tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3736488382114077352024-02-19T09:24:16.065-06:00SELLMEYER FARM NEWSLETTERThe Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-15034564092354680152015-11-02T15:01:00.001-06:002015-11-02T15:01:38.895-06:00We have finally finished digging all our sweet potatoes.! We figure we got over 10,000 lbs. We have most of them cured and moved into the cooler, just have a few more crates to move over and they will all be done and we can turn off the big green house.<br />
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We got our herb bowls and rosemary starts, stevia and succulent bowls moved into the little green house. Have been having trouble with the heater in there, but think we finally got it going.<br />
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We got the glad bulbs dug and I think we have double what we started with. So next year will have lots to plant and hopefully have lots to cut! I also planted just over 200 tulip bulbs and am forcing Paper Whites in pots to hopefully have at the winter market, maybe in time for Christmas?!! I had someone give me a bunch of daffodil bulbs at market last week so need to get them planted tomorrow. It's nice here today up in the mid 70's. We've only had one light frost so far and it did not really do much damage. Got the basil, but the basil was pretty well gone by then anyway. Last week I cut a bunch of oregano, zaatar, sage, and fennel seeds and got them dehydrated. I'm now working on drying summer squash, peppers, green beans and eggplant.<br />
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Greg got the sweet potato ground tilled up last Friday. Now need to get the tomato field cleaned up; cages pulled up, plastic and drip tape pulled up and then tilled. We got much needed rain over the weekend so hopefully the plastic will come up easier.<br />
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We just keep plugging away and one of these days we'll be done and able to sit back and relax! Ha;Ha! We are already receiving new seed catalogs and I have already placed my order for next years ginger and turmeric seed stock!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-60677333670127132162015-10-14T12:02:00.000-05:002015-10-14T12:02:43.104-05:00It's official! I'm not a very good blogger! It's been over a year without a post, but we are still alive and kicking. It's been a busy year like always. We had a very wet Spring and early Summer. We had lots of rain all the way up to July 1st. Then it quit and we haven't had more then a few tenths since.<br />
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Since it was so wet early and strawberry season was quite good and busy, we didn't get several things planted or what we did get planted drowned. Things like summer squash, winter squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, beans, corn, etc. you get the picture. The things that did real well were our potatoes, I know surprising, but after last year that was a great boon!! We have around 17 varieties this year and they produced the most and biggest potatoes we've ever done. We also planted in new ground that Greg tilled up last fall and put cover crops on. Our hoop house tomatoes did real well. The outside ones did poorly, as they got blight. Our hoop house strawberries did well as did our ginger and swiss chard. We are just digging on our ginger and it is beautiful and big! The turmeric is looking good but still needs to grow some more. We lost all of our garlic as Greg got quite sick this Summer from Ehrlichiosis, a tick born disease and was out of commission for awhile. Plus in the mid to latter part of June when we should have been digging we got a 7" rain. So what garlic that got dug was used for this years seed which we got planted last week. <br />
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We are about done digging our sweet potatoes which are doing fairly well. We have about 6 rows left to dig. We've been curing what we dig and then moving them to the cooler.<br />
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The trick now is getting them all to fit in the cooler! Greg spent yesterday afternoon designing and building wooden crates that better utilise the space then the round tubs we had them in. He still has more to build but we still don't know if they are all going to fit!<br />
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So that it is it in a nut shell. I'm busy dehydrating things trying to get ready to put together my soup mixes, herb and tea blends. We still have all the Fall clean up and tilling to do. I need to dig up all of my glad bulbs (all 500 of them) and store them for the winter, but I am still cutting a few. That was a new venture this year and I think they did well. <br />
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Well that's it for now. Hopefully I can find time and remember to get on here more often!<br />
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The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-19424202656953376022014-07-15T14:20:00.000-05:002014-07-15T14:20:53.798-05:00Well another month has passed since I've last posted, seems to be a trend I can't break out of!<br />
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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!:)<br />
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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!<br />
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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!!!!<br />
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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. The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-11868994860961144032014-06-04T09:41:00.001-05:002014-06-04T09:43:24.524-05:00Sorry it's been a month since I last posted. Can't believe it's been that long! We have been busy, of course:)! We are winding down on our strawberries. We had two weeks of a little over 200 quarts each week and one week of 195 quarts. This past week we had only 67 quarts. We picked about 12 quarts off the outside ones this past week, but they are not going to amount to anything. The winter was too severe for them and then we had a late frost and two hail storms on them! We had another down pour and high winds early this morning and I noticed we have minor damage on our big hoop house with tomatoes in it, but it is easily fixable. Speaking of which, we are starting to get some cherry tomatoes out of it and I noticed this morning one big one is getting pretty ripe! So it won't be long! At least this year I have managed to get them all tied up and it looks pretty good in there! We got our ginger and leeks planted in the strawberry hoop house and have been working on getting the sweet potatoes planted. We have most of our slips that we started planted just waiting on some that we have ordered out of Iowa to arrive.<br />
