Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Peaches in Syrup


Pear Butter Cooking


Some of the items we have canned.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Sunday's Pickings - Lady Peas, Cucumbers, Squash, Zucchini & a few Tomatoes

Watermelon in the early stages

Corn


Spaghetti Squash not yet ripe - should turn gold


We finally received a nice day of rain at the farm on Sunday. We aren't doing much around the farm right now except picking vegies, picking caterpillars off the tomatoes and watering the plants. The tractor parts have not come in yet so we can't bush hog right now but most of the fields have been cut. Cris bought a scythe from a place in Perry, Maine ( http://www.scythesupply.com/ ) that custom makes them to your body measurements. It's quite a piece of equipment and works great on the areas we can't get the bush hog to. We plan to use it to cut down wheat when we start growing it next year. We want to grow and grind our own wheat.

Saturday we had dinner again with friends at the organic, raw milk dairy farm in Middleton, Tn. There is a group of us who get together once a month to share conversation and advice on sustainable living. We try to bring pot luck dishes made from items we have grown. We brought a stewed tomato (from the farmer's market) and okra (from our garden) dish, cucumber salad (our garden) and a pear tart. (pears we picked in MS. and the crust was made from organic, locally ground wheat). One family brought pickled okra that was really good so we made our own pickled okra Sunday to can.

It is the time of season to start canning and freezing. What we have not grown ourselves, we have bought from the local farmer's market to freeze and can. Our cupboard is getting full. Since our tomatoes were not a great crop this year, we will wait until next year to can tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.

In October we will plant fruit trees so they have the winter to take root. We will also turn under the 2nd field and plant a cover crop to help the soil get in shape for next year. We plan to use the 2nd field as the vegetable garden next year with the fruit bushes and trees on the 'homestead' tier.

We have decided to be completely moved out on the farm and then sell the house but we won't build a house until we sell the Memphis home. We are going to do some research and play with the numbers to see if we can build a small cabin to live in rather than buy a trailer. That way, the cabin can be used as a guest house or office/test kitchen when we do build the "homestead". I would rather build a cabin than have a trailer.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I think there is a change in the air....











Well, the massive heat wave that has been sitting on the Memphis area for about 2 mos. now is finally starting to dissipate. It has actually been in the low 90's during the day and less humidity. That will make the vegies happy as they have been overheated and thirsty.... especially the tomatoes.

We have been busy picking what is ripe in the garden; squash, zucchini, lady peas, okra and cucumbers. The cucumbers are beautiful but some have a bitter taste to them due to the stress of the heat and no rain. We plan to buy the stress resistant variety next season so there is no bitterness. Everything else has been great despite the squash bugs coming to pay us a visit and having to pick caterpillars off the tomato plants but we have been using organic bug spray to help with that. There is a great organic nursery in Collierville that has all the stuff we need to keep the bugs away. We have heard from other farmers who say the squash bugs have invaded their gardens as well, so I am glad it is not just us who have the problem.

We also planted a few zinnias this year and they turned out so pretty that we will plant a bunch more next year. The butterflies love them. The bees are having a great time on our sunflowers as well.

The tractor has turned out to be more work than anticipated.... it is nothing that Cris can't fix but it is just finding the time to do it. There are not too many actually parts to an old Ford 8N tractor. He fixed the alternator last week and now it is charging the battery just fine but he thinks the engine needs some work; especially after the tractor starting spewing smoke. He ordered the parts and plans to bring the tractor to our house to work on it in the garage next week. By the time he is through, the tractor will have all new parts.

We started cutting down more trees and brush around the pond to get some sunlight there and grass growing. The blue gill fish are alive and well and growing. They are used to us coming to the pond now and throwing fish food in for them. They hear Cris start the water pump for the garden and they come running (or swimming) to the edge and wait for the fish food. Cris wants to add some bass this fall.

