Time is Really Flying!

Boy does time go by fast! It's been three weeks since I wrote last and so much has happened since.The 175 pepper plants were lost due to wind and frost the weekend after they were planted. I replanted 225 more plants. I won't have the same varieties as I did before but still a wide variety of both sweet and hot peppers. Also planted were about 50 eggplant plants, kohlrabi, cabbage, pumpkins, gourds, zucchini, butternut squash, summer squash, scallop squash, cucumbers, broccoli, cantalope, and watermelons. My big garden is completely planted and my smaller garden only has tomatoes left to be planted. The soybeans are completely finished and emerged and all the equipment is cleaned up and put away. If the weather ever straightens up long enough we would like to make our first cutting of hay.

Life is Hectic!

As I sit inside and watch the rain pound down outside, I find it hard not to reflect on how hectic life has been since I wrote last. We've finished all our corn planting, prepared fields for planting beans and planted about half of our bean acres. The garden has also seen many changes including planting more turnips and beets. Keeping up with weeding the onions has proven to be a chore. The Indian corn was planted last week and is already starting to sprout. I also finished planting the green beans, yellow beans, and purple beans last week. There was over three pounds of bean seed so hopefully that will be enough to keep up with demand this summer. Monday I transplanted the okra plants into the garden. Yesterday I finally finished planting the red potatoes and transplanted 175 pepper plants. Most of them were sweet peppers including Big Bertha, Giant Marconi, Lilac, Satsuma, Super Heavyweight, and Goliath. I also planted Volcano hot peppers and Serrano del Sol hot peppers. When the straightens out I hope to finish planting the hot peppers.

Oh What a Glorious Day!

Today was absolutely beautiful! Before I go any further on that subject, I would like to back track a couple of days. It rained last week so planting was put at a stand still. Saturday was my first day at farmers market in Davenport. It was a beautiful, perfect day. If any of my customers end up reading this, I would like to personally thank them for making opening day such a success. It was my best market day ever and hopefully a sign of things to come this summer. Yesterday was another beautiful day and I was able to plant more mesclun, green onions, collards, spinach, turnips, and beets in the garden at my place. My dad redisced part of a field to prep it for planting corn. Now back to today. If every day could be like today it would be perfect! It was sunny and warm with temps near 70 degrees with calm to slight breezes all day. In the morning I took the tiller over to my dad's where my big garden is located and planted all of my green beans, royalty purple pod beans, and yellow wax beans. I also planted 10 rows of Indian Corn. Tomorrow I hope to spray it with Roundup. While I had the tiller over there I weeded the potatoes and spread Preen which is a granular herbicide in between the rows and incorporated it into the soil. This afternoon I spent discing the rest of the field for my dad so he could finish planting it. All in all it was a great day!

Some of the flowers available this spring

Some of the Vegetable Plants for sale

CSA's still available for 2009 growing season!

Today I'd like to talk about our CSA program. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. What it is all about is that customers buy shares into our operation in return for produce and products throughout the growing season. The money is non-refundable but guarantees the customer first opportunity at the products we offer without having to stand in line at the market, or showing up to farmers market late and the possibility of something being sold out. Our program I believe is unique from most other CSA's because we send a grocery list once a week via email to our customers and they return it back telling us what they would like. Then we package their orders seperately and have them prepared for pickup at market. This way the customer can pick and choose from our wide variety of produce and spend any amount they like per week. This way you can save the money put into the share for possibly larger amounts of sweet corn or tomatoes or anything else you may want in bulk later in the season. Most CSA's that I know of don't offer that kind of experience. They just bag up the same products for every customer and you spend the same equal amount every week whether you like it or not! We are also doing something different this year in spite of the economy. We know money is tight for everyone so instead of our $200.00 share for $200.00 worth of products, we are offering $100.00 shares. And for evry $100.00 spent you will get $10.00 free. This is to say thank you for choosing us at the local farmers market. If you are interested either contact us here or visit with us at the River City farmers market in Davenport, IA or the Tipton City Farmers Market in Tipton, IA.

Corn planting officially underway!

Well the title says it all. Yesterday my five year old son and I spent the afternoon in the cab tractor discing up bean stubble so we could start planting today. My dad was able to plant 15 acres of corn today and was also able to plant our first patch of sweet corn. I was able to disc up the next field and get it prepped for my dad to plant tomorrow. With our fingers crossed, we have had no break downs so far and the planter seems to be running smoothly with all our repairs we made preseason. In my spare time I have been painting the farm logo on the sideboards of my truck to get it ready for farmers market which starts in just one week! Hopefully this will help with being recognized a little better at market. We should have plenty of flowers available next week and will have pictures uploaded this next week. The first planting of lettuce has emerged along with the first sowing of radishes and green onions.