Saturday morning started out with a big rain storm and wind moving through. We got loaded up before it hit, but drove through it to Columbia. By the time we got there it had pretty much passed. But the morning was still chilly and drizzly for a while. We didn't do too good at market, but then it looked like a lot of people took home produce. Just wasn't a buying day. Seems like every other week is a buying week and last week we sold out mostly, so this was the off week?! The strawberries are on the down hill slide, getting fewer and smaller, but still good! Was too wet to plant yesterday after the morning rain storm, so we are working on it today. We've got most of it done, just have to get my stevia, oregano and rosemary plants that we dug up last fall and over wintered in the greenhouse out and planted. Oregano is a perennial and will over winter outside, but I like to have it in the greenhouse to take cuttings off of and start more to sell and set out in the Spring. The stevia and rosemary will not over winter here, and again I like to take cuttings in January & February to start new plants to sell. Years ago when I first started growing stevia it was very hard to get the seed, and then it cost about 50 cents a seed, and germination was about 40%! So I started taking cuttings and rooting them. Stevia works very well with this method. For those of you who don't know what stevia is it is a natural sweetener. It is good for diabetics, and it can be bought in powdered form in health food stores. It's about 5 times sweeter than sugar! You can google it and read all about it!

Thursday Joe & I baked for the Columbia Farmers' Market. We did banana, applesauce, sweet potato, persimmon and strawberry breads, chocolate chip cookies, and rosemary flat bread. Sure was nice to have help in the kitchen! While we did that Lucas cleaned house! Then when we finished all that we went out and finished stringing up the tomatoes in the hoop house. When Greg came home we finished planting the tomatoes and most of the okra out in the back field where we've been working. We have 1/2 flat of okra to finish planting and 3 flats of basil, and some other herbs to get in the ground yet.

Today the boys picked strawberries while Greg and I did the greens and radishes. We noticed the potatoes were infested with bugs as we walked past them to the strawberry field, so Greg got the back pack sprayer out and sprayed on them! Greg picked onions and the boys cleaned and bunched them. With the extra help we got done pretty early, so took the afternoon off. When it cools off a little later I think the plan is to finish planting the okra and basil!

I keep asking Joe if he's having fun yet, and he keeps telling me he is. I'd better quit asking him while I'm ahead, he may decide differently one of these days! I asked him what his favorite thing was so far and he said baking; I asked what his least favorite part was and he said the ants! He had picked up a tray of okra plants to carry out of the greenhouse that had an ant colony under it and they got all over him! He said it felt like he had ants crawling all over him for the next 2 hours!!

This morning was spent running errands; post office, bank, drug store, library, eye glass place (to get my glasses adjusted because the cat knocked them off the night stand Friday night and I stepped on them getting out of bed!), feed store, grocery store and good old Walmart! Sure was nice to have two guys at home to help unload everything and put it away! That is my least favorite part! I had the guys busy tearing off the Virgina Creeper off the back side of the house while I was in town. It has taken over the North end of the house completely covering everything, including windows! Then I worked for awhile in the hoop house with tomatoes, getting them strung up, still have three rows to go. Then Greg came home from work and we all planted tomatoes out in the newly made beds. Have two more trays to go, and then get to start on the okra! I had hung laundry up outside and it was still damp when I took it down at 8:00 p.m. tonight! But this cool moist weather is good for the transplants we are getting set out! Usually when we set them out it's hot and sunny and they wilt and get sun burned

We started planting our beds Monday. Greg and Lucas got the sweet potatoes planted, while I baked for CSA today. Then in the afternoon we worked on getting the peppers and eggplant planted, and started on the tomatoes. The rain ended it early for us.

Today is CSA box day! The full shares got 2 qt. strawberries, eggs, applesauce bread, radishes, turnips, peas, onions, swiss chard and mixed lettuce. The half shares got 1 qt. strawberries, eggs, bread, radishes, 1 turnip, onions & mixed lettuce. It rained most of the morning off and on, so picking was fun! Luckily the greens was in the hoop house and that's where we were when most of the rain occurred, but it showered on us a little while picking the strawberries!

Well we finally did it! We got all the beds made, drip tape and plastic mulch laid down! We worked on it Wednesday afternoon and today. Now it can rain tonight and it won't hurt things too much. We now just have to get it all planted!