We finally decided on a name for the farm.... we at first were going to be Watson Organic Farms but I wanted something other than our name and really didn't want "organic" in the name. We wanted Firefly Farms but it was already taken in Tennesssee (someone licensed it in July of this year..... uuuuggghhh I was too late). We decided on Renaissance Farms, LLC. We were always big Renaissance Fair goers in Maryland and I made each of us an outfit to wear each year. So as long as the State of Tn. approves it, Renaissance Farms it will be.

Due to Cris receiving a decent bonus this year, we are able to order the gravel for the driveway and barn area and get set-up for electric. They will have to install about 3 utility poles to run the electric to the barn.

We are deciding rather to have the builders start on the house in the spring before we sell our house in Memphis or just buy a trailer or mobile home to live in at the farm after Alex graduates high school, sell our house in Memphis, then start building after we sell the house. We will probably go with the 2nd option due to the economy and crazy housing market. I would hate to have to pay for two homes at the same time.
I was able to get some more butterfly photos this week and even saw a monarch. These were in Mississippi at a house were we picked pears. The man advertised on Craigslist that he had pears that needed picking so we picked 3 brown grocery bags full and have been busy making pear butter and canning pears. We are going to plant our own fruit trees in October but it will take a few years for them to produce a decent crop.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Another Hot Weekend in Memphis

Sandy Bush-Hogging
(I love my hat! It keeps the sun off)
The Dogs and the "Turkey Incident"
(Notice Teddy's mean bark...he was ready to kill)

What we picked Friday


With all this heat, we have been trying to do only what is necessary on the farm so we don't get heat stroke.

The past two weekends we have bush-hogged the fields. The tractor's alternator is not charging the battery so that is something to add to Cris' to fix list. We have to stop about every couple hours to charge the tractor battery with the truck for now.

We use a pump at the pond to water the vegie garden since it has decided to never rain again. The tomatoes are very slow growing in this heat but once it cools off, we are hoping for great things to happen. The cucs, zucs, okra and squash are growing like crazy. We have pickled alot and plan to make zucchini bread this weekend.

This weekend Nugget chased a wild turkey into the pond. Teddy, who hates the pool and will NOT swim, decided that a turkey was reason enough to learn how to swim. They chased this poor turkey around the pond. Teddy kept trying to pull it closer to shore but ended up only pulling out turkey feathers. I really believe Teddy would have killed it if he could have gotten ahold of it. The turkey would peck at Teddy every time he went for the poor things head. We managed to get the dogs and tie them up to the barn to give the turkey a chance to run away; which it eventually did. Nugget was exhausted from swimming around the pond. It was funny to watch.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Could it get any hotter??? Oh yes it can!







This weekend (July 31, Aug 1) was the hottest weekend by far. Saturday we drove to an Apiary (bee keeper) near Jackson, Mississippi and picked up another hive for our farm. It was a long day of driving but we met a very interesting man who has been beekeeping for a very long time. He owns Russell Apiaries and knows his bees.

Cris had to move the hive from the truck Sunday morning to their new home near the pond. He had to take apart the 3 layers because they were so heavy. Cris was in his bee suit though so he did not get stung. Safety first! We checked on them before we left the farm around 4:30pm and the queen bee had her workers busy outside the hive fanning to keep the place cool. I can't wait to harvest the honey but we have to get some more trays to put in place of the ones we pull out to harvest from.

So the bees took up all of Saturday.... Sunday we got to the farm and inspected the garden; pulled off and killed any tomato worms and army worms we found (caterpillars really). At first I felt sorry for the caterpillars but after pulling off the 5th big green one that was busy eating my tomato plant, I was in seek and destroy mode. We put some organic caterpillar killer on the plants and that has seemed to help.

The tomato plants have some green tomatoes on them...I can't wait to see what develops.

We have been harvesting cucumbers and yellow squash and one giant okra so far. The cucs we used to can some bread and butter pickles and the yellow squash is part of tonight's dinner. We are also going to make some dill pickles.

We went to Lowes today and purchased four 12 foot farm gates for the barn. That way we can just lock up the gates now to keep the farm equipment from walking away. We got 3 of the 4 gates on before the heat just took it's toll and we decided to head home to relax and enjoy the AC.