not sure what size I plan to make the shares, but they will probably not be extremely large shares, will probably be average size. I have been debating about the size and have not decided exactly how much they will be yet.

So, let me know if you would be may be interested in receiving more information once we decide how much a share will be, when it will start, for how many weeks it will run, and other information about our upcoming CSA!

Greens in the hoophouse

2010-11-15T22:32:00.011-05:00

Although everything in the hoophouse is not quite as big as I would like it to be at this time, I am still happy that they are at the size they are. What do I have growing in there you may wonder? Well I have 3 different varieties of kale, swiss chard (different colors), dwarf pak choi, peppergrass, collards, and more.

Here are some pictures of the different varieties of kale. They are not full size but are instead at baby size which is perfect for salads and eating without any need of cooking.

Baby Red Russian Kale

Baby Dinosaur Kale

Baby Extra Dwarf Blue Scotch Kale

Baby Collard Greens

Can you guess what this next picture is?
This is actually a picture of tons and tons of very cute little Extra Dwarf Pac Choi. Believe it or not this is actually the size that they are suppose to get when ready to pick. Although I have not yet cooked with them this year, every time I go into the hoophouse I grab myself one of these cute little things and pop it in my mouth. They sure do have a lot of flavor for such little things. I am actually very impressed with how they are doing and taste during this cold weather. I will definitely have to grow many more varieties of pac choi next year for fall. I have grown this variety before in the spring, but if you do not harvest it right away it will go to seed, even if it is not super hot out yet. But now in the fall these little guys have been picking size for at least a couple of weeks already and show now sign of going to seed.

Extra Dwarf Pac Choi
Aren't they cute?

Some Baby Swiss Chard
I also have other colors growing in the hoophouse also but did not take any pictures of them.

Peppercress
Peppercress has a very mild spicy flavor, no where near a strong as arugula or even mustard greens. Great to add a little bit of different flavor to a salad.

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I wish my lettuce would get growing, but I have little hope that I will be picking lettuce this year, although you never know. If it does not get any larger, I am worried it will all be wasted. If only I had gotten it in the ground just a week sooner. I probably could be eating a nice salad with lettuce right now. Oh well, that is what I get for getting behind. I just may have to wait until spring, we will see what happens.

The problem with growing in the fall is not just the temps but the shortage of day light or sunlight at all. When the days start getting shorter the plants slow down. The trick is to get everything to full size before it gets too cold, because when it gets real cold the plants just kind of go dormant and just sit there. You can still harvest them but they will not grow right back like they would during warmer weather.

Speaking of the winter gets me thinking of something I have to add to my to do list. That is get the hoophouse more ready for winter by adding more supports inside the hoophouse. Since this will be our first winter with our large hoop house I am not sure how much snow it can handle. I hope it survives. If if does survive I will have to post directions for how we built it, but I want to see just how tough it is first. One thing I know for sure is it is going to be exhausting going out there all the time to brush off the snow, something tells me I am going to have to make my way out there every hour or at least every couple of hours during bad snowstorms. Lets hope we do not have a bad winter. Funny because I was just saying the other day that I hope we get a really bad snowstorm so I can test out my truck (this will be my first winter with my truck). Great I am going to be sorry for making that wish, when I do not have any time to drive my truck around in the snow since I will be in my hoop house brushing off snow, trying not to get buried alive!

Radishes, Radishes, Radishes

2010-10-27T19:29:00.007-04:00

I have lots and lots of radishes right now that are ready to harvest.
So here are the varieties of radishes that I have right now.

Saxa II Radishes

I think that these are my favorite regular red radishes. They are a very gorgeous red color. The reason why I got the seeds for these radishes is because they are suppose to mature earlier than other radish varieties, and they were the first to mature out of all the varieties.

Crimson Giant Radishes
I do not think this variety is at its full size yet, at least it better not be at full size yet. They are suppose to be giant radishes, but they are actually the smallest out of all my radishes. Obviously they must take longer to reach maturity than other varieties.

Sparkler Radishes
These are cute little radishes with similar coloration as the French Breakfast
Radishes, except instead of being long they are round.

French Breakfast Radishes
I grew these radishes last year and sold them at Valley City Farmers Market, and everyone really seemed to love them. They can still get a little larger yet, but are already really tasty right now at this size.

Now all I need is for my lettuce in the hoop house to be ready for harvest so i can have some beautiful salads with my lettuce, greens, and radishes!

Homemade Pasta

2010-10-26T18:52:00.006-04:00

I recently bought some homemade pasta, and it was way better than store bought. So of course it got me thinking, the ingredients were so simple, flour and eggs. I had to make my own. So I did, and of coarse I could not just make plain old pasta. The first kind that I made was garlic pasta, and this past weekend I made a lemon balm pasta.

The lemon balm really did make the pasta very beautiful. Once it was cooked it lost a lot of the lemony taste though. Next time I make this pasta or any kind of herb pasta, I plan on making the noodles a little thinner, they should not need to be cooked as long and then hopefully will keep more of its flavor.

Homemade Lemon Balm Pasta

I also plan to make beet pasta, possibly some type of tomato pasta, a pepper pasta, swiss chard pasta, a kale pasta once my kale is ready to harvest, a mustard green pasta, and maybe even a carrot pasta. I wish I had some fresh basil right now to use in a pasta. I could just imagine a pasta made out of both purple basil and regular green basil, what a beautiful pasta that would be. Although if I make a swiss chard pasta that should be colorful also with both the green and red leaves.

I think the next type of pasta that I make will be made with mustard greens. I am just so curious as to what that would taste like. Will be sure to let everyone know how they all turn out.

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Everything in the hoop house is starting to come along pretty good now. I am hoping to be able to begin harvesting as soon as next week, if not it should be the week after. I should have been picking everything awhile ago now, if I would have actually planted everything when I was suppose to, oh well. I will have to post some pictures very soon.

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I tried to take a picture of a very amazing sun set, and since my camera does not take the greatest pictures at night (or if it does I have no idea how to take one) the picture ended up looking kind of wild. Yes the sky was very orange, but not quite as orange as it appears in the picture, but still it kind of a cool picture.

Valley City Farmers Market has come to an end for 2010

2010-10-14T21:02:00.005-04:00

Last week was sadly our last week to sell at Valley City. Since it is getting colder out now all of our warm weather crops are now coming to an end. I have been picking the last of many things the past couple of days, before we get a frost and everything comes to an end.

Soon now it will be time to start my planing for next year. Although I have not started to pick out the actual varieties, I have started to think about what I would like to grown and what I probably will not be growing next year.

I will be growing most of the same cherry tomato varieties that I did this year and will probably try some new varieties also. I also plan to try many new varieties of larger slicing tomatoes. I will be growing the Striped Cavern Stuffing Tomato again and may even grow another variety of stuffing tomato such as a yellow stuffer.

As far as peppers go I will probably grow most of the same varieties as I this year plus some new ones.

I should also have a lot of beans next year since I am planning on planting almost one entire garden area with beans to add some nitrogen to the soil.

Of course I will be growing all my different colored carrots, plus I plan to have other different varieties available also.

This year we have lots of acorn and butternut squash, but next year I will be trying a bunch of different varieties of winter squash, many different colors, sizes and shapes.

These are just some of my plans for next year. When I have decided what varieties of everything I am going to grow, I will be sure to post it here and update my list on the website. I also have lots and lots of pictures and information to add to my website, and will probably start doing that very soon. I just have not had the time to update my website during the summer, but will have a lot more time during the winter (winter, that word made me cringe).

Farmers Market Season Ending

2010-09-30T21:09:00.002-04:00

It looks like this Saturday is going to be the last market day of this year. If the weather permits I am hoping to set up our roadside stand after the market. I am also hoping to set up the roadside stand on Saturdays once Valley City Farmers Market is over. I will be sure to post here when I plan to have the stand set up so check back before stopping by. Also once the market is over I will continue to update the availability list to the right (and on our website), so if there is anything that you would be interested in, you can send me an email or give me a call, and you can pick up your produce on days other than when we have our roadside stand set up.

Since the growing season is going to be slowing down soon, planning for next year will be beginning very soon. So let us know if there is something you would like to see us grow next year. We love growing new and unusual things, and are always open to suggestions.

So let us know what you would like us to grow next year.

Farmers Market Pictures

2010-08-30T10:53:00.009-04:00

Ok so I just realized that it has been a long time since my last blog post. It has been kind of busy lately. So I just thought that I would post some pictures from Saturdays farmers market in Valley City.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

A bunch of round zucchini and some other things.

Since we had so much left after market we decided to set up our roadside stand.

Zucchini Bread is Finally Here!

2010-08-07T01:13:00.007-04:00

Today's market will be the first market this year that I will have zucchini bread available. It is a lot later than normal, but that is because we are just now starting to harvest zucchini. Every year at the start of the market we have people asking for our zucchini bread, so everyone should be happy to here it is finally available.

I just thought I would tell everyone exactly where I got my recipe for the zucchini bread from. It is actually my grandmothers recipe. I can remember eating this bread when I was a kid and I always loved it! I actually never made it myself till after my grandmother passed away. I was going through her recipes and I came across the recipe, just thinking about it brought back memories from my childhood, I had to make it. I just wish my grandmother could see how popular her zucchini bread has become.

Zucchini Bread in the oven

Believe it or not the zucchini bread is just now in the oven as I am typing this. I rarely ever start making it before midnight on Friday night. I am just to busy before that picking and getting market things together. I have even made it in the past about 4 hours before market.

Zucchini Bread just out of the oven

How Things Are Growing

2010-08-04T22:24:00.004-04:00

Well I just thought that I would let everyone know exactly how things are going here at BA Farm. We had a great start to the year with our lettuce mixes, which made me excited for the rest of the season to come. I but quickly became disappointed, as the weather this year made things difficult, slowed down a lot of our vegetables. Even though our vegetables did not like the weather the weeds did (not good).

We ended up tilling under our first planting of zucchini and summer squash, since it never really grew very much. It killed me to see it go, as I had planted some unusual varieties that I was very excited about. Luckily we planted some common zucchini and yellow squash at a friends property, which is were the above, header photo was taken (I will tell more about the property in another post, and will post more pictures). I think the reason why the zucchini did so well was because it was planted around a month later than we normally plant our zucchini.

Our peppers had a rough start and are finally starting to produce, but still not anywhere close to like they should be by now. They were previously dropping blossoms like crazy, and are still loosing a bunch of blossoms, although I have been seeing more and more that are actually developing into peppers.

My tomato plants look beautiful, even thought they are way behind and a few plants are finally just now getting tomatoes that are starting to change color. The only problem is I seem to have misplaced the paper that I had written down what varieties were planted where, and I can not find it anywhere. So I can not tell you what exactly is going to be available when, very very frustrating. I hope I can find it soon, actually let me rephrase that, I BETTER find that soon.

On the positive note my herbs are doing really well, although they do not seem to be selling, for some reason. So that means everyone needs to come to the market and buy some herbs:)

The carrots are also doing very well, and I am hoping to finally pull some not this Saturday but next Saturday (and maybe some for Strongsville Farmers Market, more about that in another post also). The only problem is there is a rabbit that knows how and were to get over our fence and into our garden (have seen him do it) and he has been munching on our carrot tops, and that needs to stop.

Anyhow to sum things up we have been having a bit of a rough time this summer, but things seem to be finally getting a little better, and are finally coming along.

Colored Carrots!

2010-07-19T22:06:00.006-04:00

Baby Colored Carrots

So today I decided I would weed the carrot beds. I really have not looked closely at them since the last time I weeded them, and I was very happy to see how much they have grown since then. They still have a way to go but are getting there. I should have orange bunches, white bunches, purple bunches, and mixed bunches of yellow, red, orange, purple, and white. I am hoping that we will have some available sometime around either early or mid August.

There are many interesting facts about colored carrots, here are some of them:

~ Just one full size carrot will fulfill your daily quotient of the essential vitamin A.

~ Each color of carrot has a different health benefit of its own:

*Orange carrots - contain beta carotene pigments - essential for well-being, healthy eyes
*Red carrots - contain lycopene pigments - believed to guard against heart disease and cancers
*Yellow carrots - contain xanthophylls pigments - support good eye health, fight aginst macular degeneration, may prevent lung and other cancers, and reduce the risk of hardening of the arteries
*White carrots - lack pigments - but contain substances called phytomchemicals - can protect against disease
*Purple carrots - contain anthocyanins pigments - act as powerful antioxidants, can prevent heart disease by slowing blood clotting and are good anti inflammatory agents

~ Colored carrots may be new to some people but purple and yellow carrots were actually eaten more than 1,000 years ago.

~ In fact orange carrots are actually the "mutant" carrot, carrots were originally purple and yellow.

~ Carrots are a member of the parsley family, along with dill, caraway, cumin, chervil, coriander, fennel, anise, parsley, parsnip, and celery.

~ There are so many different carrot varieties that there is actually a variety for every letter of the alphabet.

~ Carrots could be used as a bio fuel, you would need approximately 6,000 carrots to drive one mile. (That is a lot of carrots, sounds to me like the idea needs some work).

Some New Veggies For This Year

2010-07-17T05:32:00.007-04:00

Since I was sitting here early this morning with not much to do since we are not going to market, I figured I would take the time to post some pictures of a couple of new vegetables we grew this year, that we should have available very soon.

Jimmy Nardello Italian Sweet Pepper

Yes that's right this is not a hot pepper but actually a sweet pepper. And I think it is one of the sweetest sweet peppers I have ever tasted. It is great for just snacking on. I had a hard time controling myself from eating all of the ones that I picked right away. I wanted to save some of them for a stir fry, but instead I think I am going to use them for my vegetable pancakes this morning. These peppers have a very mild pepper taste and can be eaten seeds and all, just take a bite!

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Dragon Tongue Beans

This is another one that I am really excited about. They are Dragon Tongue Beans, and they have got to be the tastiest, juiciest beans I have ever tasted. Well, raw that is I have not actually tasted them cooked yet, but will be soon. I only grew a small area of these since it was my first time growing them. But I am going to be putting in another seed order for the spring, for some things that I ran out of, and will for sure be ordering more of these. Should be able to get some more plantings in once I get the seeds.

These beans can also be used for shelling as dried beans. In fact if I have a large area where one of my summer crops have failed (which it looks like I will) I may plant a bunch of these for drying.

