TODAY IS CSA BOX DAY!!!

We worked on planting out more pumpkins and winter squash plants. We now have three rows of about 250 plants each planted and at least another row to go!

Here's a picture that Joe took of our peach trees!

Today we are picking for the CSA boxes. The full shares are getting peaches, blueberries, eggs, sweet potato bread, green beans or yellow wax beans, egg plant and a banana pepper. The half shares are getting peaches, blueberries, eggs, kohlrabi and a small tomato, (sample of what's to come). So now I know what the next question is going to be, what is kohlrabi and what do you do with it?! Well just click on the word kohlrabi and it will take you to a web site with all the information you need! Also I know you are wondering why everyone isn't getting the same things, and that is because we are still in between the Spring and Summer crops and there isn't enough of things yet for everyone to all get some of everything. Also with the wet weather some of our plantings came up spotty so there aren't enough green beans for everyone right now, but we have another planting and will just have to wait and see how that goes. Same thing with the cucumbers and zucchini, the first planting didn't go so well, and so we have to wait on the second planting! The joys of farming, but we are trying to make sure everyone gets their dollar amount worth in their boxes that's why the half shares aren't getting bread this week. The peaches and blueberries are high dollar items so it doesn't take much to get to the ten dollar mark, but next week there probably won't be blueberries for the half shares so depending how the peppers and eggplant do you may get bread again! I hope this make sense to everyone and explains how this all works.

Well I screwed up the watering again! I forgot to turn off the potatoes and it ran all day & evening! So they flooded and the other watering I did didn't get enough because there wasn't enough water pressure! So Greg had to re-water on Friday! Then I forgot to check the greenhouse Friday morning and things in there wilted. Greg was able to get water going on them and revived them. I'm not making his life very easy so after market on Saturday I left for the rest of the weekend to go up to Iowa to a family reunion! While I was gone he and the guys started planting the winter squash and pumpkins (that I almost killed in the greenhouse) out in the field! Hopefully Monday will go better!

Today I baked for market. Since blueberries are going now I added blueberry muffins. I also made a peach cobbler to take to the Callaway Food Circle pot luck tonight. I have also worked on running waters. We got the potatoes done then worked on the tomatoes, okra, peppers and eggplant. I picked an eggplant yesterday and noticed that there were several banana peppers coming along!! Also saw that the yellow wax beans need to be picked and there is some kohlrabi, too! I picked two red tomatoes out of the hoophouse, so things are coming along. You may not like this hot humid weather, but the veggies sure do!!

Wow yesterday was a scorcher! My clothes were soaked through and through picking lettuce in the hoop house! Oh well my own personal sweat lodge/sauna! No expensive high-falutent spas for me! Works just as well to sweat out all those impurities and melt all that excess body fat, (should have lost at least 20 pounds!!!). At least that's what I tell myself to make me feel better about the whole ordeal!

TODAY IS CSA BOX DAY!!!

It's going to be a hot one again today! Got to get out there early this morning to pick lettuce. Don't know how much of that there will be. The radishes are pretty much done, there won't be any potatoes today or turnips, so you might be asking "well what will there be?". There's going to be bread, eggs, lettuce, blueberries and PEACHES!!! That's right the peaches are starting! Today's will be a white variety, and they are good! So hope you enjoy and see you this afternoon!

Friday was picking day for Columbia farmers' market, but we are kind of in between plantings and there wasn't much but some lettuce mix to pick. So after that was done Greg & I made jam. We made cherry, raspberry strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, blackberry and persimmon! That made the kitchen nice and steamy!

Saturday we went to market. There wasn't anything for the guys to take to Fulton except eggs and since it was the Street Fair and that market would be in a different location we didn't send them. They instead came over to Columbia with us. Then stayed afterwards and went swimming at the ARC!

Today Lucas & I had to take his girlfriend to the Kansas City airport to catch her flight home. So this next week should be loads of fun while he adjusts to being "single" again! Hopefully he will handle it well, we'll just have to work him extra hard so he has no time to think about her! Ha-Ha-Ha!