Friday Lucas & Joe picked about 120 quarts of strawberries, while Greg & I picked the lettuce and other greens for our lettuce mixes that we sell. We also had onions and some radishes. Lucas & Joe went to the Fulton Farmers' Market and Greg & I to Columbia Farmers' Market on Saturday.

When I went out to the barn this morning to turn on the hydrant to water in the hoop house I was met by this site. I don't know if you can tell but it is a snake skin that was shed. The snake wrapped itself around the electrical wire a couple of times to help pull it off. There are also two barn swallow nests right above one on both sides of the beam. The barn swallows were not too happy either. I don't know if the snake was helping himself to some eggs, also?! But if you double click on the picture it will pop up bigger and you can see better. I was impressed, my son wasn't. I sent him out later to turn off the water, but didn't tell him about the snake. I expected him to come back and say something, but he didn't, so I asked him if he saw anything interesting in the barn. He didn't think so, what was I talking about. I told him to go back out and look, he couldn't miss it! When he came back in he said you mean the snake skin? And I said yes. He said oh yeah I saw that. So much for my entertainment!!!!

This is a busy, busy, busy week! We had one graduation in the family on Sunday, and another one on Friday. My Grandpa came down from Iowa to go to both (they are his great granddaughters!), so that means he's here for a week! I don't know if Grandpa's ever been gone from home that long in his life! My folks brought him down to our house yesterday, so he got to watch us make beds and lay plastic mulch and drip tape with our "new fangled" machine! I drove him around our place and showed him our hoop houses and strawberry patch, orchard, etc. I think he was impressed, as he's never seen it all, just heard us talk about it. On top of all the graduation celebrations today is his 97th birthday!! So we have to have another get together at my brothers tonight for that! I told Grandpa he had to dance a jig because turning 97 was a once in a life time thing!!! He didn't go for that! Also today our sons friend Joe that came for Spring break is to arrive for the summer, and today is baking day for the market! So I'd better get busy!

CSA DELIVERY TODAY!

Today is box day! Full shares you will be getting 1/2 bag mixed lettuce, turnips, 2 qts. strawberries, eggs, onions and sweet potato bread. Half shares you will be getting 1/2 bag mixed lettuce, 1 qt. strawberries, eggs, onions and mini loaf sweet potato bread. Also today because we need to move some eggs everyone will be getting an extra dozen eggs! So enjoy and see you this evening!

Saturday market was cool & windy!!!! I am so ready for warm weather as I'm not a cold weather person at all! Anything below 70 degrees is winter to me! But this next week looks promising; sunny, up in the 70's and no rain! We did fairly well Saturday, didn't sell out of lettuce or onions again, but the strawberries were a hit!

Today we had to replant a bunch of our broccoli as there is a "lovely" little bunny chomping them all off, plus we noticed a new set of deer tracks! Hopefully it was only passing through! The zucchini and cucumbers we planted the other day are starting to sprout, so some sunny warm weather would really be wonderful! We also have 150 sweet potato slips to get in the ground, along with the okra, peppers, eggplant and tomato plants.

REMINDER WASH YOUR PRODUCE!

Just a reminder to everyone, that your produce has been field washed, but it needs to be washed by you again before you eat it. I had one customer to tell me she had found a snail in her lettuce mix, and yes we are having a problem with snails and slugs what with all this rain. We try to pick off all that we can find, but with thousands of leaves of lettuce, we are bound to miss some, so just make sure you wash it again before you eat it! We don't spray unless we have to, and we don't ever spray our greens, the bugs & snails are just an extra bonus no charge added!

We even have tadpoles in our mud puddles as they never have time to dry up between rains!

Greg tilled up the plot where we plant our tomatoes, okra, peppers, eggplants & herbs and also the plot where we plant pumpkins, gourds and winter squash last night, hoping against hope that it wouldn't rain, and we could get beds made today and covered with plastic. We then could of planted anytime we wanted as the rain wouldn't have really bothered the beds too much. But that was not to be, so we'll have to wait and see what the weather is like next week. We have lots of things in the green house ready to go out!

DON'T FORGET TODAY IS CSA PICK UP DAY!!!!!

