Cows and Volunteers

Farming always has its surprises some good and others not so good. In early July I had a beautiful stand of small watermelons in the garden I was very excited about them because there was not much else besides purple hulled peas and okras left to harvest. Well one day as I was sitting in the living room relaxing my husband comes in and says... its a good thing you are relaxed... you won't be for long.... the cows got in the garden.

Well as you could expect 22 cows can eat some plants. I learned that they love little watermelons and overripe cucumbers. They do not like purple hulled peas very much and they don't even touch the eggplants.

So here is the surprise.... they must have stepped on quite a few of the small watermelons becuase in August after we got that rain and I had spread compost all over the garden watermelon plants just started popping up everywhere in the section they were before. Well I let about 25 of them grow and surprise this week after the rain we have little watermelons . They should be ready for the first scheduled pickup next week!!! What a treat. One was ready to pick today so it cut it open while i was working in the field and it was amazing.

Of course now we have what I hope is cow proof fence.

Speaking of cows we have have grass fed beef cows available for sale. We will deliver to the butcher of your choice and you must pay for the butchering separately. Please contact us if you are interested and we will give you the price details.

Here in Bryan and CS we were spared with the hurricaine . The rain was a blessing for us and my gardens look great. However there are lots of people in shelters in B/CS who did not fare so well. . Please consider volunteering at your local shelter. The experience will be as sweet for you and the people you help as one of my volunteer watermelons. NOw that I don't need to be watering everyday I will be giving up one of my days in the garden to help out with the health care needs of the evacuees. They need help badly. Hope you can help too.

Early to Bed

When I was growing up my favorite books were the little house on the Prairie Books. My favorite being Farmer Boy. I learned alot about what it took to be a farmer and some good farming tips. I was fascinated by the way that the whole family worked together and the bounty that they were able to provide for thier family and the people in thier community. They also had alot of fun. That life was foriegn to me because I grew up in middle class suburbia and we did not have a garden except once. My mom grew radishes. I did have neighbors though and i was always asking to see what they were growing. One thing that has stuck with me is that farmers go to bed early and get up early. I have always been an early riser and I used to be in bed by 9pm. Over the past few years I have gotten out of the habit of going to be early mostly because my kids are older and they stay up later .Lately though I have been really tired. School started this week so I decided that we all should go to bed earlier. Well guess what. After 4 days of going to bed before 10p instead of 11 or 12 I woke up yesterday morning feeling great. Whats more I am waking up earlier and having alot more time to plan my day and have time to myself.
This is good for the blog as well because here i am before 7 am.

I am headed out to the garden to hoe and plant. Things are looking really good . I am really excited about the spinich and lettuce . Looks like we should have some in the first basket. The corn ear worms did some damage to the corn but we are not giving up and will be replanting this weekend. Peppers and eggplants are going strong and we will have lots of those.

Have a great holiday

Summer Vacation

I am back....... My husband Charles and I had an amazing vacation to the east coast ( Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut.) This vacation was the first time that my husband took more than 3 days off of work in years so when we left I was worried that he would not be able to relax but he did . It was hard not to with the beautiful places that we went to visit. I used to live in Maine , Connecticut and Massachusetts and consider New England one of the most beautiful places in the country. Even though Charles has travel on every Continent he had never been to these states. So we started with the coast of Massachusetts .We stayed in little town called Marshfield at my parents ( a block from the beach). Morning walks on the beach, lunch at a seaside restaurant outside overlooking the ocean and lobster dinner at my parents house(complete with newspaper on the table and yummy clam chowder) .

Next Charles and I went for a drive up to Maine up the coast and then onto Millonocket Maine. We stayed at Baxter State park in a little cabin where we hiked the appalachan trail, fly fished, canoed , swam in crystal clear water and cooked over a campfire. Baxter state Park is one of the most Pristine places in US .

It was so great to share this place with Charles who loves the outdoors as much as I do. I would reccomend that everyone who is able goes and visits this place.

We went to Connecticut after Maine where I surprised Charles by taking him to a old playhouse in Ridgefield to see our favorite singer , John Hiatt. Great concert.