The only down side to these beautiful beans is they loose their purple color when cooked, which is ok because they still end up a beautiful yellow which is still different than the common green.

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Well I do have more pictures to share but I think that is going to be all for now.

About the Header Photo

2010-07-14T22:26:00.004-04:00

Do you know what this is a picture of? It is actually a type of cherry tomato, in a way, actually I am not sure exactly what kind of tomato it is considered. This tomato is like a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes fused together, that are suppose to easily pull apart without a problem. I was so excited to see these tomatoes start to develop, this is the first time I have grown this variety, and I think it is going to be pretty cool.

A little bit about the Reisetomate Tomato
Also called "Traveler Tomato" ("reise" is German for "travel" or "journey") for the ability to tear it apart a piece at a time, with no need for a knife. This type of tomato traces its roots to Central America where the native people would carry traveler tomatoes on trips, to eat as they walked. Bright red tomatoes taste-well, rather sour, strong and acid. The perfect tomato for those who love raw lemons, but who cares? They are still far-out and groovy.
-From Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Catalog

Bad part is these tomatoes, and all my tomatoes, are really far behind. The weather has had a big impact on almost all of our warm weather crops. Well, that is the way it goes, sometimes you win, sometimes you loose, but better late than never, right?

That being said, the new header picture pretty much sums up what is going on here at BA Farm. Things are coming along, but are way behind.

Reisetomate Tomato

Basil Varieties

2010-07-06T22:43:00.007-04:00

I am very excited about all the different varieties of basil I have available this year. The varieties are: Sweet Basil, Lemon Basil, Licorice Basil, Cinnamon Basil, Opal Basil, and Blue Spice Basil.

Sweet Basil

Lemon Basil
I just made chicken and pasta with this basil an also some lemon balm. It was wonderful. I will be posting the recipe very soon.

Licorice Basil

Cinnamon Basil
Looks very very similar to Licorice Basil, in fact I apologize to anyone ahead of time just in case I mix up the two when tagging them in the bunches. My sense of smell is not the greatest to I have a hard time telling the two apart.

Opal Basil

Blue Spice Basil
I have not gotten a chance to cook with this one at all yet, but it smells really beautiful. I think it is my favorite smelling basil.

The above varieties of basil will be available in bunches.
I have one more variety of basil that I also grew this year called Pistou Basil. It is a very small, very cute basil that is perfect for pinching off individual leaves and throwing them in a salad or cooking in your favorite dish. These basils are sold in pots.

Pistou Basil

While looking up some information on basils I came across a really good site with a lot, and I mean a lot of information on what must be every type of basil that there is. I would love to grow them all, of coarse that would take a very long time, but there are definitely a bunch of different kinds that I would like to try next year. The site is: romanasbasilgarden.com/basil-list

Micro Greens Coming Soon

2010-07-06T22:23:00.004-04:00

Micro Greens

I have been meaning to start a bunch of micro greens for some time now, but have not gotten to it. Well yesterday I finally started a bunch of them. I am hoping to have them ready for this Saturdays market for in my salad mixes and for selling in the containers they are grown in.

Arugula Micro Greens Just Sprouting

I stared many different varieties for in my spicy salad mix such as: broccoli, radishes, a large red mustard, and arugula. I also started two types of onions, one red and one white. Last week I did not have any greens for in my Greens and Lettuce Salad Mix, since my hoop house has now become too hot for the greens. Well this Saturday I should have the Greens and Lettuce Salad Mix available again thanks to my micro greens, since I planted collards and three types of kale. I think I will be starting some swiss chard soon also for in the mix. I also started some Sweet Basil, which will be a good addition to my Herb and Lettuce Salad Mix.

Radish Micro Greens Just Sprouting

I also started a mix of arugula, radishes, mustards, and broccoli in the same container, that I should have available for sale, in the container, as a spicy micro green mix.

Salad Mixes

2010-06-28T23:05:00.004-04:00

This past Saturdays market we had a very good variety of different salad mixes available. We should have all the different mixes and maybe even some more mixes available for this coming Saturdays market.

You can see pictures and information about all the different mixes at our website, salad mixes page.

Our salad mixes are:
~ Just Lettuce Salad Mix
~ Looseleaf Lettuce Salad Mix
~ Spicy Salad Mix
~ Lettuce and Greens Salad Mix
~ Lettuce and Romaine Salad Mix
~ Lettuce and Herb Salad Mix
~ Ark of Taste Salad Mix

Farmers Market Pictures

2010-06-20T22:59:00.008-04:00

This Saturday was our third market of the year (at Valley City Farmers Market) and I finally got some pictures from the market to post, and here they are:

Bagged Salad Mixes (Just Lettuce Mix, Spicy Salad Mix, Lettuce and Greens Salad Mix, and Ark of Taste Lettuce Mix)

The Just Lettuce Mix contains only lettuce. This week the lettuce mixes included: Royal Red, Red Sails, Black Seeded Simpson, Grandpa Admire's, Speckled, Tennis Ball, Mascara, and Bronze Arrowhead Lettuce.

Spicy Salad Mix includes lettuce and mustard greens.

Lettuce and Greens Mix includes, lettuce such as: Black Seeded Simpson and Red Sails
Greens such as: Bulls Blood Beet Greens, Swiss Chard, Red Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale,
and some others

Ark of Taste Lettuce Mix is a mix of four different varieties of lettuce that are on the Ark of Taste List. They are Grandpa Admire's Lettuce, Speckled Lettuce, Tennis Ball Lettuce, and Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce.

I will be posting again soon with more information and pictures of the different varieties of lettuce that we had available this Saturday.

Mustard Greens and a Bunch of Collards (in the middle)

This was our third week that we have had mustard greens available. We have five very different varieties available. The bunches are put together at market so you can choose which varieties you want or you can get a bunch with a mix of all the different varieties. We also had a salad mix available this week with mustard greens in it, this mix was our Spicy Salad Mix, "Spicy" because of the spicy taste of the mustard greens. The mustard greens add a very good flavor to the salad.

Mixed Kale Bunches and Swiss Chard Bunches

Kale bunches include three different varieties: Red Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale, and Dwarf Blue Scotch Curled Kale. Swiss Chard bunches are made up of many mixed varieties and colors. Not only are the swiss chard beautiful but they are also very, very tender and tasty.

New Visitor to our Pond and Wildlife Pictures

2010-06-01T22:32:00.008-04:00

Before we get to our pond visitor and the other pics, lets play a little game. Can you guess what this picture is? The answer is at the end of this post.

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Here is our most recent visitor and hopefully a permanent resident to our pond. I love turtles and have wished we had one at our pond for a while now. Although i have to admit, when i first saw him i got nervous. I got worried that he may be a snapper and did not really want a snapper living at our pond. But I was very relieved and excited when we found out he was not a snapper! He is kind of shy and takes off into the pond whenever he sees anyone. We are going to have to get a flat log and put it by his spot (yes he has a spot, in the sun, in a grass free area, with a gradual slope up from the water, this is where we always see him) so he can climb up out of the water onto it. I hope he sticks around!

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Baby Ducks

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A Chickadee Nest Inside the Tree

So I was waling around the back taking pictures when I thought I heard what sounded like Chickadees in on of the pear trees. I started looking around for a nest, when I realized that the Chickadee noises were indeed coming from in the tree. There are many holes in this particular pear tree. Sure enough when I was standing right there the mom Chickadee came to feed her babies. She went inside the hole that she is sitting in in the picture above. I took the picture when she was coming out of the hole.

I know we have lots of Chickadees around, they must like to nest in our old holey pear trees. Makes me feel bad for wanting to chop some of them down to replace them with new non-rotting trees.

Anyhow it seemed so funny to hear the little noises coming from down inside the tree.

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Answer:
No, it was not a picture of the lockness monster. Nor was it a picture of a beaver. It was actually a picture of three baby ducks diving under the water, below is the picture of them after they came back up, well that goes for two of them, the third still has its head under water.

Mustard Greens

2010-05-19T21:31:00.009-04:00

Mustard greens add a spicy zest to salads.
The below varieties of mustard greens will be used at the baby leaf stage (approx. 6 inches)
in our Mild Spicy Salad Mix and our Super Spicy Salad Mix.

These greens are also great to be used in cooking at the full size stage (approx. 12-18 inches)
I plan to have them available in mixed bunches with all four varieties,
and also bunches of each variety.

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Light green serrated leaves.
A semi-mild spicy mustard green.
Will most likely be used in both our Mild Spicy Salad Mix
and our Super Spicy Salad Mix.
Will also be sold in bunches, at full size stage, for cooking

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Green with red/maroon veins.
A very stunningly beautiful mustard green.
Spicy flavor but not as strong as Golden Frill.
I will probably us this mustard green in both our Mild Spicy Salad Mix
and our Super Spicy Salad Mix.
Will also be available at full size, available in bunches.

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Beautifully frilled light green mustard greens. Delicious strong spicy flavor.
This mustard green should be a great addition to our Super Spicy Salad Mix,
picked at the baby leaf stage.
I should also have full size leaves available, to be sold in bunches.

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Medium green leaves with red veins and tinge.
Will probably be used in both our Mild Spicy Salad Mix and our Super Spicy Salad Mix.
Mild spicy flavor perfect for light cooking.
Will also be sold at full size in bunches for cooking.

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First Valley City Farmers Market of the Year

2010-05-18T16:08:00.005-04:00

The first market of the year at Valley City will be on Saturday June 5th.

I was hoping the market would start early this year, but did not expect it to start till around the middle of the month, so I am not exactly as prepared as I would like to be. I am not sure exactly what we will have available for the first market.

For sure we should have the following things ready in time for June 5th:

~Mustard Greens- many different colors and varieties to be sold in bunches
-we many also sell a variety of mixed baby greens to be used in salads
~Radishes
~Scallions
~Lettuce mixes- hopefully our lettuce will be ready in time for the first market, right now they are very slow growing, I believe it is because it has been so cold outside
~We should also have some plants available- will post what kinds closer to market time
~I also hope to have some type of bread available- most likely a berry bread

Hopefully I will have some other things available also.

The market season is finally almost here! I knew the first market was getting close when I picked some mustard greens for dinner yesterday.

Pictures in the Hoop House

2010-05-04T21:05:00.009-04:00

Inside of the hoop house

Seedlings in the hoop house waiting to be transplanted
(Red Russian Kale, I believe a couple other kinds of Kale
and four different types of Swiss Chard)

Collards, Kale, and (I believe) Kohlrabi

Some baby arugula in the hoop house

Baby mustard greens in a row

Pictures!

2010-05-04T15:13:00.009-04:00

I love taking pictures and for whatever reason lately, I have not taken as many pictures. So since I am overdue, here are some pictures.

Some of my plants under lights in the basement

Some just transplanted curly parsley

Parsley waiting to be transplanted

Some tomatoes outside in the small hoop house

A flat of Catnip

Pepper plants

I have some more pictures that I have to post, and will do so either tomorrow or later today. I do not want to post too many pictures in on post. I have some pictures of outside and also some pictures of inside the big hoop house. We finally have quite a few things planted outside now. It is nice to see so many things finally growing in the ground, makes it feel like the market is coming closer.

We still do not know when the first market at valley city will be, but as soon as we hear anything we will be sure to let everyone know.

I am planning on having a post for a topic of the month for this month, May. I know we are already a week into May, but better late than never, right? The topic of the month will be about micro greens. Well, I better get working on the topic of the month.

The Hoop House is Complete! Well, Almost.

2010-04-22T14:08:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we finally got the hoop house covered and ready to go. Except for one small thing, it does not have a door yet. Which means for the moment we are unable to actually go in the hoop house. But do not worry it will have one soon.We just need to finish attaching the plastic around where the door will be, cut the hole for the door, make the door and attach it. Then the planting inside can begin. Almost there, but I must say myself, that it looks pretty good.

We got lucky and yesterday was the perfect day to cover a hoop house. There was some wind when we first started but not very much. Then magically when it was time to cover the main large part the wind stopped completely. I could not believe it. I figured that we would get stuck covering this thing when it was windy. And since this is our first hoop house it is hard enough to figure out how to cover it when there is no wind. So I am so glad that it was not real windy. My parents came over to help us cover it, which helped a lot. We didn't really run in to any trouble, and luckily finished just in time before dark.

Since this is the first hoop house we have built I am not sure how well it will hold up, but when we know for sure if it can endure the torture of nature, I will have to make a post of how exactly we built it. Lets hope it holds up, it seems pretty steady and strong, but we will just have to wait and see.

Hoop House Closer to Completion

2010-04-19T17:31:00.006-04:00

The hoop house is almost ready for the plastic! If we do not get the plastic on tomorrow then we should be able to get it covered Wednesday, weather permitting of coarse. A really windy day is not the best day to cover a hoop house.

Lettuce planting time is almost here! As soon as we finish the hoop house and get a couple more fence sections in the ground, I will be planting the lettuce. As soon as the hoop house is done I will be filling it with mustard greens, swiss chard, beets, spinach, and some other types of greens. The things that are going in the hoop should have actually be planted already, but have not be able to plant them since the hoop is not finished. I will be so relieved and excited to finally get things in the ground. I am also going to be planting some onion sets, for scallions, once the hoop is done. I have to plant them next to the hoop and have not been able to do so because they would get trampled while we were working.

So as you can see everything getting planted is all dependent on the hoop house getting finished, which luckily it is finally very close to being completed.

Garlic

I am happy to say that our garlic is looking good. I was worried about it for awhile since the area that we planted it in actually had sitting water for a while when they were just beginning to come up this spring. But so far they seem to be looking good and growing on schedule. I am so relieved, that would be a lot of wasted garlic, but they appear to be fine.

The Hoophouse is Being Built!

2010-04-03T21:54:00.005-04:00

I have kind of neglected the blog and website lately. Things have been kind of crazy. Our dog Copper who is diabetic was having a tough time. There is so much that has to be done right away. Seed planting, transplanting, moving around fences, cleaning up bean nettings, tilling, working on the new hoophouse, cleaning up our small hoophouse, getting things ready for the first market at Valley City, and I am sure I can think of many other things.

We finally got started on our hoophouse. We got a lot done in the day that we worked on it. I can not wait till the plastic is up, and planting can begin in it!

The beginning of the new hoophouse before all the hoops were up.

We still have a lot to do before the plastic goes on, but at least it is beginning to look like a hoophouse.