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We used our new box trailer while we were taking plants to market and we really liked it, but the last time we used it we had a tire blow out on the interstate on the way to market and had to unload it and leave it till we could get back to change it after market. That is something we definitely do not want to do again, so we bought two new tires for it!<br />
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Our potatoes we planted are up and going strong, at least the second field is. The first field we planted March 15th has major issues. They all sprouted which is better than the second field did, but all the plants in the whole field, which is about 160' by 90' are curled, deformed and stunted and we don't think will make anything. We at first thought it was cold damage but that has been ruled out. We took samples into the plant diagnostic center at the University for testing and so far they can't figure it out either but are still working on it. We really need to know so we know what we can or can not do with the field for next year?!<br />
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Our garlic has started to send out scapes so Friday Greg picked a bunch and we took them to market to sell. We sold 97 bunches of 10 each and didn't make a dent in our offerings! There will be more ready to pick this week. They are fun to use and I had an elderly oriental lady who was so excited to see them and thanked me over and over for having them! She was very happy! That makes market fun, to hear how different people use and fix things. It doesn't matter what we take there is usually someone who knows what it is and what to do with it!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-36404188672213142902014-05-02T13:31:00.001-05:002014-05-02T13:31:37.879-05:00Strawberries and asparagus are here! That must mean Spring has arrived! Yea! We picked 87 quarts of strawberries this morning and three pounds of asparagus. We don't have a very big patch of asparagus mainly for us, but we share a little:)! We got hit Monday with a hail storm and it messed up our three hoop houses. Luckily we still didn't have the plastic replaced on the fourth one. We can get by for the summer, but we will have to put new plastic on the three next fall and one of those we just had replaced a month ago! The joys of farming and dealing with the weather! Luckily we didn't have much crops outside yet to damage. The potatoes are just breaking through and the garlic didn't seem to be bothered. Our arugala took a hit, but it will grow out of it. Next week is to be a lot warmer, up in the upper 70's so it should grow out of it pretty quick. Our green onions got beat up a bit, but not too bad. Pulled 100 bunches for market tomorrow. We have also gone through our heirloom tomato plants and pulled out the ones we are keeping for ourselves to set outside. The extras we will have at market tomorrow, also. So looks like we will have a good day weather wise and finally some new Spring produce to offer along with our sweet potatoes, baked goods and dried produce! We also found a used 10 foot box trailer for sale and added it to our farm family this week! That should make getting things to market easier and eliminate taking a second truck a times. Will also make it easier to load crates into and we can take plant racks in it! We are taking it this week to test it out! :)The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-56824449991009901122014-04-24T12:25:00.000-05:002014-04-24T12:25:17.459-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Just thought I'd post some pictures and let you see some of what we're doing and how things are progressing!</div>
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These are our first strawberries of the 2014 season! Greg picked about 1 1/2 quarts on Sunday, so we should have some for market on Saturday! There won't be many but it's a start! These are out of our hoop house. The outside ones are just barely beginning to bloom so we could have strawberries for close to two months if the weather and everything aligns just right!! :)</div>
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These are some of our sweet potato slips that we are starting. When it gets warm and stays warm we will cut these and root them and then plant them for next Fall's crop. We have a little over 30 different varieties!<br />
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This shows some of our basil, leeks and okra that are started in the green house. Some of the basil will be for sale at the market, too.<br />
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More of our sweet potato slips going. These pictures were actually taken over a week ago so they have really grown since then!<br />
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These are some of our second planting of heirloom tomato plants. Some of these (around 1300) will go outside and the rest will be for sale at market.<br />