We ended our vacation back in Massachusetts for a few more days at the beach , touring around Boston and even visited a farmers market where niece (who has the family green thumb) sells vegtables for a farm she works at .

This farmers market was in Cohassett Massachusetts. It was about the size of Bryans farmers market but on a beautiful grassy common surrounded by 300 year old homes.

Vacation is always a wonderful thing ,but it always comes with a price. I"m not talking about the monetary one. I am talking about the double time ,that no matter how well planned your vacation is , you spend catching up on everything that you forgot about for 12 days. In the case of gardening it is weeds. I will say that I was thankful for rain and everything I planted before I left,got off to a great start.

Well thanks to a tractor, a tiller and some hard work all the weeds are under control . I am happy to be home with my hands in the soil.......

Hard Work , Old timers , and Ice water

I havent had a post on the blog for a while . Ive been working. ...Watering, Harvesting, building fence and irrigation, running after cows , picking okra( a daily job) , weeding , planning, watching , learning and praying.

We have all worked hard these last few weeks, the soil is ready and we have started planting for the late summer and early fall harvest. We are just finishing up the new irrigation system and will be able to water to get those seeds up and started.

I have to say that I am very thankful for all the hard work of my husband Charles, his Dad and my 3 sons Micah, William and Tj . They have all put in some hard work in the sun to help me get the garden ready for the fall.
We have nothing left to do but rest, wait for rain and water if it doesnt for the next couple of weeks.



I've learned that 50% chance of rain means 50% of Brazos County might get rain ,that cows can turn on a faucet to get a drink , okra grows in 5 minutes, why they call them Zipper cream peas, that its not the curly cue that tells if the watermelon is ripe , its the thump and the yellow spot, that cantelopes fall off the vine when they are ripe , and that the best dinner in world is a few handfuls of purple hulled peas , a fresh tomato and a melon for dessert while I am watering the garden and watching the sun go down.

Last week I was wishing we would get a little of the rain from the hurricaine I watched it rain on one side of the road and not the other and felt frustrated. Then I looked up in the sky at a double rainbow and remembered to pray and thank God for blessing me .

I am off for a week of vacation to rest up for fall farming... Hiking the Appalachian Trail in Maine and hopefully a visit to a potato farm and Johnnys Seed company. Oh yeah fly fishing and eating lobster too. Have a great week.

6 amazing weeks

Taking pictures of what is going on in your garden really helps you realize what you have accomplished in a short period of time. We started to till the ground up at our farm site for our early planting of potatoes and broccoli and kale in mid febuary . In late march and early april we started putting our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers , watermelons cantelpes and squash plants in the ground. By late april we started harvesting a little squash ,onions and radishes. Then came the first week of may with a lot of squash and the beginning potato harvest yielding over 75 lbs . The garden has produced over 500lbs of produce in the last 6 weeks. I am totally amazed.

Last week I was pretty stressed out about the heat and the drying wind . I was sure my plants were going to shrivel up and go away. We watered every 3 days and most everything has made it. Only the pickling cucmbers seemed to suffer but even they are making a rebound .

Today was a great day at the market and my csa members got a heavy share this week. There was tomatoes, squashes, cucmbers eggplants and peppers. I was feeling pretty blessed. but i was overwhelmed when i got out to the big garden on harbert road and found that even though i had picked tomatoes and cucmbers yesterday morning there were lots more this evening. To make things even better as I was giving all the plants a drink I noticed lots of watermelons and cantelopes that I am sure were not there a week ago. They have grown so fast that these two melons took up residence in the last 10 days under the wheelbarrow. One is a black diamond and the other a carlolina cross. There are watermelon vines everywhere. I am hoping that everyone will get a nice cantelope or 2in thier basket next week.