Wow, I realized I haven't posted anything all week! So I thought I'd better post or you all might think we've been slacking off!!

Monday was baking day for market, and I had Lucas & his girlfriend who is visiting for the week from Colorado, do the baking. My foot was very sore and standing on it was not fun. Then I got an appointment to get it x-rayed and to see the doctor so they took me, since it was my right toe and I didn't know if I could drive! Joe finished up the baking and wrapped all the bread for me. The x-ray showed nothing broke, cracked or chipped, so that was good!

Tuesday was picking day for the CSA delivery boxes. That was fun in the rain! But at least my foot felt better and I could walk on it. The full shares got big loaf of bread, eggs, blueberries, swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, turnips and potatoes. The half shares got little loaf of bread, swiss chard, lettuce, blueberries, eggs & potatoes.

Wednesday was errand day. Joe & I planted 11 more flats of tomatoes for fall. I put straw in the chicken nests, and got 2 of the fans cleaned and running in there. Then about 2:30p.m we left to go up to Glasgow to see Greg's family and were up there all evening. So we missed the big storm that went through last night. Doesn't look like we got any damage, a few little branches down, but nothing major. We couldn't tell up there watching the news, they kept talking about Ham's Prairie having a tornado! So that was exciting!

Today I had Lucas' girlfriend helping me bake, while the guys were outside weeding and they put another fan up in the attic window of the chicken house and opened up a couple more windows!

Well I worked a little bit yesterday afternoon weeding some more on one of the lettuce beds, not going very fast! Greg worked on mowing and spraying the weeds between the broccoli and onion beds out back.

Our son's girlfriend from Denver arrived for a visit this morning. She'll be here for a week! (another hired hand?!) Which I may need this week. When I went out this morning to the barn to feed the cats and do chores I somehow caught my foot and fell taking my boot completely off my foot! I caught my big toe and wrenched it, I don't know if it's dislocated, Greg thinks it's broke, but it is swelled up nice, and very, very painful!

Most of the flats we planted the other day with winter squash, cucumbers and pumpkins and gourds are up! Today we did about 4 more with different melons. Greg worked at replanting some of the tomatoes that had died when we transplanted them outside last week. And he planted some rhubarb plants that we got yesterday at market. We'll see if we can get those going. We've tried for years to get rhubarb to grow and just haven't had any luck. We never had a problem with when we lived in Kansas, and it shouldn't be that difficult! I spent most of the day with my foot up and ice on it. The new bed worked really nice for that as it is one that you can raise the feet and head!!

Well another so-so day at market! We are a bit between plantings, so didn't have a lot to take to market. The guys only took eggs to Fulton. Greg & I had some onions, but brought most home, 6 bags of lettuce mix, 6 quarts pie cherries, baked goods, jams & jellies, eggs, dried apples and plants. But the exciting news for our CSA customers (who get first priority!) is that blueberries are starting to ripen! So hopefully by Tuesday everyone will get a little container of them!

We spent yesterday picking for market, and then did yard work; mowing, cutting weeds and tree suckers, and hauling off old dead branches. We still have ice storm damage to clean up from winter before last! I also started weeding some of the new lettuce beds in the garden. Have quite a ways to go there, but it is almost too wet to weed as the weeds come out with the mud clumped to the roots, which pulls out the lettuce, too!!!! Our wild purslane is going strong, as it likes wet conditions! I put some of it in our lettuce mixes. It is high in omega 3, protein, vitamins E & C. Click on the word purslane to find out all about it!