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These are a few of tomato plants that will be for sale also. They are from our first planting. Their mates are already planted out in the hoop house. Some of these are already blooming!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-48450006214416207352014-04-11T09:27:00.003-05:002014-04-11T09:27:44.014-05:00Well since I last posted we planted more potatoes, onions and shallots. We seeded in some greens and peas and we transplanted about 1600 tomato seedlings into 4 packs. We also planted out those first tomato plants that we started back on February 2nd into one of our hoop houses. We were finally able to get the plastic on one of the hoop houses that needed replacing, but have yet to get the second hoop house that lost it's plastic back the first of March in a blustery 60 mph day! Our strawberries in our 4th hoop house are blooming and looking good! Greg has been spreading Boron and gypsum on the fields to get them ready to disc. He needs to spread compost yet, but last week we got almost 9" of rain and most of it came in two days! Luckily we missed the hail that hit in town. They had so much that they had to get the snow plows out to clear the roads. Lots of windshields and roofs were damaged! We've got 150 more pounds of seed potatoes to plant and may get that done tomorrow after market. Our sweet potatoes that we are sprouting in the green house are really starting to set slips. I think I counted about 32 different varieties this morning while I was watering. I also got my basil seedlings potted into 4 packs and have some more fennel, tomatoes, parsley, celery and more tomatoes that need to go into 4 packs. Also need to get the tomatoes in the hoop house staked and strung up. The alternator went out on Greg's big tractor so he is waiting on parts for that. He was hoping to get it done this weekend so he could finish up on the hoop house that still needs plastic, but will have to wait. That's where we are planting our peppers and eggplant and they are ready to go out!. So as you can tell we are keeping busy. One of these days I'll remember to take my camera out and get some pictures!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-15958069999375582872014-03-20T15:29:00.001-05:002014-03-20T15:29:30.863-05:00It's been a while since I last posted, but we are still here and kicking! Things are starting to pick up, always the way it is in the Spring, you go from almost a stand still, to an all out run! And boy does my body feel it! We've got one potato field disced, beds made and 250 pounds of seed potatoes planted. Have gotten two of the hoop houses just about ready to put new plastic on, just can't seem to get a calm windless day to do that. We've gotten about half of the blackberry patch cleaned out and the dead pruned out. Have been working on starting our sweet potato slips. Got most of them done yesterday and will finish the rest up tonight. We have heirloom tomato, pepper and eggplant plants ready to go out one of the hoop houses, but the weather is calling to be around freezing again next week, so guess we'll have to wait. We are hoping to get our onion plants planted tomorrow. Greg finished re-working our little transplanter over and hopes that it will work to plant the onion plants. I hope so too, will save a lot on the knees! We also planted over 1600 heirloom tomato seeds that will go outside later. I also planted some basil.The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-35089594642325503362013-12-14T08:39:00.000-06:002013-12-14T08:40:33.572-06:00It's been a while since I last posted, but we have been busy! Today we are receiving our first major snow, (We had a little dusting a couple of weeks ago) we have a couple of inches so far and it is a wet snow which means we will have to keep any eye on our hoop houses if we get much more. Since it was snowing this morning and the market was moved to a different location and was going to be a much smaller area and we would be limited to one table, we decided not to go to market this morning.<br />
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Yesterday Greg planted some onion, leek and shallot seeds in the greenhouse and I started some rosemary and oregano cuttings. Last week we got the outside tomato field cleaned up and disced. That's always a job to get all the twine, stakes and cages pulled out and stacked and then we have to mow off the dead tomato vines and pull up the plastic and drip tape then haul that all away! Then we tackled the hoophouse which had tomatoes in it and got it all cleaned out, too. Also cleaned out the big green house and got it straightened up a bit. We got our new cooler completed and the sweet potatoes and winter squash moved into it. It took a while to get the temperature regulated in there, but I think we finally have it where we want it.<br />
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I've been putting soup mixes together, and finishing drying peppers. Now need to work on drying some potatoes. I'm just doing two kinds this year, Gumbo and vegetable, those were our two most popular ones last year. We went to a greenhouse auction the Saturday after Thanksgiving and managed to get some supplies like potting soil, pots, fans, etc. Greg has been ordering parts to make over his small transplanter so that we can use it to plant onions next Spring. Hopefully it will work as it will make it much easier on the knees and back, not to mention much faster!:) While it has slowed down there are always things and projects to keep us busy, but I have been managing to do some Christmas baking and Christmas shopping (on line)! Hopefully everyone has a great Holiday Season and a great New Year!:)The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-40812129828308779402013-11-02T20:05:00.000-05:002013-11-02T20:05:30.906-05:00We had our first indoor winter market today. It was nice to be indoors, but the carting of everything indoors and the cramped space is always a trade off...! I don't know why it is but it's hard to get the customer to follow and continue to the indoor location. No matter how much we tell them that we are continuing all winter they just don't follow us over the winter, but this is the fourth year and it has grown considerably each year, it just takes time to build it up and to educate the customer!<br />
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We have all our sweet potatoes dug. We estimate between 8 and 9 thousand pounds is what we have! So we will have plenty to sell for the winter. We are looking at selling some to a local grocery store, so hope that goes well so they continue to buy more from us!!!! We've been digging a little ginger and tumeric each week for the market. That has gone very well, but will have to dig it all before long, as we've had our killing frost last week. All the outdoor tomatoes, okra, zucchini, and winter squash was killed. We still have tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, plus our tumeric and ginger in the hoop houses. We are also covering them with row covers to help prolong them, but they will not last too much longer. We did pull 10 dozen bunches of radishes that are outside. This is a good time of year for them, they are very sweet and crisp! Also still have parsley outside. Have been dehydrating peppers and tomatoes. Will be putting together soup mixes this next week hopefully!<br />
