How Things Are Growing

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.

Plants For Sale

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.