Yesterday was errand day, clean the house day, laundry day, etc. Greg & I got a new bed and that was delivered yesterday, so we played musical beds getting rid of an old twin bed that Greg had in collage, and moving our old bed into the spare bedroom, which meant a lot of vacuuming and rearranging! Then when Greg got home we did a lot of measuring from the barn to this hydrant, the hoop house to that field, this field to that field, etc. as we are looking at putting in a automatic water system. That way I won't have to remember to go out and turn this water on to that field and run only 1 hour (not all afternoon) and switching valves to water another area and forgetting to turn the hydrant back on! Or keeping track of which area was watered on which day, and whose turn is next, etc.!!!!!! Greg says it will all be on timers, and will switch valves and everything by itself! That way we can also water 24-7! It's the pits to wake up in the middle of the night and remember that you left a hydrant on somewhere and have to go out and turn it off!

Today was baking day for farmers market. So while I did that the guys cleaned house, delivered eggs, took the recycling to town, ran water in the hoop houses and one did his laundry! I filled up 10 more trays with dirt to start fall tomatoes and pulled and cut out weeds along the backyard fence. Found some poison ivy in there, so when I finished I took a good long shower! I sure hope I don't break out in that stuff! While I was outside working Joe wrapped and labeled all the baked goods for me. I hate that job!

I signed up another full share CSA member today. That puts us up to 25 half shares and 10 full shares for a total of 35 members! That really beat our expectations for our first year of this new venture! So I just want to thank all of our members for their support and enthusiasm, because a lot of this was by word of mouth from you to your friends and co workers, etc.!

Well we had a nice down pour of rain early this morning! Think I may have even heard a little bit of hail. But we were needing a little rain, just wish it hadn't come quite so fast and hard! Yesterday we worked on digging out and unclogging our driveway culvert that had gotten stopped up so the ditch water ran over the driveway and just sat in the ditch between both our drives! We then worked on getting those flats of dirt planted. We planted all kinds of winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, summer squash and cucumbers! Now to keep the mice from digging the seeds up and eating them!

Market today was slow at both Fulton and Columbia. We brought home onions, lettuce mix, and as always eggs! That's one thing that's nice about the CSA. We know how much to pick and know that it is sold, and we won't be bringing anything home! That is unless one of you forget to pick up your boxes! We had three this week forget, but one did call the next morning and we were able to deliver.

Thursday I had Lucas cleaning gutters, and all the branches off the roof of the house. Joe trimmed on our shrubs in front of the house. Looks so much better!!! Thursday and Friday evening we worked on getting all the tomato stakes pounded in. Greg did the pounding and wore out his post driver! The end came off while he was pounding in one post and hit him in the thigh! Nice little scrape and bruised area there! Then we got the first string on all the tomatoes put up. I think that is the earliest we've ever managed to get that job done! Course we have to keep on top of it as they grow, that's the hard part!

This evening Greg worked up a couple more beds, and we planted some more green beans! Greg went out to change some waterers, and saw a deer at the far end of our potato beds! I don't think we're going to have much broccoli, between the rabbits and the deer?!!!

Well it's Thursday, that means baking day! Today we are doing banana, coconut banana, sweet potato, persimmon, applesauce and rosemary flat bread. Probably some sort of cookie, maybe oatmeal cranraisin, since we did chocolate chip last week. I've run out of frozen zucchini, so everyone will just have to wait until zucchini season before they can have zucchini bread again!

Yesterday spent the morning doing errands. Then worked on getting 50 more flats filled with dirt and ready to seed again. We have to start the pumpkins, winter squash, gourds and probably more cucumbers & summer squash yet. Then there's the fall tomato plants to get started a little later.

Greg and I worked on thinning the peach trees. Got most done, have a few more trees in our little orchard yet to go.

TODAY IS CSA BOX DAY!!!

Today there will be no strawberries, they are pretty much done! The full shares are going to get lettuce, onion, radishes, swiss chard, turnips, peas, eggs, mizzuna & bread. The half shares are getting lettuce, onion, peas, bread & eggs. The cherries are starting to ripen, but not enough for today, maybe next week!

Yesterday after baking, the boys and I went out and thinned on the peach trees. That is a job that no one likes! We still have a ways to go. Greg sprayed the orchard when he got home from work. We also need to get the new tomatoes stakes in so we can start stringing them up, and might as well do the peppers and eggplants, too!