How I Start My Seeds

2010-03-23T12:24:00.017-04:00

So here is how I start all my seeds. I pretty much start all my seeds the same way. The only exceptions would be things like vines which I start in pots instead of flats, certain types of seeds that do not need to be covered with dirt, and a few other exceptions.
Below is a list of some things you may need:
Seed Starting Dirt
Warm Water
Popsicle Sticks - for marking
Gloves (if you don't want to get your hands dirty, I don't use gloves for anything but that's just me.)
Container to plant in - I use flats, but you can use just about anything, just poke some holes in the bottom for drainage.
Seeds (of coarse!)
Spray bottle
Sphagnum Moss
Cling Wrap
Tiny hair clips (come in handy for keeping the cling wrap from touching the dirt.)

1. First thing I do is wet my dirt, before planting, with warm water. Just be sure not to get too wet.

2. Once dirt is wet I transfer the dirt into the flat I will be planting in, you can use whatever you wish to plant in some people use styrofoam cups, any kind of used food containers, you can use your imagination. I am not a fan of peat pots or pellets, to me they seem to be difficult to keep from getting too wet and too dry. If you do use peat pots or pellets be sure to tear off some of the pot or netting before planting because you could end up with a problem like this.

3. Then I pat down the dirt.

4. I use popsicle sticks to mark my rows and varieties planted.

5. After I place the popsicle sticks where my rows will be, I use another popsicle stick to make my rows. For seeds that do not need to be covered, I sometimes just scatter the seeds in their area without making rows, and mark the section with a popsicle stick in the dirt as a divider.

6. Place the seeds in the rows.

7. Cover the seeds, by pushing extra dirt on sides of rows over seeds. If you are unsure of how much to cover the seeds it is always better to not over cover the seeds. For most of my seeds I either just barely cover (1/4" on package) or do not cover at all (1/8" on package). If the package states to cover with a 1/8" of dirt I do not cover with dirt at all and just cover with sphagnum moss. If it states to not cover at all I do not cover with dirt or sphagnum moss.

8. Pat down the dirt after covering the seeds.

9. Once I have all my seeds planted, I then cover with a layer of sphagnum moss.

10. Spray with a spray bottle to wet sphagnum moss, spray slowly at first the sphagnum moss will fly everywhere if you don't.

11. I then cover with cling wrap, and use tiny hair clips to keep the cling wrap form touching the dirt. Check every day some seeds will come up within a couple of days. When the seedlings begin to pop up I remove the cling wrap. If some varieties come up and others have not I will sometimes put a plastic dome on the flat for a couple of days to give the unsprouted seeds some more time with extra warmth. You do not want the seedlings to be touching the plastic, so remove once they get to tall.

I place my flats under lights right away. Most seeds do not need light to sprout but the lights give them extra warmth that can greatly speed up the germination process. If the instructions on the package say do not cover the seeds chances are those seeds need light to germinate.

The seeds that I planted in the above flat were cherry tomato seeds. I will be sure to post a picture once they have sprouted and as they grow.

There are so many different methods to start seeds. Everyone has there own way that works best for them. You are going to be starting seeds of your own, happy seed starting!
Now back to work, planting more seeds.

A Very Wet BA Farm

2010-03-13T21:15:00.013-05:00

On Thursday, I decided to take a walk around and take some pictures. It was not easy everything was mostly muck, my boots and pants were pretty muddy by the time I was done with my walk. Here are some of the pictures I took.

Looking at the front gardens, lots of water and some snow still remaining

At least there is some sign of life, bulbs popping up from under the leaves

Picture of what use to be collards and kale, surrounded by snow and water

The creek full from all the melting snow

Although it may look like a creek, this water is just draining into the creek

The pond beginning to thaw
(it is now, two days after this picture was taken, mostly thawed)

We are suppose to get more rain, hopefully not too much. We now have our plastic and a lot of what we need to get started on building our new hoop house. If the weather ever gets better, and things dry out a little, so we are not just playing around in muck, we can start working on the hoop house. I am going to try and take as many pictures as possible when we start to work on it, but it is hard to do when there is a lot of work to focus on.

Seed Starting

2010-03-08T19:03:00.005-05:00

I just thought that I would post an seed starting update, since I have been spending so much time lately working on the website and I do not want to neglect my blog.

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts Seedlings

I have lots and lots of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and brussels sprouts started. I may have over did it a little, oh well nothing new. I have moved these two flats outside my greenhouse (that is in the basement) where it is cooler (around 60 degrees at the highest). They grow better there than in the greenhouse where it is much warmer (around 70 degrees at the lowest). I do start them in the greenhouse though, I think all seeds start better when the temperature is higher, no matter what kind.

I will be starting my eggplant, some peppers along with some other things today or tomorrow. They all will be started in the greenhouse in the basement and the eggplant will be started on the heat mat since they like it warm.

Soil Mixes Experimenting (Part 1)

2010-02-21T18:48:00.016-05:00

Ok, so I have finally came up with my soil mixes that I will be experimenting with. I have also bought the seeds that I will be using in the experiments. I will be using Tomato Costoluto Genovese by Thompson & Morgan. I got them from Gales Garden Center, and choose these particular tomatoes mainly because they had a lot of seeds in the package (450 seeds), they were also pretty cheap ($2.69 -20% discount). This tomato is a beefsteak with a cool ribbed look to it. 450 seeds should hopefully be enough for me to experiment with, hopefully :) For each soil mix I will be planting 10 seeds in each, that should be enough for me to get some accurate results.

So now you know what the seeds are, and here are the seeds starting mixes. Most of the mixes I got from a good site with Potting Mixes for Certified Organic Production (site by ATTRA) on this page not only do they have many, many organic soil mixes but they also describe the ingredients used in all of them, good info.

Seed Starting Mix #1 This mix is a very simple mix that I have wanted to try myself for a while

2 parts Peat moss
1 part Vermiculite

Seed Starting Mix (+Fertilizer) #2
This mix will actually be the same as mix #1 except I would like to experiment with fertilizing these seedlings soon after they have sprouted. Normally I do not fertilize seedlings till after they have been transplanted if I am going to do so. But since I am experimenting I will be trying things that I don't normally do, why not, right? I am not exactly sure what I will be fertilizing with yet, but will figure it out soon.

2 part Peat moss
1 part Vermiculite
Fertilize after sprouting

Seed Starting Mix #3
This one I found on the ATTRA site linked above (Titled- Sowing Mix).

5 parts compost
4 parts soil
1-2 parts sand
1-2 parts leaf mold
1 part peat moss

Above is the exact mix recipe from the website, I may end up altering it when I mix it, will see.

Seed Starting Mix (+Fertilizer) #4
The next recipe will also be for the ATTRA site (Titled- Tipi Produce Recipe).

2 parts Sphagnum peat moss
1 part coarse vermiculite
1 part coarse perlite

+fertilizing mixture of:
3 parts steamed bone meal
2 parts kelp meal
2 parts blood meal
1-2 parts dolomitic limestone

The original recipe called for larger portions but I cut them down since I will not need to mix such large quantities for experimenting.

Seed Starting Mix #5
Not sure what this mix is going to be yet, most likely I will just use one of the above mixes (maybe mix #1 or #4) and try fertilizing the seedlings with another fertilizer mix that I come up with.

I almost forgot I will be starting some in the normal store bought mix that I normally start my seeds in, so that will be Seed Starting Mix #6.

So those are my mixes. I will be starting the seeds probably some time this week or next weekend. I have to get my regular seeds started first and I also must get the mixes ready and I also plan to do soil tests on all the mixes first before planting.

I can not wait to actually get started with the planting and start to see some results, it should be interesting.

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Just thought I would give a little info on the different ingredients that my mixes will consist of.

Peat Moss
Description- comes from (bet you couldn't guess) the sphagnum moss plant
pH- Acid
Nutrients- does not contain any itself, but will absorb them very well
Benefit- light weight, can hold water well if not allowed to completely dry out
Other Info- Some love peat moss and others hate it, I am kind of in between. If allowed to completely dry out it can be extremely hard to get wet again evenly. On the other hand if it is kept wet it can be better for a potted plant than regular soil (texture wise).

Vermiculite
Description- A mineral similar in appearance to mica
pH- near neutral
Nutrients- contains calcium, magnesium and potassium
Benefit- aids in air circulation
Other Info- It is very light weight, if the soil you are planting in is heavy or more compact adding vermiculite can allow the soil to breathe. All plants need some are circulation, and if you have a problem with that, vermiculite may be just what you need to help.

Compost
Description- Decomposed leaves, grass, plants, vegetables, the list goes on and on
pH-
Nutrients- A very nutrient rich source
Benefit- A lot depends on what is in your mixture, but compost is one of the best nutrient providing substances that you can add to a soil mixture.
Other Info-

Soil
Description- Regular topsoil
pH-
Nutrients- May also be a nutrient rich source (a lot depends on the quality of the top soil)
Benefit-
Other Info- Some say and believe that regular soil is not good for potting mixes because it tends to become to compact and not allow optimal air circulation, of coarse I am determined to find out how true that is. I myself want to believe that regular soil can be a good part of a potting mix if mixed correctly along with other ingredients, we will see. I could be wrong or I could be right.

Sand
Description- coarse sand is best, fine sand can become to compact for plant to grow
pH- neutral
Nutrients- Does not hold water very well, thus nutrients tend to drain through along with the water
Benefit- Drains very easily, also warms up very quickly (just think of how hot a sandy beach can be on you bare feet)
Other Info- Sand can be good and have benefits, just not all by itself

Leaf Mold
Description- Decomposed leaves
pH- on the acid side
Nutrients- calcium and magnesium
Benefit- Increases moisture in the soil
Other Info-

Perlite
Description- A volcanic rock
pH- neutral
Nutrients- Potassium
Benefit- aids in air circulation and improve water drainage, also will hold 3 to 4 times its weight in water without causing potting mix to become overly wet
Other Info- When heated perlite expands to as much as twenty times is original size, and becomes very light and kind of puffy, much different from its original rock form

For Fertilizers:

Bone Meal
Description- crushed and ground bones
pH- alkaline
Nutrients- phosphorus, calcium
Release Rate- Very slow, coarse grade will last longer than fine grade will
Benefit- Promotes good root growth (which makes them good for root crops such as carrots and onions) and is also good for plants that form tubers and bulbs.

Kelp Meal
Description- Dried and ground seaweed
pH- neutral
Nutrients- potassium, and good source of many micronutrients as well
Release Rate- slow
Benefit- Aids in seed germination, contributes to good plant and root growth, and can aid in control against plant diseases

Blood Meal
Description- dried powdered blood
pH- may raise the acid level in soil
Nutrients- one of the best sources of nitrogen
Release Rate- slow
Benefit- Use to add nitrogen to soil

Limestone
Description-(also known as Lime)
pH- will lower acid level in soil (more alkaline)
Nutrients- calcium and magnesium
Release Rate-
Benefit- (Wood ashes and eggshells could also be used instead of lime)

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In doing research on the above components of my soil mixes I also learned that both vermiculite and perlite can be used alone by themselves to help start root cuttings. Sounds like a good experiment for the future, doesn't it? Starting plants from cuttings using different methods. Ok, sorry, one thing at a time, right? But it is something to keep in mind for the future :)

When I was searching around on the web I also ran across this tread on the Garden Web, What is a substitute for Seaweed or Kelp Meal? I thought it contained some good info and thought it was worth mentioning, and may also provoke some more good experiments in the future.

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Just in case you would like some more useful info on the subject, here are some more good sites with lots of info on fertilizers, soil amendments, and soil mix ingredients:

Contains charts for what to use for what problems
Organic Fertilizer and Soil Amendment Guide

Here is a link to the ATTRA site again, but this page is a list of soil amendments
ATTRA- Alternative Soil Amendments

More soil mix recipes
Potting Soil Recipes from Backyardgardener.com

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Well I think that is enough for now, wow what a long post. Now I have to get to work with planting my seeds. I know, still have not done that yet, really need to get that done. Off to work.

Vegetable Varieties 2010

2010-02-19T21:01:00.006-05:00

Artichokes
~Green Globe (1st time growing artichokes so I am not sure how it will go.) (Green variety)

Beans
~Chinese Red Noodle Yard Long (Red yard long beans) (keep their red color when cooked, best when cooked as in stir fry rather than boiled)
~Blue Lake (Regular green variety)
~Rattlesnake (Green with red stripes)
~Purple Podded (Purple variety) (change to green when cooked, acts as a timer for when they are done being cooked)
~Dragon Tongue (Yellow with purple stripes)

Broccoli
~Broccoli Raab
~Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli (kind of like the broccoli raab (small) but purple)
~Windsor Broccoli (Regular green variety) (is suppose to be very heat tolerant)

Cabbage
~Red Acre (red variety)
~(Cone shaped variety)

Cauliflower
~Purple of Sicily (Purple variety)
~Cheddar (Yellow variety) ~Possibly a common white variety

Carrots
~Dragon (Purple variety)
~White Satin (White/Light yellow variety)
~Amarillo (Yellow variety)
~Tendersweet (Common orange variety)

Celery

~Zwolsche Krul (Stem Celery) (Thinner that regular celery, with a stronger taste, will be sold in bunches)

~Red Stem Celery (Common celery with red stems)

~Also a common green variety

Corn
~We will be growing the same variety of bi-color sweet corn as we did last year
~We will also be trying a new white sweet corn variety (will only be growing a small amount since it will be the first time trying this variety)

Cucumbers
~Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber (very, very tiny cute little cucumbers that I will be using for in salad mixes)

Eggplant
~Blush (Long white with
~Black Champion (Long purple)
~Thai Green (Long green)
~Lao Green Stripe and Lao Purple Stripe (Tiny round eggplant)
~Mix of four different varieties

Greens
~For bunches: Red Russian Kale, Dinosaur Kale, Collards, Swiss Chard (many colors), and a mix of 4 or 5 Mustard Greens
~There are so many other different kinds of greens we plan to grow, some spicy for salad mixes others to be sold as a bunch

Herbs
~We have plans add a whole new section for all of our herbs. Hopefully we will have a very large selection of herbs available to be sold in bunches. We will also be selling all the different kinds of basils we had available last year plus some new exciting varieties. At some point I will post a list of all the different kinds of herbs we plan to sell with descriptions.

