I harvested the majority of the buttercrunch lettuce and the radishes and went to the local farmers market. I was nervous about selling the produce as I do not use any chemicals or insecticides and am worried that people will judge me if they find slugs or spiders or whatever crawling thing in the head of lettuce I sell them. I warned them that there were no pesticides of any kind used and to wash the lettuce REALLY well before serving it. I sold 10 heads of lettuce, a half dozen bunches of radishes, and a couple bunches of mint sprigs. I brought in $33 and had to give 10% to the market. I am quite pleased with my first attempt at selling at the market.
A few things I will try to do better for next time:
A Sweet Basil Farm sign so people will know who I am.
A stack of recipe cards highlighting the foods I am trying to sell.
Little signs labeling the produce and possibly prices.
Fancy produce trays for displaying my wares.
Unfortunately I don't think I will have anything to sell next week but the following week I may have sunflowers, squashes, kale, and maybe potatoes.
I was not able to get much done in the past couple weeks. I had a busy week at work combined with excessive rains that left me longing to get out in the garden. Last Sunday the rain stopped and the sun peaked through the clouds for a couple hours, just long enough for me to get the rest of the tomato cages built.
A pleasant benefit to all the rain was that the ground was saturated enough for me to easily dig out the T-posts from the old goat fencing. I thought I was going to have to buy a $50 T-post puller to get them out of the ground without ruining them.
I used some of the posts to put up this trellis for the beefsteak tomatoes. I am going to try and train these to grow up by picking the side shoots and suckers. Hopefully this will result in bigger and better, though fewer, tomatoes.
The basil bed was successfully weeded. The germination rate on these were okay. I was hoping for better, but at least they came up at a decent spacing and coverage. Ideally they would have come up thicker and more closely spaced so that I could use the thinnings in the kitchen. I am going to try and start these indoors from now on. Not only will that result in fresh basil sooner, but it will also allow me to control the spacing.
In this bed I have the green beans. They are a bush style which I have never grown before so I am anxious to see how well they produce. I like the looks of a bean trellis so I may still put in some climbing beans. Next to the beans on the left side of the bed I planted sugar pie pumpkins because I love pumpkin pie.
I am so pleased with how the potatoes have thrived here. This is my second year growing potatoes and it turns out that it is one of my favorite crops to grow. I will devote more space to the potato next year. I may even try a fall planting this year.
Kale in the foreground, radishes in the middle and carrots in the background. I will be harvesting the first of the kale probably this weekend. I have harvested close to a pound of radishes so far in just two pickings.
Big Brother Ollie is playing soccer. This is his first foray into organized sports. He is having a lot of fun. I am trying to not push him too hard and just remember that he is 6 and has never played soccer before.
It is a lot of fun just watching him interact with his peers as that is not something we have been able to see him do before; not with a group so large. I am glad to see that he is generally well liked by everyone and is really enjoying being a part of the team.
In the garden
The weather has been wet all weekend so there was not much going on in the garden. Everything is just growing more and teasing us with hints of harvests to come.
The Buttercrunch lettuce is almost ready to start being picked. I do believe that I will pick the first of the heads this week sometime. If not this week then definitely this weekend.
The squash plants are starting to get big with a few true leaves per plant. I hope they do well this year. We have had a problem with some kind of bug eating the plant by about half way through the growing season so this year I will be extra vigilant in trying to keep the bugs out of my squash bed.
The Moon and Stars watermelon are sprouting. Hopefully I will get more than a few good watermelons from this.
The grapevines are growing nicely and I do believe that there are a few grape clusters starting to form on some of the shoots. I am curious to see how these do as I did not do any winter time pruning of these. I will do some spring and summer training of the vines and next early spring I will plan on doing some major pruning and shaping of the vines.
I have two apple trees that I have to figure out how to prune. I planted them last spring and they are thriving.
And finally there are some flowers blooming in the yard that I have had nothing to do with. Those pretty Irises were planted before we ever moved in and the hydrangeas here are also quite lovely.
I plan on digging up the irises and moving them to a better spot.
The lettuce here is Buttercrunch. It is a head lettuce and is coming in nicely. Next to the lettuce, running down the middle of the bed is a row of Clemson Spineless Okra. Running up the bed, opposite the lettuce, is a split row. Up to the little stick marker is planted Moon and Stars Watermelon, and from the stick on I have planted snapdragons. You can see one of the three blueberry bushes planted last year next to the garden cart. The grapes are visible on the trellis fence at the end of the lettuce row
Joy of joys the Sweet Basil is sprouting. I will do some weeding in this bed come the weekend. Sweet basil was the first plant I tried growing almost 10 years ago now. It has been a treat every year since. Fresh basil is amazing and pesto pizza is our favorite way to enjoy it.
