SELLMEYER FARM NEWSLETTER

Well lots has happened since I last posted in May. So sorry that seems like eons ago! We went from strawberries straight into a drought and then over 4 weeks of above 100 degree temperatures. We planted over 6,000 winter squash seedlings, planted out around 500 tomato plants and 200 okra plants, 700 sweet potato slips and 350 lbs of seed potatoes. We ran water every day, 7 days a week. Everything got 1 1/2 hours water every other day. Our blueberries did not amount to anything, they were blooming during one of our late frosts. Didn't think it was that bad at the time, but we were wrong. We got a few blackberries, and since we don't have water out to them the drought and heat dried them up on the bushes. The deer kept the okra and my sunflowers mowed off, so finally had to put up an electric fence around our 2 rows of okra, then we were finally able to get some okra, but the plants never did grow very well because of the...you guessed it the drought and the heat! The winter squash only produced a 5 gallon bucket of squash because of the...drought and the heat! The potatoes did about half of what they should have and the same with the sweet potatoes. The heat we believe was the main problem, we could get water to most things, but the repeated 100 degree heat days was just more than the plants could take. The tomatoes were the only thing that did really well for us, but again while it was so hot fruit did not set, so we had our early flush and then after the weather cooled back down they started to bloom and set again. In fact we just had the final killing frost last week. So today I stripped all the green tomatoes and any that were any good off so we can start cleaning up that field. I've been grinding up green tomatoes and freezing them. I use them to make bread and cake to sell at market. This has also been a very good persimmon year. So we've been picking and processing persimmon pulp and freezing it. I already have over one hundred 2 cup bags worth in the freezer. We are going out this afternoon when Greg gets home to finish picking the rest of the persimmons. We also had quite a few apples this year from our orchard, so as well as selling them we have been making and canning applesauce and drying them. We also dried a lot of tomatoes. .