Kohlrabi
~Early White Vienna (Common green variety)
~Early Purple Vienna (Purple variety)

Leeks
~Licolyn Leeks (Used for baby leeks, ready to pull early)
~I will also be growing a couple of regular common leek varieties

Lettuce
~I have many different kinds of lettuce seeds, I probably will not be able to plant them all at one time, but I can tell you one thing, I should have a very good selection available

Okra
~I think I over did it when it came to ordering okra. I may have ordered more varieties than I should have. We will see how many I get to plant come spring, all of them would be nice :)
~Eagle Pass Okra (A green and red fat variety)
~Pitre's Short Bush Red Cowhorn Okra (A skinnier longer green and red variety)
~Burmese Okra (Green variety)
~Cow Horn Okra (Green variety)
~Red Burgundy Okra (Red variety)
~Milsap White Okra (White variety)

Parsnip
~Hamburg Rooted Parsley

Peas
~Golden Sweet Snow Pea (Yellow sweet snow pea)
~I will be growing a normal green variety also to go along with the yellow peas

Peppers
~Bianca Bell Peppers (Yellow variety)
~Islander Bell Pepper (Purple variety)
~Purple Beauty Bell Pepper (Purple variety)
~Chocolate Beauty Bell Pepper (Green maturing to chocolate variety)
~Gourmet Bell Pepper (Green maturing to orange variety)
~King of the North Bell Pepper (Green maturing to red variety)
~Alma Paprika Pepper (Yellow maturing to red sweet/mild paprika pepper, small round bell variety)
~Feher Ozon Paprika Pepper (Yellow maturing to orange sweet paprika pepper, long variety)
~Shishito Pepper (Green sweet/mild Japanese pepper)
~Jimmy Nardello Italian Pepper (Long skinny green to red, looks like a cayenne but without the heat)
~Sweet Banana Pepper (Long yellow sweet pepper)
~(Green sweet pepper, same kind we had last year)
~Red Ruffled Sweet Pepper (Round ruffled look, green to red)

Pumpkins
~I do not think we will be selling any pumpkins this year for market but we will be growing some to be used for baking (pies, breads, etc.)

Radish
~French Breakfast (sold last year, long white and red variety)
~Shunkyo Semi-Long Specialty Radish (long red variety)
~Easter Egg Radishes (Small round, mix of beautiful colors)
~Saxa2 (very quick to mature red variety, (18days))
~Crimson Giant (very large red variety)
~Rat Tail Radish (excited about this one, it is actually the seed pod that is edible, does not actually form underground)

Shallots
~Will be growing some shallots this year for the first time, will be a common variety

Summer Squash
~Common green zucchini variety
~Bush Baby Zucchini (Small striped variety)
~Magda Zucchini (Similar size and shape to Bush Baby but with light green color)
~Green Patty Pan Squash
~Bennings Green Tint Scallop/Patty Pan Squash

Tomatoes
~IsIs Candy Cherry Tomato (red, yellow striped cherry)
~Black Cherry Tomato (Purple cherry)
~Dr. Carolyn Cherry Tomato (Yellow cherry)
~White Current Tomato (Smaller yellow cherry)
~Sungold Cherry Tomato (Orange cherry)
~Aunt Ruby's German Cherry (Green cherry)
~Pearly Pink Cherry Tomato(Pink cherry)
~Mr. Stripey (Yellow, red, orange striped slicing tomato)
~Black Prince Tomato (Purple slicing variety)
~Cherokee Purple Tomato (Purple slicing variety)
~Amish Paste Tomato (Red paste)
~Opalka Tomato (Red paste)
~Wapsipinicon Peach Tomato (Fuzzy like a peach, yellow cherry)
~Yellow and Red Pear Tomato (Cherry sized, pear shaped)
~Japanese Black Trifele Tomato (Purple and shaped like a bosc pear, will be sold mixed with yellow and red pear)
~Striped Cavern (Red, yellow striped stuffing tomato)
~Reisetomate Tomato (Is like a bunch of red cherry tomatoes fused together, that pull apart easily)
~I will be growing a red cherry tomato as well just not sure which one yet I have a few different kinds that I can grow.
~I also have a couple of other striped tomatoes that are slightly larger than a cherry tomato but I am not sure if I am going to have the room for them, will have to wait and see.

Turnip
~Common variety

I think that is everything, hopefully I did not miss anything.

Once I get the website done this list will be there also, plus I plan to have pictures of the vegetables we have already grown and when the season begins I will take pictures of the new varieties and add them also.

Planting inside will begin this weekend, I probably should have already started, but come on do you really expect, me, to be right on schedule? As long as I start planting things this weekend I will not be to late, just not early.

Summer is closer than you may think!

2010-01-29T20:50:00.006-05:00

Well, I pretty much have my seed orders all ready to go. I should actually already have them in by now, but I am always behind. I have been spending so much time lately looking through catalogs, searching vegetable varieties online, and adding more and more things to my list of seeds to order. Probably way more time than I should, but oh well. Anyhow I have started planning when everything needs to get started inside and outside. In doing this I suddenly realized how close summer really is. The first things that are going to need be planted are going to be the leeks, which I will probably be starting as soon as 2 weeks from now. The tomatoes and peppers are going to get started in just over a month and a half from now. Then in just over 2 months we will be starting our cool weather crops outside. Can you believe that? Just about 2 1/2 months till we can start planting outside!

I can not believe that everything is going to be getting started in just 2 or 3 weeks. Once I start planting the first seeds then every week after that I will be starting seeds, then before I know it transplanting seedlings begins, then things start moving outside into the hoop house and finally things start getting planted outside. And it will all be beginning very, very soon.

I am so excited for this year. I can hardly wait to try some of the new exciting vegges I plan to grow. There are so many different unusual things we will be trying this year. I am working on a list of what we will be growing this year and hopefully will be posting it soon.

I still plan to experiment with seed starting mixes and potting soil mixes but I think it will be best if I wait until I begin starting my regular seeds for this year. Before I begin my seed starting I am not really consistent with turning on my plant lights and it stays kind of cold in the basement also. Unless I have good growing conditions I do not know how successful the experimenting will be. Anyhow, tonight I am going to work on getting my soil mixing recipes together that I plan to try. Then I will get everything together and ready to go so when I start planting seeds I can start my experimenting also.

Off to do more planning.

Let the Experiments Begin!

2010-01-03T21:09:00.001-05:00

Now that Christmas is past and the rush is over, it is time to start some experiments! That is after I get a plan together and clean up my plant area in the basement. It is kind of a big mess down there, what do you expect plants are dirty. But every year before planting begins everything gets cleaned up, and it is that time now. But anyhow, now for my experimenting plans.

The first thing I plan to do is mix up a good seed starting dirt mix. I have not got any recipes together yet but I will soon. The seed starting dirt should be fairly easy to come up with since most seed starting mixes do not have very much in them and they are pretty simple. Seeds do not need much in the soil to actually get started, the most important thing for starting seeds is the temperature. I plan to try at least 4-6 different mixes. I will start somewhere around 6-8 seeds per mix. Next I will take the plants from the mix that works the best and try a bunch of different potting soil mixes. I will probably use the seedlings from the mixes that are not a good to experiment with some different homemade fertilizers. I love experiments. So much fun! I am not 100% sure what kind of plant I am going to use for my experiment, but I am thinking my best choice would be tomatoes. I do not want to use something that grows too fast or too easily, because it may be happy in any kind of dirt. I also do not want to use something that grows too slowly since I do not have forever. Tomatoes are good because they are pretty easy to read if they are not happy, they usually let you know if something is wrong.

Tomorrow I will clean up the basement and get everything ready for my experiments, and also hope to get some plans together as far as what my soil mixes will be.

So those are my plans. But this is just the beginning of my experimenting, I plan to try a lot more soil mixes in the future. I also plan to do some experiments with different kinds of plants and what kinds of soil mixes each like. Experiment with fertilizers. I have all kinds of plans, and things I want to try. The list goes on and on. Well, anyhow hopefully tomorrow I will have some more plans to share.

Oh, I also realized that I need to get a new header picture taken. I think fall is over now, time for a winter picture. I need to get that done tomorrow also. (Looking out the window, snowing) Yeah it is definitely not fall anymore.

Janurary- Herb of the Month- Rosemary

2010-01-01T11:37:00.006-05:00

~Rosemary~ Topic of the Month
Just thought I would start out by saying, Happy New Year everyone!
2010 is here!

As I have mentioned in a previous post I choose so make rosemary the herb of the month since I have been using it lately and have really started to like the flavor it adds to dishes.

Here are some medical uses and health facts of rosemary that you may find interesting:

-It is thought of to be a memory stimulant so instead of just keeping your pot of rosemary in the kitchen, you could move it do a more useful spot such as your desk where you do your work of where your kids do their studying and school work.

-Studies done on animals have shown that rosemary has cut their risk in half of getting lung cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer.

-Can also help to relax muscles, rosemary tea has been know for calming nerves.

-If rosemary tea is gargled it has been known to aid in healing canker sores and ulcers.

These are just a few of the many know uses of rosemary.

Cooking:
Rosemary is best used fresh, since it looses most of its flavor when dried, although it can also be used dried if you wish.

Rosemary can be used in cooking so many things, and it does not take much to add quite a bit of flavor. So far I have used it in stuffing, chicken, stir fry dishes, and possibly some other things that I am unable to think of at this moment, but there are sooooo many more options for cooking with rosemary that I have not tried yet.

One thing that will probably be the next thing that I try with rosemary will probably be rosemary butter. Sounds good doesn't it?

Here is a link to a site that explains some good ways to use rosemary for barbeques and others cooking uses along with some recipes.- theherbspiral.com

How to use rosemary in your cooking- this site gives you alot of ideas of how to cook with rosemary. Lots of good ideas. I may just have to try some of these.

Here is a link to my Pumpkin Bread Stuffing with Rosemary

Nutrition Data:
From Nutritiondata.com:
"The good: This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Vitamin B6, Magnesium, Potassium and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Folate, Calcium, Iron and Manganese.

The bad: This food is high in Saturated Fat."
You can check out the rest of the nutrition data for rosemary here at Nutritiondata.com

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T21:14:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a very
Happy Thanksgiving!

Coming Soon-Topic of the Month-Rosemary

2009-11-20T19:13:00.002-05:00

I know I have not really kept up lately with the Topic of the Month. I got busy for awhile and did not get a chance to work on it, and lately I just could not think of a topic of the month since we do not have very much growing right now. But I just thought of something that I would like to make the Topic of the Month for January, Rosemary. I have just started using it, and love it. I was very surprised how much taste one sprig of Rosemary can add to a dish. So next month the Herb of the Month will be Rosemary.

I plan to grow Rosemary next year along with many other new herbs to sell in bunches. I have wanted to grow more herbs for awhile now, but just haven't. I have never really cooked with herbs much but the more I use them the more I like them, there are so many different herbs that I jut can not wait to try next year.

Fall Chores

2009-11-05T17:01:00.007-05:00

The past few days I have been trying to get a bunch of things done for fall. Everyday I have been saving seeds for next year, from tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers. I still have a bunch of seeds to save yet.

Yesterday I finally got my collards, kale and leeks covered so that they will be protected from the cold weather to come. They are so beautiful I would like to have them last as long as possible. Plus I need the kale and leeks for my pumpkin stuffing on Thanksgiving. In fact I really need to cover my celery so that it will hopefully be around for Thanksgiving also.

Collards and Kale under cover.

A couple of days ago I dug up my dahlia tubers, and they are now drying a little and will probably divide them tomorrow and store them away for the winter. This year I am going to try storing them in ceder chips. Last year I just wrapped them in newspaper and put them in brown paper bags, they did ok, but I thought I would try something different this year. This is only the second year that I will be saving dahlia tubers so I am still new to dahlia saving. I was very surprised when I started to dig up my larger dahlia tubers and discovered that the dahlias that I started from seed actually formed very nice sized beautiful tubers. The ones pictured are actually the ones that I started from seed. I did not think that they would form tubers, so I learned something new.

Dahlia tubers waiting to be stored away for winter

The last picture is of my cold frame. About two weeks ago I planted a bunch of stuff in there hoping to have some lettuce, greens and other things soon. I should have planted these things sooner, but they should hopefully have a chance to mature. I really do not think the beets that I planted will have time but at least I will hopefully get some greens out from them that I can eat in salads and use as cooked greens. We will see, and hope.

All kinds of things in the cold frame (lettuce, greens, radishes, beets, and baby pak choi)

We still have lots to do before winter and before the ground freezes. Such as till some of our garden areas, and hopefully work on putting up the hoophouse that I have been talking about. I really wanted to have had it up already, but I guess, better late than ever, that is if it ever gets put up. I also need to recover our tiny hoophouse so that the snow does not break the plastic like it did last year. Since I am not using plastic for greenhouses (just the plastic from home improvement stores) it does not even last a whole year before it just starts to crumble.

Pumpkin Bread Stuffing

2009-10-27T21:33:00.008-04:00

I was looking at Allrecipes.com for pumpkin recipes and ran across a recipe for pumpkin bread stuffing. I thought it was a really good idea, so I thought I would give it a try, and did. I think it came out really good. I do have some ideas for some changes that I will make next time, but first I will tell you how I made it this time.

Ingredients that I picked fresh for the stuffing, just before making it. Celery, Red Russian Kale, Leeks, Pumpkin Bread, and a stem of Rosemary (between Celery and Kale).

I basically used whatever ingredients that I had available to pick, that I thought would be good in the stuffing. So here it is:

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Pumpkin Bread Stuffing

4 cups pumpkin bread
1 medium size leek
3/4 cup celery
10 leaves red russian kale
8 tbls. butter
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 eggs
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tbls. fresh rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

I think it is best to make the pumpkin bread almost a week ahead, before you make your stuffing since pumpkin bread can be kind of moist just after it is made. That way it will be a little drier before you make the stuffing.

Cut pumpkin bread into cubes and let dry overnight, may have to bake in oven at 250 degrees to make sure bread is dry enough.
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add celery, leeks, and kale, cook till tender.
Mix in rosemary, salt, pepper, and pumpkin pie spice. Fold in bread cubes. Add eggs and then vegetable broth.
Transfer to buttered baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes covered with foil, at 375 degrees.

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Once again I thought this came out really good the way I made it but here is what I am going to do differently the next time I make it.

