SELLMEYER FARM NEWSLETTER

Well another month has passed since I've last posted, seems to be a trend I can't break out of!

We got all of our garlic dug and hanging in the barn. That was a big job as it had to be dug all by hand then bundled, tied and hung. We have 72 varieties and planted about 100 cloves of each variety so you do the math!:)

We've been picking tomatoes out of the hoop house. This past week was the peak and we sold over a thousand dollars worth on Saturday, but that will go down drastically now. The outside tomatoes in the big field are all dead. The University thinks it's herbicide carry over in our composting, but we still do not think that's entirely the whole problem as we put the same compost on other fields and they did fine! We did manage to plant about 3 dozen late ones in our front garden and they are looking good, in fact I need to get them caged up. Our sweet potatoes are looking good and so is our winter squash field. I pulled one carrot yesterday to see how they are doing and they look like we can start pulling them any time, but it will be a little bit as we are digging onions now and then will move into the second potato field that didn't get hit by whatever the first field did?! I've been cutting up and dehydrating 2nd tomatoes so I have some for soup mixes this winter. We had some nice blueberries and managed to freeze a couple of gallons of those. Our blackberries won't amount to much but what is out there should be ready in a couple of weeks maybe sooner. My basil is really coming on strong now and the fennel is looking good.  Of course the zucchini is going gang busters, but we need to get a second planting going of them. Peppers and eggplant are looking good in the hoop house, but they are still a little ways from producing, we got them out so late. The green beans aren't much as between the rabbits and the deer they haven't stood much of a chance! Greg keeps spraying them with an egg & hot pepper spray and it keeps raining and washing it off! The deer have eaten a lot of the apples off that they can reach in the orchard which may not be all bad as the trees are really loaded!

The deer are getting a lot more brazen and don't know why with all the garden produce they have access to, but the other morning one was in the drive way outside our back yard gate and then just a couple of mornings ago Greg saw one in our front yard when he went out to go to work at 5:30 in the morning.  That's getting way to close to my day lilies which they really love to eat! I will not be a "happy camper" if they get into them!!!!

We are now officially out of the chicken business as the last two passed on a week ago. Now all that's left are 3 ducks and 7 guineas.