This weeks harvest etc....oh yes salmonella free

This weeks harvest : Despite the heat and wind we are still harvesting enough vegtables for a generous share weighing more than 12 pounds. This week share will have; cucumbers, squashes (yellow, spagetti, 8 ball, patti pan and acorn), tomatoes, long beans , herbs, peppers and eggplant.
The squash beetles are back and I am hoping to keep them away with wood ashes and sesame seed oil. If i am successful my second planting of squashes will be bountiful. Squash beetles are borers that kill the plant by boring into the plant base and laying there eggs inside of the vine nearest the root base. I put the ashes on the base of the plant and the sesame oil helps it stick. hopefully this will deter them. If anyone else out there has a people friendly method to deal with these pests let me know.
The news has been full of stories about the salmonella contanmination of the Roma Tomatoes. Buying local seasonal vegtables is the best protection from these kinds of diseases . How did that mess happen ? More than likely tomatoe crops were infected by poor human sanitation practices on the commercial farms . The sad thing about this is it is impossible to find the source as the tomatoes are shipped to a huge packaging plant from many different places and mixed together. Salmonella is waterborn and well ,it is wet in those places . Those viruses will flourish given the right opputunity and enough time.

Local vegtables are picked , sold and consumed in a matter of days versus weeks on the commercial end. They are also ripe and thus loaded with antioxident nutrients that naturally fight off these germs and bacteria. Commercial tomatoes are often picked green sprayed with a chemical to make them look ripe. Because the fruit does not ripen naturally it does not reach its nutrient potential.
I believe that more people die from disease related to poor nutrition including the voluntary omission of fresh fruits and vegetables than the rare outbreak of disease from waterborne transmission to vegetable crops. I am more concerned about people avoiding fruits and veggies altogether because of the fear of contaminated food. I am saddened by this event for all people.

the gift of a garden.

Im not sure what I should compliment first, my husband or my tiller. I think I will start with the tiller.

For the last couple of years I had been getting by with my old small tiller and a hoe. That worked great until we had the big expansion out to the land in Kurten. As you can imagine breaking up pasture land with a tiller made for a backyard garden was not fun. I was determined to take things to a bigger level. So with perserverence and some help from my father in law with the tractor I got the soil broken up. The tractor only breaks it up in rough pieces so then I would go back over it with the little tiller. Lots of time for little results. I started my search for a big tiller and almost got a really nice used Troybuilt horse from Ike's for a great price. Problem was that my accountant(my husband ) was in Australia when I found it and by the time I got the okay it was gone. I was seriously disapointed because they have stopped making them so If you know anyone with a used Troybuilt Horse that is selling let me know. Well my husband who hates to see me disapointed started searching for tillers and the day before my birthday we went to Sears and picked up my new tiller. Now this tiller may not be a Horse but, it is the Cadillac of its kind. The tines go forward or reverse and it is self propelling. It made fast work of the 1/4 acre that needed to be tilled for purple hulled peas and pintos.

Often times I have heard it said that God knows our hopes and dreams but we need to be patient for his timing. Having a garden large enough to feed other families has been a long time dream of mine, one that I have had since I first discovered my passion for gardening 23 years ago. I big venture and one that would require the help of a team . Now through the years I have owned acreage out in the country but the not everyone wanted to play on the team so 5 years ago I put the dream aside and moved into the city minus the oldest team member. I had resigned myself to the single life with kids and a small lot in a nice subdivision. Well the time came that I started dating , I met people through friends and of course joined a dating web site . Now I met lots of nice men but noone that had my interests .Besides that I wasnt having much luck with that rock hard clay in my backyard. So, One day I laid my head in my hands and prayed to God and asked him to send someone into my life who liked kids and shared one of my interests. The next day I saw him on the dating website , his profile said "enjoys gardening" lives in Bryan. Now the pic was'nt that great but what the heck... at least he might be able to tell me what grows in Bryan soil. So my first correspondance was about gardening and my need for help. Well when people share a passion a friendship develops and a month later we had our first date and about 2 weeks after that I had my hands in his soil and was securing barbed wire on t posts out in Kurten. We got married in his backyard garden ( now ours) 15 months later. I thank God everyday for my husband , who shares my dreams and buys me romantic gifts like a tiller and a pedicure to clean up those garden feet.