Will make it next time with at least 6 cups pumpkin bread instead of 4 cups
May use 2 leeks instead of 1
Will use a little less kale, maybe 8 leaves instead of 10
If I make a bigger batch I am sure that I will probably have to add more vegetable broth also.
Instead of drying the bread overnight and then putting it in the over to make sure it is dry enough, I will toast it in the toaster oven first and if I need too I will put it in the oven for the rest of the time.
Since I will make a bigger batch next time I will probably be able to bake for 40 minutes covered and 10 minutes uncovered, which is what the recipe I found said to do.

I will definitely have to play around with this recipe for awhile till it is perfect. Anyway, I am sure I will be making this for Thanksgiving, for sure.

What's Available- Saturday October 17th

2009-10-16T22:40:00.004-04:00

There are only two more markets left! We have not gone to market for the past couple of weeks. But we will be attending tomorrow's market! I had planned on baking a lot, but so far have not made as much as I had hoped to. I did not get any pies made so far, and since it is so late, I do not believe I will have time to do so. Hopefully next week I will get a lot more made. It is sooo hard to believe the end of this years market is almost here. Any how here is a list of the what we plan to have available. I wish it was bigger, but for this year it will just have to do. Next year our list should be a lot larger at this time of the year.

Collards
Red Russian Kale
Leeks
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Golden Delicious Apples
Red Delicious Apples
Jona Gold Apples
Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Apple Streusel Bread

What to Grow Next Year?

2009-10-11T14:04:00.000-04:00

I have already started making plans for what to grow next year, and I would love everyone's help. What would you like to see us grow next year? Is there something that you love but you can never find anywhere? Is there something that we grew this year that you really liked? We would love to know what you would be interested in.

As I have mentioned many times we love growing different things. I already have plans to grow many different things next year. Such as okra, yard long beans, kohlrabi, and many different types of greens.

I have had several people ask us about okra and even though I did grow some okra plants this year I did not have enough to sell. But next year I have plans to plant much more of it, I will also be planting it in a different location since I do not believe the location it was in this year was the best. I also believe it was just a really bad year for okra. I am not too familiar with okra, since this was my first year growing it, but from what I have read about it it likes it quite warm. I t seems to like temperatures similar to eggplant, and our eggplant did horrible this year due to the weather. So if you are an okra lover check back with us next year and hopefully we will have a better year for it.

I also grew a small section of yard long beans this year and though they were pretty cool myself. So I do plane to grow enough to be able to sell next year.

I love growing greens and lettuces, and there are sooooo many different kinds out there to try. Next year I will be growing many new kinds and hope to have a lot of greens and lettuces available throughout the season. Especially if we get our hoop house put up (which we need to get working on).

So let us know what you like.

Pumpkin Picking Time!

2009-09-16T21:21:00.006-04:00

My mom showing off some of our pumpkins.

She thinks she is allowed to drive the tractor, but she isn't.

Sadly I do not think we are going to be selling any of our pumpkins, we just don't really have enough. We will probably keep them, and have lots of pumpkins to carve for Halloween. But we do have a bunch of pie pumpkins that I will be using to make pumpkin breads and pies. I will probably start baking my pumpkin breads and pies for Valley City Farmers Market, not this Saturday but the following Saturday.

We tried lots of different kinds of pumpkins this year, like white pumpkins, blue pumpkins (we only got one of these, not sure why we didn't get anymore, I know the plants came up ok, oh well), and Knucklehead Pumpkins which did really well for us we got more of these than anything else. The only thing that was disappointing about the knuckleheads is, they are suppose to have a lot of bumps on them, and most did not have as many as I had expected, they were still pretty neat though.

I wish we would have thinned out the plants a little or would not have planted them so close together. I think we would have ended up with a lot more pumpkins if we would have done so, oh well, next year.

Our Plans for Fall

2009-09-15T19:02:00.007-04:00

Sadly were not able to get any of our fall greens and lettuces planted, but there is a reason for that. We are planning on building a hoop house in the location where we plant our greens. Yes we had to sacrifice planting our fall crops but it will all be worth it in the long run. We will not only be able to start our greens earlier, but it will also protect our crops from bugs. Which should make it possible to grow things that were either impossible to grow (pak choi and mustard greens) or very hard to grow (arugula, beets, radishes, and a lot of other greens) before.

I am very excited about our plans and can not wait to get started with them.

We are still hoping to sell at the Valley City Farmers Market, hopefully till the end. The following is what we plan to have available after a frost stops us from harvesting anymore warm weather crops.

Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin Seeds
Apple Bread
Apple Pie
Pecan Pie
Collards
Kale
Leeks
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Corn Stalks
and possibly some other things

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This year has been a really big challenge, the temperature for much of the season has been much cooler than normal. Making it difficult for crops such as eggplant, okra and caused most crops to be harvested much later in the season than normal.

We have also had issues with bugs that we never had before. We have always had trouble with flea beetles but this year was the worst yet, posing a problem for eggplant, radishes and our spicy greens. We also had major problems with beets and spinach which was something we never had a problem with before, leaf minors. In the past we were always able to pull beets with beautiful tops with hardly any problems, but this year was very different.

Another problem that we had this year was with rodents. Never before have we had our bean plants just cut off from the ground by rodents. The monsters also whipped out our beets overnight.

Considering how difficult of a year it was I am also very grateful for what we were able to harvest and the support of all our wonderful customers. Even though the year is not yet over, I can feel it coming to an end, since many of our warm weather crops are ending and the weather is getting cooler. So I just wanted to say thanks, to everyone.

Cherry tomatoes and pear picking

2009-08-29T21:07:00.000-04:00

Pictures of our table at last weeks market at Valley City.

It is pear picking time! Here at BAFarm this is how we pick our pears, no ladder required. Believe it or not I am actually afraid of heights.

Below are three of the heirloom cherry tomatoes that we currently have available in our heirloom cherry tomato mix.

IsIs Candy Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

Black Cherry Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

Dr. Carolyn Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

Vegetable Pictures

2009-08-05T22:26:00.008-04:00

Just thought I would take some pictures of some of the things we have available. Here they are:

Picture of some of the different kinds of eggplant we have available this year. We will also have some other types available, and will have to take another picture when the other kinds are ready.

Fairy Tale Eggplant
They are so cute, only about 3-4 inches long. It is a beautiful mini eggplant.

Baby Bush Zucchini

These are also a mini vegetable. They are only about 6 inches long, and barely have any seeds. They are great if you wish to add some zucchini to your meal, and do not wish to use an entire regular size zucchini.

Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato

We have just started picking a bunch of these, things had a late start because of all the cold weather. Some of them are a really good size.

Baby Romaine Lettuce and Butterhead Lettuce

I am planning to pull some Romaine Lettuce heads for Saturdays market.

I know it does not look like much but these are the first two purple beans that I finally got to pick today. They are so beautiful. They are also very very long, in fact they were too long to fit in a quart container, so I think I am going to have to sell these in bags instead of quarts, like I usually do. I think that these beans also have a really good taste to them also. I am very excited about them and can not wait till I have enough of these to sell, hopefully soon.

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Right now we are in the process of getting our "greens garden" ready for our fall plantings of lettuces for salad mixes. Right now it is a disaster, and we need to get it tilled and planted within the next week.

We are also in the process of making plans for a hoop house, that we are planning on making for our greens. We had some really bad problems with flea beetles and leaf minors. The hoop house would keep the greens protected from these bugs. I hope it works out, because if it does I should be able to grow some nice pak choi, since they normally get completely destroyed my flea beetles. If everything goes well with the our plans we should have lettuce and greens for spring, summer, fall and may be a lot of winter.

Valley City Farmers Market Pictures

2009-08-02T21:54:00.012-04:00

Some Pictures of our table at Valley City Farmers Market

Valley City, Medina County, Ohio

The Valley City Farmers Market is located in the parking lot of Liverpool Township Depot, 6615 Center Road. Pictures below are of the train which is parked at Valley City Museum, and after that is a picture of the museum, which the market is located at.

Over all view of Valley City Farmers Market.

Very very angry! NO MORE RAIN!!

2009-07-25T07:19:00.004-04:00

It has rained 3/5 market days so far this year! Today I have been watching the radar since 3:00 AM in the morning and a very large storm has been getting closer and closer. My prediction was that it would hit around 10:00 and be over around 12:00, and it is looking more and more like I am going to be right. So it looks like no market today. That means it will have rained 4/6 markets so far this year. I am just too sick of dealing with the rain to go today. I am sick of having to sort through a bunch of soggy market stuff and I know my mom (who sells for us at Valley City) is sick of coming back soaking wet from market.

We do have a lot of vegetables ready and some of which I have already picked. I am hoping that things will clear up this weekend sometime and if they do I am hoping to set up a table at our home. I may even set up a table during the week, weather permitting of coarse, and it would be after 1:00 PM. If you would be interested in some of our vegetables this week feel free to give me a call. To see what we have available right now check out our list on the right titled: What we currently have available.

Thanks for letting me vent, and hopefully, it better not rain next week!

July- Vegetable of the Month- Collards

2009-07-01T22:58:00.001-04:00

Before this year I have never grown collards before, nor did I ever cook with them. I decided to grow them this year since I wanted more kinds of greens that would grow will during warmer weather. Collards are most often grown by southerners because of their talerance to the southern heat. My collards are still producing really well, and hopefully will continue to do so for awhile.

Cooking:

Our favorite way to use collards is to make collard rolls, which is just like cabbage rolls except with collards. Here is our recipe that we have been using but can be changed depending on what vegetables are in season.

COLLARD ROLLS (In Crock-Pot)
Ingredients 20 collards leaves (reserve liquid from the slightly cooked leaves)

1-pound baby cut carrots (slightly cooked)

½ cup precooked rice according to package

3 Yukon golden potatoes (slightly cooked) Approximately

3 pounds ground meat (80% lean ground chuck beef) 2 cans 10-3/4 oz Campbell’s tomato soup 3 eggs

The following four ingredients are what I had available (in season) to add, you can add whatever you may have available that sounds good, instead of the following:

½ cup chopped broccoli raabs

1/8 cup chopped garlic scapes

1/8 cup chopped scallions

1/8 cup chopped beet leaves

1/8 cup BA Farm Seasoning Mix

1/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/3 cup ketchup

Cooking time in large crock pot – 6 hours on low

Prepare rice, carrots, and potatoes as above and set aside.

Trim off the thick back part of stem of the collards as you would the cabbage leaves to make cabbage rolls. Place the collard leaves in water and heat just a few minutes. Reserve 2 cups liquid from cooked leaves; to this mix add the 2 cans of tomato soup. Combine broccoli raab, garlic scapes, scallions, and beet leaves mix together and add 1/8 cup to the meat mixture, reserve remaining to be added in to liquid mixture in crock-pot at the end.

Place in large bowl ground meat and combine the following: eggs, BA Farms Seasoning Mix, breadcrumbs, ketchup and rice. Mix together. Add the above 1/8 cup (reserve) of broccoli raabs, garlic scapes, etc. and mix.

To form collard rolls place meat mixture on the large end of leaf and roll up set each roll aside until all leaves are used. If there is left over meat, roll as a meatball. Place some carrots & potatoes on the bottom of the crock-pot. Add some liquid mixture. Then place a layer of collard rolls. Keep alternating carrots, potatoes, and liquid mixture then the collard rolls until all are used up.

May also be cooked in oven at 375 degrees for 1-1/2 hours (approximately) until done.

Health Benefits:

The following site names and describes the different health benefits of collards, such as improving bone health, and can also aid in preventing certain diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Also mentions how collards can help to prevent some vision problems, and may also help to give you more energy. Of coarse like most vegetables and greens can help with weight loss.
How Stuff Works- Collards Health Benefits

NutritionData.come- Collards

Next market- What's available

2009-06-30T23:23:00.004-04:00

This Saturday July 4th, there will be no market at Valley City, due to the holiday. The next market at Valley City will be on Saturday July 10th. Here is what we are expecting to have available:

~Beets- Regular and Forono (longer than regular beets
~Radishes- Regular and French Breakfast
~Bagged Salad Mixes- I will post what types of mixes when it is closer to the market date
~Loose Leaf Lettuce Heads
~Head Lettuce- Should have some ready for next market
~Red Russian Kale bunches
~Collard bunches
~Sweet Basil bunches
~Red and White Scallions
~Red Cherry Tomatoes- may possibly have some ready for next market, if not we will have them soon after
~Bell Peppers- coming very soon, not sure if we will have any for next market, but will be coming soon
~Zuchinni and Summer Squash- coming very soon

Summer Greens

2009-06-25T23:54:00.004-04:00

This year I hope to have bagged greens for salads and stir fry mixes available throughout the summer. Right now I have spinach, butterhead lettuce, baby romaine, collards, red russian kale, swiss chard, and radicchio planted. They are all suppose to be heat tolerant, so I am keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping I will have a nice selection. I also plan to plant some dinosaur kale and Tatsoi (a type of mustard green). I think I will also replant some mizuna and possibly some arugula. We will see how it goes.

So hopefully I will have salad mixes and mixed greens available all summer. I will let everyone know how all my summer greens are doing and of coarse will have to post some pictures.

Collards- July Topic of the Month

2009-06-21T23:27:00.005-04:00

I have decided to make Collards the next Topic of the Month for July. I have really come to love both Collards and the Red Russian Kale that I grew this year. Before I grew both of them I had never used them before, and really had no idea what to do with them. But since I have read so many things about others who love them I decided to give them a try. I am assuming that everyone else also does not know what to do with them since they have not been selling well. I really want to grow them again next year so I am hoping the sales of them begin to pick up. So in an effort to let everone know about Collards, it will be the Topic of the Month.

I just thought I would mention that you can use Collards to make Collard Rolls. It is just like Cabbage Rolls but instead of using cabbage you use collards. In one way, it is actually better because the collards are not tough like the cabbage can sometimes be, when you make Cabbage Rolls. It is very good!

Pictures from the market

2009-06-20T23:15:00.007-04:00

I just thought that I would share some pictures from our market on Saturday.

Diakon Radishes, White Scallions, French Breakfast Radishes, Looseleaf Lettuce Heads, and Garlic Scapes

Picture of some of our bagged salad mixes. Just Lettuce Mix, Spicy Salad Mix, Red Sails Leaf Lettuce, and Black Seeded Simpson Leaf Lettuce.