The sunflowers have germinated at a decent rate. only a couple of bare spots. I did not get the same results with many of the other crops I direct seeded. The carrots had the saddest showing with only about 2 dozen carrots coming up in a 4'x6' bed. I should have had 5 times that amount. From now on I will have to plan on sowing a much thicker line of seeds. As sad as it is to thin the row, it is much sadder to see all the wasted space and lost potential.
It is not too big of a garden this year, but it should give me an idea as to how much garden I can tend so that next year I will be able to expand accordingly.
Happy birthday to my oldest little. I can't believe he is already six.
I am not so sure that the My Little Pony themed birthday was all that well received with my folks, but I loved it and more importantly the birthday boy thought it was the best birthday yet. The lovely wife made the cake and she is so talented at it. The pony on top (Twilight Sparkle) was modeled out of fondant. Also this is the only year that the number of letters in his name coincides with the number of candles on his cake.
Meet youngest little. He is a farmer in training. His favorite activities include climbing, throwing things, waking up at 5:30 a.m., and running around outside; usually down the driveway in the direction of the road. Luckily we have a fairly long driveway so he doesn't come anywhere near the road.
He also loves tending the chickens with me. He has his own egg collecting basket and gets quite upset if ever I forget to ask him if he wants to join me in the collecting of the eggs. However, if left alone with the egg basket for any length of time he will invariably start playing with the "finger paint" inside the eggs.
Another masterpiece!
We went strawberry picking this weekend as it happens to be strawberry season here in Georgia. We go to Washington Farms in Oconee County, and have gone every year since we moved to town 8 years ago. I bet you can't guess who LOVES strawberries, or waweewee's as he likes to call them.
This is my lawnmower. Our old landlord sold me this for $100 when he found out we were buying a house with a couple of acres that would need mowing. It has broken down every year that I have tried to use it and by the time I get it running again the grass and weeds have gotten so high that I just give up until the next year. This year I vow that things will be different. Already it has broken down twice and, with my great googling powers I have been able to diagnose and fix the problems. I will keep the grass mowed this year!
I did get an awesome scythe and snath a couple years back from the Scythe Supply that I was able to use on some of the grounds to make hay for the goats. I was quite surprised at how satisfying it was to put up hay from grass that I had mowed and dried by hand. Here is a video of someone on You Tube (not me) making hay. I miss having the goats if for no other reason then it gave me an excuse to make hay.
I was able to make some tomato cages out of the goat fencing that I no longer need. I have an easy dozen or so to make still. Maybe closer to two dozen. But I do still have a week or so before they might really take off and need some support.
I am quite pleased with the potatoes that I have planted. I will need to mulch them with straw sometime in the next week.
And finally the weather has started to warm enough so that I was able to enjoy my first mint based alcoholic drink. I went with the mint julep rather than my favorite summertime drink, the mojito. I am sure that if the weather continues to warm I will switch to the mojito by the end of the month.I do love the summertime. As Ralph waldo Emerson Said " I grow and expand in the warm sun like corn and melons." I realy love the summertime and all the sunshine and warmth. I love mojitos in hammocks and mint green tea in the shade. Fresh pesto for homemade pizzas, ripe cantaloupes and juicy sweet corn just picked lightly grilled. Please come soon Summer I have missed you.
Did you miss me?
I I have spent a few years getting situated here in the new homestead. Although I am no longer located in Athens (Only 10 miles from downtown) I am still contemplating using the same name. I feel that maybe it would be cheating a little bit, but I do love the name. An alternate name I was thinking of was Papa Jack's Farm. Named after my fist rooster.
Papa Jack
I think Papa Jack's Ranch has a better ring to it, but I do not have a ranch. We no longer have Papa Jack.
It has been an eventful couple of years; Roll the highlight reel:
Bought a house
New baby Alfie
Bought then sold some goats
Got some chickens
...And so on. We are now in our third year at the new homestead. My garden is much larger than when I started gardening 5 years ago. I have opted to employ the Biointensive gardening method developed by John Jeavons. Though not strictly adhering to the principles set forth by Jeavons, I feel it is a good basic framework.
I plan to use this space as a public diary of progress and setbacks and profits and losses and all. Good luck to me and hooray for homesteading!