Well it's never dull around here! We had a good day at market on Saturday, didn't sell out of eggs, or lettuce, but we can't complain. Sunday we planted cucumbers, zucchini, and patty pan squashes. Monday I baked for today's CSA delivery, you are getting persimmon bread. Now don't go oh ooh, or oh yuk! Try it, it is good! We had a bumper crop of persimmons last fall so have a freezer full of persimmon pulp! Then in the middle of hanging out my laundry I got a phone call from the library saying they had a swarm of bees in the tree by their book drop box, would I come get them! So off I went to the library to collect the swarm. It was about twice the size of the one I got the other week. No I don't have pictures of this one, but I did have an audience! The Christian Academy kids across the street were having their recess break, so they came over to watch!

So in today's box you'll get bread, eggs, lettuce, radishes, onions & a little pint of strawberries!!!!!! It's not much, but hopefully it'll get your taste buds ready for next week!

STRAWBERRIES ARE COMING!!!!!!!

I got the swarm of bees hived Wed. morning. Need to check them now and see how they are doing, and feed them again. Hopefully they will like their new home and stay put! Thursday was baking day for Farmers' Market, and Friday we picked. Our onions we planted earlier this Spring are now coming on, had them in the CSA boxes this week. The lettuce and greens are really coming on, too. Now if we can get the radishes caught up! But the really exciting news for you all is that the strawberries are starting to ripen! We picked a handful Thursday evening. So we'll have to see if there will be enough ready this week for the CSA boxes! But even if there isn't there will be the next week! So get ready. So with that in mind here are a couple of recipes to get you going! These came from the Rural Missouri coop paper this month.

Easy Strawberry Cheesecake
1 graham cracker crust
8 oz. whipped topping
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pint fresh strawberries, washed, hulled & halved
First, cream the cream cheese, gradually adding in the sugar. Add vanilla & whip until fluffy. Fold in whipped topping. Pour into crust. Garnish with fresh strawberries. Refrigerate for 1 hour, until firm

Strawberry Cobbler
Filling:
4 cups strawberries, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. instant tapioca
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
4 Tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 9x9" baking dish. In a large bowl, mix together the strawberries, sugar, tapioca & lemon juice. Pour into the baking dish. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, coconut, sugar, walnuts, baking powder & salt from the topping ingredients. Use a fork to mix in the cubes of butter. Stir the butter into the other ingredients until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the filling. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown & crispy & the filling bubbles. Let cool for at least an hour before serving.

BEE SWARM!

Barely got home from delivering 2nd week of CSA boxes, when I got a call from someone in town who had a swarm of bees in their front yard! So I grabbed one of the empty CSA boxes still in the back of my truck, duct taped the handle holes closed and made Megan our daughter grab the camera and headed back into town to get the swarm! So here's the picture, even though you can't see much (swarm right above my hand in picture) I thought I'd best put it up since I made Megan go and take the picture and she got nailed in the cheek taking the picture! By nailed I mean stung! She was not too pleased with me! So I will put it out in hive in the morning. If you double click on the picture it will pop up enlarged in new window!

DON'T FORGET CSA DELIVERY TODAY!

Todays box will have more mixed greens, onions, radishes, eggs, swiss chard and tot soi. Hope you enjoy!

Friday sure was gloomy, cool & drizzly! Luckily picking the greens and radishes was inside the hoop house! We picked arugala, mizuna, rainbow swiss chard, totsoi, blackseeded simpson, oak leaf, lolla rosa (red), endive, escarole and winter density for greens, and pulled a few radishes. Then took them to our 2 bay outdoor sink for soaking, rinsing & bagging. Now that was fun in the rainy cold! Then we pulled onions, cleaned and bunched them, then loaded everything into the truck except the eggs.

Then this morning we were up bright and early at 5:00 a.m. to pack the eggs and load into the truck, open the chickens and hoop houses and hit the road! We arrived at market at 6:30 a.m. and unloaded the truck and sat up, ready for market to open at 8:00 a.m.! We had a so so day. We brought home eggs and greens, as those are in abundance at the market now, but today didn't seem like a produce buying day as a whole. Didn't see a lot of people carrying produce, more seemed to be carrying flowers and plants!