Red Russian Kale Bunches, Collard Bunches and Some of our potted plants we have available for sale (such as Dahlias, Tomato Plants and Fairy Tale Eggplant).

Berry Bread

We also had Berry Bread available, which was made with strawberries and mulberries, and was very good. I am hoping to be able to make some more Berry Bread for this coming weekends market. I may actually have some raspberries to add to the strawberries and mulberries. I am not sure but am thinking that next week may be the last week for the Berry Bread because the mulberries and strawberries may not be producing for the following week, but we will see. I am almost positive that I will be able to make it this weekend.

First market of the year

2009-06-13T15:28:00.006-04:00

Valley City Farmers Market

First Market of the year

We are the first table on the right

Yesterday was our first market of the year. We had lots and lots of lettuce available, and still have lots that we did not have time to pick.

Sadly we did not have any spinach available since it decided it wanted to bolt. Sometime within the next couple of days I plan to get rid of the row of spinach that I have planted and plant some spinach that I just bought the other day that is suppose to be heat tolerant. It will be the first time I try this variety, but we shall see. Hopefully it last longer that the one I have planted now. I almost forgot that I also have some Malabar Spinach planted. This will be my first time trying this also. It is actually a vine and it suppose to love the heat, should be interesting.

I also plan to pull the last of my arugula, since some of them have just started to go to flower. I am not sure what I will put in its place yet. Maybe some more kale and collards to be picked for bagged greens during the summer.

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For next week I should for sure have more Red Russian Kale and Collards available, which I must say they both are very very beautiful.

Of coarse we will for sure have red and white scallions available.

I am thinking that I should also still have available my bagged lettuce mixes.

I should also have some beautiful full heads of leaf lettuce available.

The radishes should hopefully be ready just in time for next weeks market also.

Some of my dahlias are just beginning to bloom so I should have some of them to bring next week.

I am also hoping to get together some of my extra tomato plants.

If we get some rain this week like I believe we are suppose to things should get a growth spurt, so we may have other things available also.

What's Available (Market date 6/13/09)

2009-06-09T22:55:00.000-04:00

Valley City Farmers Market
Saturday June 13th, 2009
First market of the year!!!

I will be posting updates as we get closer to market day, so be sure to check back.

Our main thing that we will have available for sale for this week is our bagged salad mixes. Everyday when I walk through the gardens I notice that it seems as if the lettuce and greens are getting more and more beautiful by the day. I think one of the most beautiful things are the collards. They are getting so big and beautiful. I am dieing to pick them and make some collard rolls with them. I am hoping that I have some collards left after the market on Saturday to make some collard rolls with.

Vegetables:

Red Scallions
White Scallions
Bagged Salad Mixes: Just Lettuce Mix, Mild Spicy Mix, Super Spicy Mix, and A Little Bit of Everything Mix
Red Russian Kale
Collards
Bagged Spinach (possible, depending on how much we have to pick)
Bagged Arugula (also a possible, depending on how much we have come Saturday)
Garlic Scapes
Broccoli Raab
Mulberries

Plants:
I am not sure exactly what I will be bringing, but I do know that I have lots and lots of plants. Listed are some of the possibilities.

Large potted Dahlias (depends on which ones may be blooming by Saturday)
Geraniums (also depends on which ones may be blooming by Saturday)
Hanging baskets (with Sweat Peas and Carnations in them)
Tomato plants (many different kinds)
and others

Bakery:
I am not positive yet but I am thinking about making pizzelles (maybe mulberry, vanilla, and or almond). I am also thinking about some kind of bread (maybe mulberry).

We should have radishes available for next week also, if not this week. We have 4 different types of radishes growing right now. The beets are also getting closer to being ready. The head lettuce is growing bigger and bigger every day.

I have not posted any pictures in awhile, (been pretty busy) so hopefully I will get a chance soon to get out there and take some pictures, especially of what we will have available to sell.

June- Product of the month- Greens and Lettuce Mixes

2009-06-01T21:41:00.000-04:00

I figured what would be better to make as the topic of the month than Greens and Lettuce Mixes, since most of what we will have available for the month of June is going to be just that.

I just picked my first few bowls of greens and lettuce the other day, and had my first salad of the year. I must say everything was very delecious!

Here is what mixes I plan to have available for the first market at Valley City (which I must add, is coming very, very soon):

Just Lettuce Salad Mix

~The Just Lettuce Salad Mix will consist of lettuce only. Some of the types of lettuce will include Red Sails, Black Seeded Simpson, Red Oak Leaf, Salad Bowl, Prizeleaf, and others.

Mild Spicy Mix

~This mix includes about half lettuce and about half mild spicy greens. Such as Red Oakleaf Lettuce, Salad Bowl Lettuce, Mizuna, Mustard Spinach, and others.

Super Spicy Mix

~This mix contains mostly spicy greens and a little bit of lettuce. Such greens include Arugula, Mizuna, Mustard Osaka, Chicory Red Treviso, Salad bowl lettuce and some others.

A Little Bit of Everything Mix

~The name of this mix says it all, includes a little bit of everything. Such as all the different types of lettuces we grow, spinach, and some spicy greens such as Mizuna, Endive, some Arugula and others.

Plus I also plan to have availabe:

Bagged Spinach

Red Russian Kale

Collards

~I also plan to sell a stir fry mix with greens such as Kale, Collards and Swiss Chard. You can also add this mix to your favorite salad mix.

I may also have some other Mixes available. I will know for sure when it is closer to the first maket. I will be posting (when it is closer to the first market) what we will have available at Valley City on June 13th.

Pictures of lettuce and other greens

2009-05-28T22:58:00.008-04:00

Our lettuce and greens are starting to look really nice, so I thought I would take some pictures. I have already been picking some kalea and collards, and they are very good. For sure we should have a nice variety of lettuce mixes, kale, collards and spinach available for the first market at Valley City (coming very, very soon). I will be posting a complete list of what we will have available at the first market, very soon.

This picture was taken when it was getting very dark and was about to storm.

I can't believe it, but we have actually got or main crops already (tomatoes, peppers, eggeplant, beans, squash, etc.) planted. I am so happy. This is the earliest we have been able to get all these things in. I do still really need to plant some more beets and radishes along with some other things. Once it is done raining hopefully I will be able to get that done.

Cold, cold, cold. Why is it so cold?

2009-05-17T22:11:00.003-04:00

Tonight we have a freeze warning!! One week before Memorial Day weekend. Not frost but freeze warning. We are suppose to be planting all our tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, beans, and flowers, next weekend! How can it be this cold this late!! That is the thing about the weather it can be so unpredictable and you never know what is going to happen. Oh well, as long as it gets warmer fast, stays warmer, and our fruit trees do not get ruined, it should all be ok.

As a precaution I decided to cover my beets. If they were a little bit bigger I would not worry about them, but since most are still so small I figured it would be best to just play it safe. How horrible it would be to loose all my beets. I would have liked to have covered some other stuff but it should be ok, most of what I have planted already can tolerate a frost without a problem.

I think that tonight before I go to bed I am going to turn on the heater in my hoophouse. My clothes drier vents into my hoophouse, since my hoophouse is right next to our house off of our basement. So I have my drier on now to heat up the hoophouse. Last I checked the temperature was 60 degrees in the hoophouse and close to 40 degrees outside, not bad. They would probably be fine without any heat, but I can sleep better tonight if I know my plants are nice and warm and happy. I tend to spoil them.

Well, anyhow all I really wanted to do was vent. I am just itching to get those plants into the ground, but planting time will be here before I know it.

Wildlife Pictures

2009-05-11T22:18:00.007-04:00

Yesterday, on Mother's Day, was the first day that I noticed that there were two ducks with about 11 or 12 babies each, they are so quick and impossible to count. Here is a picture of one of the moms and some of here babies. They are sooooo cute. They seemed to be having so much fun swimming around as fast as they possibly could, and they can move fast too.

I know that this picture does not look like much, but when I walked up to the creek about 6 goldfinches flew out of the water. They were taking a bath. I wish I would have noticed that they were there so that I could have moved a little slower, and could have possibly got a picture. That would have been a really, really good picture.

I didn't get a picture of the goldfinches in the water but I got this picture of a male (right) and a female (left) goldfinch. They are such pretty birds.

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Aphid Problems
When I was bringing in my flats of plants today, for the night, I looked closely at a flat of my peppers and noticed an aphid! I hate aphids!!! They are such a pain. Unlike other bugs aphids do not actually eat parts of the plant, instead they just suck the life out of them. So if you do not look closely at the plants you may not notice that they have aphids until they have multiplied a lot. Luckily, I looked over a lot of my plants and only noticed a couple flats of peppers and some eggplant with aphids. I dealt with most of them and will look everything over really well tomorrow.

Here is what I usually do when I notice that I have an aphid problem:

If you do not have as many plants as I do you can usually had pick a lot of them. I usually get a cup of water, sometimes I put a little dish soap in the cup. Then I take a q-tip and dip it in the water. You can then take the aphids off of the plant using the q-tip. The aphids will easily stick to the q-tip and you can dip the q-tip back in the water to get the aphids off. This is much easier than trying to remove them with your hands.
Today I hand picked some aphids off, when I got sick of that, I took a spray bottle put some dish soap in it and filled it with water. I sprayed the plants, mostly under the leaves and in the middle of the plants (that is where they like to hang out). I let them sit like that for a few minutes.
I took another spray bottle filled with just water and sprayed the plants again, holding them upside down to wash off some of the dish soap so that it would not bother the plants. If you spray them lightly with the dish soap water mix you may not have to do this but I put a good amount of dish soap in the spray bottle, because I wanted to be sure to kill all the aphids. If you spray them with too much dish soap it can hurt the plants, probably will not kill them, but could put them back a little bit.

I am not too worried about the aphids, since I will be planting them outside in a couple of weeks. I usually do not have to worry about aphids once they are outside, I think that nature takes care of them then.

Signs of aphid problems
There are some things that you can look for that could give you an idea that your plants may have aphids. Here is what to look for: Stunted growth and sometimes leaves may curl or turn yellow. Usually it is a lot easier to notice these signs in very very young seedlings, larger plants may just not seem to grow or become stunted. Look under the leaves and in the middle of the plant, they do not like to just sit out in the open. You can easily see the aphids on the plants if you look often. I tried to get a nice close up picture of them but was having a hard time getting my camera to focus on the plant, and just wanted to get rid of them so I gave up on the picture. If I have anymore aphids left I will try again tomorrow, but hopefully I got rid of all the aphids. Really when you think of it aphids are probably one of the better bad bugs to have, because once you get rid of them your plants will be just fine, they are just a pest.

My soil making experiment (Part 2)

2009-05-08T22:45:00.005-04:00

Well, there were some things that I did like about my soil mix, and some things that I did not like. So I have decided to modify it a little. I have done some more research, and this is what I have decided that I will try:

2 parts organic humus and manure,
1/2 or 1 part perlite,
1/2 or 1 part vermiculite,
and 1-2 parts peat moss.

I have decided to cut out the top soil completely. It is just too clumpy for my little seedlings. At first I wasn't sure if it would be good to use the organic humus and manure in a potting soil, but after reading up on it, it seems like there shouldn't be a problem. I picked up a bag of vermiculite today, so I will be adding that to my mix.

I have plans to do a lot of experimenting this winter with different potting soil mixtures, so that I can come up with a mix that I am very happy with. What I will be doing is growing a bunch of the same type of plant under the same conditions except put them all in different potting mixes and see which ones do the best. I figure that the best time to do this is the winter because not only will I have the time but, will have the light space to grow them under. I plan to experiment with different fertilizers also, and I will be sure to post all my results. I am excited that I will actually have something to look forward to during winter (I do not like winter very much).

Tomorrow I will try my new mix. I hope that I like it better than what I was mixing before.

My soil making experiment (part 1)

Pictures and what I did today

2009-05-05T20:18:00.008-04:00

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes

Red and White Scallions

Garlic

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Today we finally got to cleaning up the branches that we cut down from out fruit trees. Boy was it a mess back there. Branches, branches everywhere. That being said our monster brush pile is growing. I do not think we could ever get rid of it. I think it would take us the rest of our life to do so.

On my way home from work today I stopped at Gales Garden Center, I had to pick up a few things. One of which was some seeds for bitter melons. I have been looking at these with interest for awhile now, and finally decided to grow them. I was looking for information about something else, on the garden web forums, and just happened to come across some threads about bitter melons. They are suppose to have many health benefits. I may just have to make this a vegetable variety of the month, because it is a very interesting vegetable.

Tomorrow is going to be transplanting day. Yes I still have a lot of things that need to be transplanted. Some of those include: basil, zinnias, asters, and coleus (lots and lots of coleus). I am very much behind on transplanting and I have many things that need to be transplanted very badly. Hopefully, if I spend most of the day down in the basement I can get most things transplanted.

2009-05-01T16:56:00.005-04:00

Extra Dwarf Pak Choy

Aren't they cute? I took some pictures of these Extra Dwarf Pak Choy when I was taking the pictures of the Red Russian Kale for the Topic of the Month. I am not sure exactly how much more they have to grow but I think they are getting close to being ready. They are only suppose to get 2" tall. I planted a small section the same time as I planted the kale, collards and some other things, so that I could see what they are going to be like. This is my first time growing these and was really curious to see how they were going to work out. I just had to post these pictures because they look so nice and are so tiny and cute.

As soon as I am able I will be planting a bunch of these for the market, it should be about time soon to get them planted. Hopefully I will have a lot of these available for market as long as I can keep them form getting eaten.

May- Vegetable Varitety of the Month- Red Russian Kale

2009-05-01T16:02:00.003-04:00

The topic of the month for May is the vegetable variety, Red Russian Kale. My little kale plants are still small but are beginning to grow quite quickly now. They are starting to look very pretty.

The picture to the left was just taken yesterday, and shows what my Red Russian Kale looks like right now. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I will have some available for the first market of the year, and as of now it looks like I should.

Red Russian Kale is an old Heirloom kale. This kale is just as tasty as it is beautiful. It is good either steamed, sauté, stir fried, roasted, boiled, used in soup or in a salad, and can even be frozen.

I should have Red Russian Kale available for most of the season. During the summer I plan to use it for my salad mixes and stir fry mix of greens. Unlike most lettuces, kale can tolerate the heat much better.

Cooking
Once again as mentioned above kale can be prepared many different ways such as steamed, sauté, stir fried, roasted, boiled, used in soup or in a salad. Baby kale can make a very good addition to salads, and mature leaves are a great addition to many of your favorite meals.
Here is a link to what sounds like a very good recipe that I will have to try as soon as my kale is large enough to begin picking. Red Russian Kale and Red Onion Savory Breakfast Squares

Health Benefits
Kale is low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol, and also contains phytonutrients that can help to prevent cancer.

It is a very good source of:

Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin K
Calcium
Potassium
Dietary Fiber
Protein
Iron
Manganese

And there are many more. If you are interested in detailed nutrition facts about kale, both raw and cooked, check out the links below from Nutritiondata.com.

Below are some links to some good websites that explain the health benefits of Red Russian Kale.
Link to Nutritiondata.com for kale, raw
Link to Nutritiondata.com for kale, cooked

*Just in case anyone has birds, I thought I would mention that they love kale too. Small birds such as parakeets, canaries and cockatiels are especially fond of kale. Best of all it is very good for them also.

My soil making experiment

2009-04-29T21:10:00.006-04:00

I love experimenting and I also love making things myself. Maybe this is why I love growing my own vegetables so much. I have been experimenting with making my own fertilizer mixes, and spent much of the winter doing research. Now I have just discovered my newest obsession, mixing my own potting soil.

I was beginning to get very tired of going to the garden center every week to buy more potting soil. I was beginning to think that maybe I should have just ordered an entire semi-truck load. Then I remembered reading somewhere about mixing your own potting soil, so I did some research got together some possible combinations and off to the store I went.

First I went to Gales Garden Center. From there I bought a monster bag of Perlite and a giant bag of Peat Moss. Then I went to Home Depot and bought some bags of Top Soil for $1.oo each and some bags of Organic Humus and Manure for not even $1.50 each.

Here is the mix that I used:
2 parts Top Soil
2 parts Peat Moss
2 parts Perlite
1 part Organic Humus and Manure

The four parts of my experimental soil mix

The finished product

I can not wait to see how this mix works out, but so far so good. One thing that I have found that seems to make this mix better than the regular soilless mix that you normally buy everywhere, is that when it is completely dried out it soaks up the water a lot better. Normally when a soilless mix is completely dried out if you water it the water just sits on top of the soil, but my mix soaks it right up with no problem. I would imagine that this could possible cause some problems if the soil remains overly wet for long periods of time, but I do not believe this will be a problem for me. I have never had a problem with anything staying too wet, but always have problems with my plants dring out, so hopefully this mix will help the problem.

If it works out for me, this mix may just be the begining, just imagine all the different types of mixes I could come up with.

My soil making experiment (part 2)

First market of the year

2009-04-22T23:23:00.002-04:00

Wow! I can not believe it, I just looked at my countdown to the first market of the year. I can not believe that there are only 52 days till the first market! I knew it would go fast, but I am not sure I was prepared for it to come this fast! 52 days!!!

Transplanting and nice weather to come!

2009-04-22T22:34:00.004-04:00

Today, thanks to the help of my mom, we were able to get a lot of transplanting done. There are still things that need transplanting but we were able to catch up on a lot that needed to be done. So while we transplanted we watched episodes of "The Legend of the Seeker" (my new favorite show, I am hooked) on the computer. It can get boring transplanting for hours. Trust me it is a lot less painful if you have something to watch.

Anyhow here is what we were able to transplant today: The rest of the peppers (Fish Peppers, Sweet Red Peppers, Flavorburst Peppers, and Islander Peppers), Stevia (I did not get too many of these to germinate, not sure why, was kind of disappointed, oh well there is always next year), Mexican Sunflower Tithonia Fiesta Del Sol (miniature variety, good for pots), and Strawberry plants (these did not germinate well also, not sure why).

I still have not transplanted those poor tomato plants from my last post. But trust me they are next! I just do not like to transplant tomatoes, so I have been putting it off. There are also some flowers that will need transplanting such as dahlias, asters and strawflowers. There are some others but I can not think of what exactly they are off the top of my head.

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Ok, now lets talk about the wonderful weather that is on its way starting tomorrow. I am so glad that the weather is going to be nice for awhile. There is a lot of planting that I have to do outside, so I am so glad that I should be able to get planting done this weekend. Here is what the weather is suppose to be like this week:
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Thursday- Almost 60 degrees- Sunny
Friday and Saturday- High 70's- Sunny
Sunday- High 70's- Partly cloudy
Monday- 70's- chance of rain
Tuesday and Wednesday- High 60's- chance of rain
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Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday sound almost perfect to me. I should be able to get a lot of work done one those days.

Monday, rain, but warm, that is ok with me as long as I can get a bunch of work done the days before, and as long as it is warm and I do not have to worry about seeds rotting, I will be happy.

Tuesday and wednesday, rain, but still not terribly cold, sounds ok to me. Besides the forecast might change by then, or I should probably say will change by then. They do not know that far ahead.

So if I can make it through tonight which will be pretty cold (30's) I should be ok. I am looking forward to the nice weather.

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to plant beets, pak choi, some kinds of lettuce, diakon radishes, kohlrabi, head lettuce, and possibly some carrots. We will see how things go. Oh, and I almost forgot I will have to transplant some onions and leeks. I am going to have to look at all my seeds to make sure I am not forgetting anything, because it sure seems like there was a lot more that I had to plant.

But for now it is time to go to sleep and rest up for all the work ahead.

More Pictures!

2009-04-20T17:11:00.014-04:00

Have you noticed that I like to take pictures?

Just a few of my many dahlias

I think that I forgot to mention, in my post about the plants that I will have for sale this year, about my dahlias and geraniums. So I just wanted to mention that I will have many kinds of beautiful dahlias and geraniums available for sale around the start of the Valley City Market. I will be sure to post pictures once they bloom, which still will not be for awhile yet, but I guarantee that we are getting closer.

Some of my geraniums

Mixed Salad Pot

I am not sure if I mentioned this before or not but I will have available for sale a potted salad mix. This is just a sample one for me that I made up as an experiment. I wanted to find out what grows best together and taste the best together so I can make up some different combinations to sell. In each pot I plan to have a couple different kinds of lettuces, arugula, at least a couple kinds of greens and a flower that is edible and can be used in salad mixes (Nasturtium or Violas). In this pot I planted Endive, Arugula, Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce, Red Sails Lettuce, Spinach, Salad Burnet, Corn Salad, Sorrel, and a rather large Nasturtium. Of coarse the ones that I will have for sale will probably not be quite this crowded, again this is just an experimental pot. I plan to grow these under lights indoors durning the summer. Since I will not be able to have actual lettuce available durning the summer since it is too warm and they would become bitter, I figured that I could have these available instead. So you can grow your own lettuce mix, and of coarse once you pick it it will grow back again so you should be able to get quite a few nice salads for your salad mix pot.

I also plan to have some mixed herb pots available. I am not sure yet exactly what kind of combinations I will make up, but each pot should have atleast 4 different kinds of herbs in it. I will probably make up some pots with the four kinds of basils that I will have available this year, and will most likely have some with herbs for cooking that go well together.

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And here are some more pictures:

Violas and some peppers

Some of my larger Fairy Tale Eggplants

Four different kinds of Basil:
Sweet Basil, Lemon Basil, Opal Basil and Cinnamon Basil

Zinnias

Some of my tomatoes that are in desperate need of transplanting!

If you plant you tomatoes in flats like this, I would not suggest that you let yours get to be this size before transplanting. They will be ok though, once I get them transplanted. I just finished transplanting another flat of tomatoes yesterday, for some reason I do not like transplanting tomatoes very much. I will be very glad when they are all transplanted, which I hope will be very soon!

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I just thought that I would mention that it is not positive yet but it looks like we will probably be selling at the Strongsville Farmers Market on Thursdays in addition to the Valley City Farmers Market. We are also still looking into other possible locations to add to Strongsville and Valley City. Strongsville Farmers Market does not begin until July, acutally they told me it would be the beginning of August. Which seems a little late, hopefully they made a mistake. I would like to add another location that we could sell at earlier than Strongsville, but am having trouble finding one.

I will be sure to post further information, about where we will be selling this year, when it becomes avaiable.

For now I guess I should get back to transplanting, because I have alot to do.

Looks like I am behind once again

2009-04-14T22:39:00.004-04:00

I just realized that I am once again behind on my planting. What I am worried about is it always seems like once I get behind it is very very hard to catch up.

There are only 60 days till the first market, and this past weekend I should have planted beets, kohlrabi, and Diakon Radishes outside, and I believe there where some other things too. Inside I should have planted zinnias, a bunch of herbs and some other flowers. I am not really behind on planting the things inside but I would have liked to have planted them already. I also have tomatoes and some other things inside that I should have transplanted already.

Boy do I feel behind. How will I catch up?

I am not sure how I am going to get more stuff planted outside unless it stops raining, warms up and the ground drys up enough to get it tilled an prepared for planting. I was able to get some things planted outside when the weather was nice for a week or so. Under row cover I planted about 2 weeks ago kale, collards, some lettuce, dwarf pak choi, and ishikura scallions (long scallions). I peeked under the row cover today and it looks like the scallions, lettuce and pak choi are coming up. I did not look at the kale and collards. It was raining and muddy outside and did not feel like pulling up another row cover, and was satisfied to know that something was coming up. I will have to check those some other day, maybe when it is drier outside and not raining.

I am hoping to start my seeds inside tomorrow and hopefully get at least some of my tomatoes transplanted. I am going to have to check the weather report and see if I might be able to get some things planted outside soon. Hopefully I will. I am hoping to have a nice big selection available for the first market. So I looks like I am going to need to get to work, so I can catch up, and have everything ready in time or atleast almost everything.

Recipe: Whole Stuffed Pumpkin

2009-04-11T22:26:00.002-04:00

Ok, I will have to admit that, for some reason, I have a hard time, finding the time to stop what I am doing to cook a good meal. Between my job, taking care of my many birds, two dogs and of course vegetables and everything involved with markets, I just have a hard time stopping myself long enough to cook. Don't get me wrong I love cooking with our vegetables, but I would really love to cook more than I do. I guess that is just something that I will have to continue to work on. That is the reason why whenever I provide recipes it is usually a link to some good recipes that I would love to try myself because it sounds good, and not a recipe that I have tried myself.

Anyhow, after all that rambling on and on and on (for some reason I like to do that), I will get to the actual point. I just thought that I would share with you a recipe that I have actually tried myself and that I liked very much. This winter I had a lot of pie pumpkins stored away in the basement. Last year we had a horrible pumpkin year and actually harvested only a few pumpkins that were not of the best quality. So I ended up getting a whole bunch from our friends over at The Apple Cabin in Lodi. I just had to have some for pumpkin pie and other things. I came across this recipe when I was trying to find new different things to do with the pumpkins. What do you know I am rambling on and on again, anyhow here is the recipe.

Whole Stuffed Pumpkin
1 small pumpkin
1 lb. Italian Sausage
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 egg beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp. salt

Cut the top of the pumpkin off and scoop out seeds, or cut pumpkin in half and scoop out seeds. Place the pumpkin in a large kettle and cover with boiling water. Simmer 30 minutes or until tender. Meanwhile saute sausage until browned, and onions, celery, and mushrooms, cook till mostly done. Combine egg, sour cream and salt. Mix with meat. Fill well drained pumpkin. Bake at 350 degrees approximately 30 minutes.

I wish I would have taken a picture but I did not. Oh well, maybe next time. I liked this recipe because it is something to do with pumpkin and winter squash that can be an entire meal, and does not involve a bag of brown sugar and stick of butter. Don't get me wrong, I love winter squash with lots and lots of brown sugar and butter. It is just something different for a change.

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I hope everyone has a wonderful, Happy Easter!

Some of the new vegetables for this year

2009-04-08T20:41:00.006-04:00

I just thought that I would take the time to share couple of the new and unusual things that we will be growing this year, that I am particularly excited about. But do not worry these are not the only new things we will be growing this year, there are many, many more.

Chinese Red Noodle Long Bean
This is a red/purple yard long heirloom bean. These beans should be great for those that love to make stir fry, because they are best sauteed, rather than boiled. They are also suppose to keep most of their red/purple color when cooked, unlike most purple beans that change to green when they are cooked. So they should add a wonderful red/purple color to your stir fry. These yard long beans are also suppose to have a taste very different from that of your regular green bean, so they should be very interesting and I can't wait to see how they turn out, they definitely sound good to me.

Here is a link to some pictures on Davesgarden.com of this beautiful yard long bean.

Armenian Cucumber
This is one of the many new varieties of cucumbers that we will be trying for the first time this year. I am particularly interested in how this one will turn out, because it is suppose to love hot summer weather. It is called a cucumber but is actually a type of melon. Since it is a melon it should be able to tolerate the heat better than cucumbers do. We always have a hard time getting our cucumber to survive the heat of the middle of summer. That is why I decided to give this cucumber a try.

Here is a link to some pictures at picsearch.com of Armenian Cucumber.

Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber
This is a very tiny heirloom cucumber. One of the main reasons why I decided to grow this cucumber was because I thought this would be something good to add to my salad mixes. Since they are so small (around the size of a quarter), I figured I could just throw a bunch in my bagged salad mixes, since they do not need to be cut. Besides adding them to a salad they are suppose to be good pickled, or just simply as is, for a snack. The inside should have a cucumber flavor but the skin has a unique lemon flavor. Should be interesting, right?

Here is a link to some pictures on davesgarden.com of this cute little cucumber.
Link to the story Mother Earth News did on Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumber (Mouse Melons).

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Yesterday winter returned briefly, when it snowed for the majority of the day :( I am not sure exactly how much snow we got, but I know it was at least 3 inches, probably more. It felt like the middle of winter all over again. But the good news is today spring was back, and all the snow melted :) So I feel better again! Lets just hope that the snow stays away for good until the end of the year, when we start winter all over again :( But lets not think of that, lets all think spring (and summer)!

April- Vegetable of the Month- Beets

2009-04-01T14:00:00.000-04:00

I have decided to have a different topic of the month each month. This month there will be a vegetable of the month (beets), but sometimes I will have and herb of the month, flower of the month, a particular variety of the month and sometimes maybe even item of the month. I will share with you my knowledge of the vegetable, flower or herb, how to cook with it, its health benefits, how it is grown, and any other interesting info about the particular topic.

So for this month the vegetable of the month is Beets:

This year we will be growing the flowing varieties of beets:

Forono Beet: This will be our first year growing this variety. It is a red colored beet with a cylindrical shape. Which means that it has a long shape compared to the common round beets that you usually see. I wanted to grow this variety because I think these would be very easy to slice, and could get many more slices from these compared to the normal kinds.

Perfected Detroit Beets: This is an improved variety of Detroit Dark Red Beets. This is the kind that we have usually grown in the past. Very good variety of beet!

Detroit Dark Red: We wanted to try the common variety this year just to see how in compares to the improved version.

I am also thinking about growing another type of beet that is entirely different from the traditional dark red beets, maybe a golden beet, white or Chioggia (striped beet). It all depends on if I will have the room to add another variety. We will see.

I did pick up a packet of golden beets from the garden center the other day (you know what happens when I go there, I buy everything, I just can't control myself). There where not too many seeds in the package but I figured, why not give them a try to see what they are like. If I like them this year I can order a large pack next year. So I should have a very limited supply of golden beets available probably in the middle of the season.

We usually have beets available the whole market season. This is one of the few vegetables that can be grown for most of the season. We usually make continuous planting throughout the our whole season. I does pretty well in most conditions, and is not very demanding.

Cooking Beets: We have a lot of customers that like beets and would like to buy some of our beets, but do not know how to cook them. So last year I typed up instructions on how to cook beets, and had them available for anyone who asked how to prepare them. So here are my instructions on how to cook beets:

Rinse off beets. Leave on roots and remove all except 1-2 inches of the tops. Cover with water, and boil covered for approximately 40 to 50 minutes or until tender when pricked with a knife. (Cooking time will depend on size of beets, larger beets will take longer to cook then smaller ones.) When done place beets in cool water until you are able to handle them. While they are still warm, the skins should slide off easily, by rubbing them off with your hands. Beware of the red from beets, can stain easily. Beets can also be cooked the same way in a pressure cooker, which will cut the cooking time in half.

Here is a great link with lots and lots of recipes for beets: Just Vegetable Recipes

Using Beet Tops: Make sure you keep your beet tops, because that make a very good cooked green. We use to just throw ours out, until one day our neighbor found out and yelled at us for doing so! We once used ours to make stuffed shells instead of using spinach since we did not have any spinach at that time but had beet greens. It was very good and I wish I had written down the recipe so that I could share it with you, but I didn't. I will have to make it again and make sure I write it down this time and take pictures. You can use the tops like you would other cooked greens, and can be substituted for spinach in many recipes.

I plan to use beet top greens during the summer in my bagged salad mix, since it is a green that can be grown when it is warm, in the middle of the summer. Most lettuces will blot (or go to seed) and become bitter when it gets too warm, but beet greens will be fine in the heat. My summer greens mix can be used for either a salad or as cooked greens, which ever you prefer. Some other greens that may be included in the mix are collards, baby swiss chard, kale, arugula and possibly some others.

Storing Beets: I have found that the best way to store beets is in a bag in one of your fridge. If you leave the in the open (not in a bag) they may not even last a week before becoming soft. I put mine in a regular plastic shopping bag. You can usually keep the tops on for at least a week (check on it regularly), if you are going to store the beets for longer than that you should remove the tops, since they will not last as long as the beets themselves. You can always remove the tops and keep them separate from the beets in case the start to go bad and you do not notice, this way your beets will be fine. The beets themselves can last for months is stored properly, jus about as long as carrots, which also can be stored for a long time.

Beets Health Facts: Beets are a very healthy vegetable and can benefit your health in many ways. They have been said to help prevent birth defects, heart disease, and some types of cancer.

These are just some of the good websites that I have found that explain health benefits of beets:
Nutrition Facts Analysis for Cooked Beets- From NutritionData.com
Nutrition Facts Analysis for Cooked Beet Greens- From NutritionData.com
The World's Healthiest Foods- Lot of good info here.
RawVeg.Info- Lists the different health benefits of beets, and gives links to read more about each benefit.
How Stuff Works calls beets a "Natural Weight Loss Food", read more about at this link.
The Many Health Benefits of Beets- Good site that describes each way that beets can help your health

There are so many more sites that explain the benefits of beets that I just couldn't list them all!

So as you can see beets are a very healthy vegetable. I makes a great side dish, and addition to almost any meal. It is a dual purpose vegetable because you can both the greens and the actual beet root. And as I have already mentioned it can be grown anytime throughout the growing season, so we should have them available at every market.

Plants For Sale

2009-03-29T22:03:00.006-04:00

This year we should have plenty of different kinds of seedlings and other plants for sale. Here is a list of what we should have available this year:

(I will post a more detailed list of what is available when it gets closer to when they will be available, with pictures of what they look like at that time, information about the variety, and prices. This is just a possible list of what may be available, check back in May, when it is closer to planting time for an updated list.)

In May and beginning of June we will have vegetable starts and possibly some flowers available, pickup only from our farm (Must call ahead or email us). Some of the varieties we should have available include:

Black Cherry Heirloom Tomato (purple heirloom cherry tomato)
Isis Candy Heirloom Cherry Tomato (striped heirloom cherry tomato)
Dr. Carolyn Heirloom Tomato (yellow heirloom cherry tomato)
Hybrid Sweet Baby Girl Tomato (red cherry tomato)
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato (heirloom paste tomato)
Sweet Red Pepper
We will have a limited supply of Red, Purple, Yellow, and some other colors of peppers available
Thai Dragon Pepper (red cayenne pepper)
Coleus
and possibly some other flowers, vegetables and herbs

At Valley City Farmers Market we should have the following plants available in gallon size pots (some smaller depending on the plant). We may also re-pot some of the left over plants from the above list for the market (of course the price will be higher since they will be larger plants in larger pots).

Fairy Tale Eggplant
Sweet Basil
Cinnamon Basil
Opal Basil
Lemon Basil
Thai Dragon Pepper
Fish Pepper
Mexican Sunflower Tithonia
Sweet Peas (In hanging baskets)
We will also have available a potted salad mix (You can have your own pot of lettuce and other greens to pick whenever you feel like having a salad!)

Some of the potted herbs that we should have available include:

The varieties of basils listed above
Parsley
Rosemary
Dill
Oregano
Thyme
Sage
Tarragon
Mint
and some others
We will also have most of the above herbs available as cut bunches at our markets throughout the season

I just wanted to let everyone know that we will have many kinds plants available throughout the season, and give you a good idea of what exactly will be available and when.

Seedling update

2009-03-28T23:45:00.010-04:00

Well, my greenhouse in the basement is almost full. Things have been pretty nice here outside lately, and as long as the weather permits I should be planting some seeds outside this week! How exciting is that? My basement temperature right now is about 62 degrees, and my greenhouse in the basement is about 80 degrees! It is really really warm in there, which is helping all the seeds that I just planted come up very quickly. This week I will also have to begin transplanting my first group of seedlings (Sweet Basil and Carnations).

Here are some pictures that I just took today of my seedlings and my light setups:

Picture of the "greenhouse" in the basement and the new shelf that I just added which will soon be filled with plants and lights.

Shelf of tomato and pepper flats, the peppers have not started coming up yet but the all the tomatoes have sprouted (both the tomatoes and peppers were planted almost 1 week ago).

Some of my eggplant seedlings (they are getting nice and big!)

Some of my little Sweet Basil seedlings that really need to be transplanted.
Hopefully I will be doing that tomorrow.

Carnation Seedlings that also need to be transplanted.

That is my update for today. Tomorrow I have transplanting to do, and since the weather is not suppose to be real good, it does not look like I will be able to plant anything outside tomorrow. Hopefully after the bad weather passes everything will not be too wet, and I will be able to do some planting, the beginning of this coming week. Outside within the next week I am going to have to plant head lettuce, romaine hearts, scallion seeds, possible swiss chard (depending on the temps.), some kale and a possibly some other things that I am unable to think of right now.

It is so nice to be able to finally watch things grow and know that warm weather and summer is finally on it's way here.

Be sure to check back on Wednesday April 1st for the post about our first vegetable of the month- Beets!

Spring is here!

2009-03-20T18:36:00.000-04:00

Spring is here! It looks like spring outside too, now if only it were a little warmer. Oh well, at least it is not snowing, and the sun is out. It may not be warm outside but the hoop house sure is toasty when the sun is shinning. I guess I can just sit in there and pretend it is warm outside. At least we are out of winter and summer is on it way.

Happy Spring everyone!

New BA Farm Logo

2009-03-14T18:07:00.000-04:00

I have finally got around to making a logo. I did it last night at like midnight. It was the quickest thing that I have done yet on the computer. Usually whenever I design something on the computer it takes me days, but since it was so late and I was so tired I did not spend as much time trying to get every detail perfect and debating on what would look best. Maybe I should do more that late at night, I may not waste as much time trying to get every detail perfect, since I am a perfectionist. It isn't anything too fancy, but it works, now I can start working on labels and such for this years market, and can put BA Farm logo on them! Maybe one day I will come up with something better, but for now it will do.

Well, I better get to planting seeds I have a bunch of things that I must get planted sometime this weekend. These are the things that I already have started, and have sprouted already: eggplant, hot peppers, celery, head lettuce, mint, viola, carnations, some basil, and strawberries. Next weekend will be my big planting weekend, it exhausts me just thinking of it. Some of the things that will need to be planted next weekend include: about 6 kinds of tomatoes, 5 kinds of peppers, 3 kinds of basil, some flowers and some other things that I can not think of off the top of my head. I better be going so I can get back to work, I need to replace the hoophouse plastic now so that I can start using it for some of the cool weather crops, since it did not survive the winter.

Another trip to our local garden center

2009-02-26T15:56:00.000-05:00

I love buying seeds!
I can not stress that enough. I order a lot of our seeds online, through catalogs, but I still have to visit our local garden center Gales Garden Center, a least once a week, and I never walk out of there without buying some seeds. Today I had to stop at Gales because I had a short list of seeds that I had to get, actually a log list, that turned into a really long list. But anyhow, I bought some seeds that I am really excited about. Here is what I bought:

Kohlrabi: This will be my first time growing this, and selling it. I mostly bought it because it is something new for me (I have to try everything), and because it should mature early enough to be able to sell at Valley City in the spring. According to the package in can be used in stew, stir-fry, sauteed, or steamed and raw with dip or in salads. It is suppose to taste like a mild white turnip, and is a member of the cabbage family. I sounds really interesting, like it could have lots of potential. I can't wait to experiement with it.
Diakon Radish: These radishes are suppose to be different from normal radishes because of their mild flavor. They are white and can grow up to 18" long. I think that these radishes should be good for those who do not like the strong taste of regular radishes.
Lettuce (Romaine Hearts): These just looked interesting to me and should be something else for us to have available for our first market of this year. I can also use the baby leaves for our bagged lettuce mixes.
Leeks: I really should have bought these earlier and started them in the cold frame or hoop house, but I didn't because I did not like the fact that they take soooo long to mature. But the more I thought about it, and the more research I did I figured I can start them a lot earlier that I had thought and have them mature earlier that I had imagined. So of coarse I just had to buy them. I have read that they take to transplanting really well, so I will be able to start them earlier then expected.
Onions: This is another one that I should have started aready. I have been debating for I long time now weather or not to grow any onions this year or not. But I love onions so how can I not buy them. I am still not sure weather we will be growing enough to sell this year or not, but at least I will have them for myself :)
Okra: This is another one that I was not sure if I should grow or not. It has been tempting me for quite some time now, so I decieded to just go ahead and buy some seeds. I really don't know much of anything about okra. You just don't see it much around here. I wasn't sure if it was something that would sell well in our area. So I will probably only be planting a limited amount of okra just to give it a try.
Sunflowers: I bought two beautiful kinds of sunflowers that I am really excited to grow for cut flowers. I think they should look beautiful together. I can't wait to see them bloom.
Nasturtium: I bought these to add a little bit of color to my bagged lettuce mixes. The flowers are edible and have a spicy, peppery flavor.
I also bought some more flowers for cutting. I am so excited to be able to add cut flowers to the list of things that we will be selling for this year, and can hardly wait to see how the flowers that I have selected look together!
I just learned that some varieties of sweet peas can be grow for containers and hanging baskets! I can't believe that I did not know this before! I found a package of sweet pea seeds that are for hanging baskets and just had to get them. The only thing is there are progbably not enough of seeds for me to be able to sell any. I will just have to be for me :) But the good news is that I looked through one of the catalogs that I order from and they carry a few varrieties that can be used for baskets! So if they work out good for me this year I will hopefully have some to sell for next year!

Most of the seeds that I bought today were new things that I wanted to try this year but debated for awile weather or not to get them.
I should have just got them from the beginging, what was I thinking? I should know by now that I just can not resist buying new seeds.

And that is what happens when I make a trip to the garden center. I always come home with more seeds!

Tomorrow and this weekend I will be starting my first group of seeds for this year. I just can't wait to get started with this years growing season! Hopefully now that I will be starting seeds soon that will keep me busy enough to where I will stay away from the garden center for now, at least for a little while.

Plans for our first market on June 13th

2009-02-24T18:49:00.000-05:00

Our first market this year will begin on Saturday, June 13th from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. And will be at Valley City Farmers Market located on Center Rd. in Valley City. It seems like so far away but market season is getting closer than you may think.

Here is a list of what we plan to have available to sell for our first market:

Red and White Scallions
Beets
Carrots
Broccoli Raab
Bok Choy
Dwarf Pak Choy (Bok Choy)
Bagged Salad Mixes
Head Lettuce
Individual Lettuces
Leeks
Collards
Peas
Radishes
Spinach
Swiss Chard
We should have some kind of bread available also, not sure what kind yet though, maybe carrot bread or mulberry bread and muffins.
We should have some plants available for sale also but will post what kinds when it is closer to market time.

This is just a list of what we are planning so far to have available for our first market day. We will post a new list just before our first market day.

Right now we are pretty much doing the same as you probably are, just looking out the window waiting for the snow to melt, wishing is was spring already. But, spring is coming soon, we know because starting next week we will begin starting some of our seeds inside. It seems like winter drags on and on until we start planting our seeds. That is when all the work begins and soon after that, before we know it we are tilling the gardens and planting everything. So for those of you that just can't wait for spring, it will be here soon.