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We are working on converting an old brooder house into a cooler as our current cooler is not big enough to hold all our sweet potatoes! We are adding more insulation and cooling/heating system, then we can transfer the rest of the sweet potatoes and winter squash into it. We've moved some of the potatoes to our old cooler and the rest are still in the green house curing... Then when we get that all done and things moved we get to start on cleaning up the fields, removing tomato stakes, strings and plastic mulch and drip tape so we can get them plowed, then we'll need to get the hoop houses cleaned out and replanted with some greens...always something to do, never a dull minute...!:) Plus all the seed catalogs are starting to come so we will need to get our orders placed for next year before too long...!!!!!! What would we ever do if we didn't have anything to do????????? Maybe sleep!!!!! :)The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-63033977568389829822013-10-17T14:28:00.001-05:002013-10-17T14:28:55.923-05:00Again it's been a while since I last posted, but we've been busy. That seems to always be the excuse anyway!<br />
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Since I last posted we've been on vacation. We went to Saugerties, NY to their garlic festival! That was very interesting and of course we bought a lot more garlic to plant. So since we've been home we've shucked and planted around 72 varieties and close to 10,000 or more cloves! Yes I know, that's a lot of garlic!!! We've also been digging sweet potatoes. We have about 1/3rd done I think we have around 10 more rows to go. They are producing very well for the most part. Was a bit disappointed in the purple ones productivity, but it was our first year for them. We may need to find a different variety next year or try them again in a little bit different spot and water them a little less?! Our strawberries we planted earlier are looking very good, much better than they did this time last year, so hopefully that is a good sign for next year?!:) I have yet to dig my tumeric and ginger am waiting as long as possible to let it get as big as possible...but will have to start digging it in the next week probably. We haven't had a frost yet, but it's only a matter of time. We are still getting tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, but they are tapering off. Pretty soon I will be able to start picking green tomatoes and freezing them. We are still doing market and will be moving to our winter indoor market the first weekend in November. That will be nice to be under roof. The last 3 Saturday markets it has rained on us and while the cooler weather hasn't been that bad it's not fun when you're wet! Well always lots to do and not much time to do it. We really feel the pinch now that the days are shorter and only getting more so!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-51001820390096641132013-09-16T09:34:00.000-05:002013-09-16T09:34:42.688-05:00What a difference a day makes! Last Thursday was up in the upper 90's and then Friday started in the low 70's and then made it up in the 80's, but that was so much more pleasant to pick in then the past couple of weeks! We got some much needed rain Sunday, but sure could use a lot more! Never satisfied are we?! :)<br />
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We've been busy as usual. Picking takes two days right now to get it all done and then we still aren't getting all the tomatoes done. We've been dehydrating apples and getting strawberry and garlic beds made and ready to plant. We planted two thousand strawberry plants yesterday outside. The other thousand will go in the hoophouse so that will be the next project to get done; tear out the weeds and till up the ground in the hoophouse and get it ready to plant! We need to get the garlic bulbs pulled apart so we can get them ready to plant and pretty soon we will need to start digging the sweet potatoes and then picking the winter squash!<br />
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Market has been very good the last several weeks. We are kept busy all morning and don't get any breaks. Greg bought me biscuits and gravy from the food wagon Sat. morning as he had to carry out a box of tomatoes to a customers car and thought he'd stop on the way by, but I never got a chance to eat them! It's good to be busy, but sure makes you tired! :)The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-8369339252345908902013-08-27T08:03:00.002-05:002013-08-27T08:07:38.119-05:00BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!!!!!It's finally turned hot! August had been a very cool month with temperatures at night down in the upper sixties and low fifties and day time temps in the upper seventies! Was very nice and made for excellent market days! But the typical hot August weather has arrived this past week with yesterday reaching 97 degrees. We sure could use some rain, too. Until this last week it had been pretty green for August, but with the heat and lack of rain this week things are turning brown.<br />
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We've been busy! Our heirloom tomatoes are really going strong. We have been selling lots, but still have lots to get rid of. I'm taking some to our local food bank today, we've been dehydrating some along with also doing okra and green beans. We've also started digging potatoes, so far they are doing just so so, but we got them in awfully late and have been having to irrigate them. Our zucchini is going gang buster like zucchini usually does. I've been grinding up lots to freeze for zucchini bread! We finally got our strawberry tips last Tuesday and got them rooting. They were about ten days late in arriving which puts them further behind in getting planted this fall which affects how big and established they will be going into the winter. Let's hope for a mild and long fall!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-17796074993895800032013-07-25T09:38:00.002-05:002013-07-25T09:38:19.731-05:00It's been a couple weeks since I posted so thought I'd update you. We are laying drip tape in the winter squash field to get it watered as it doesn't look like we are going to be getting any rain soon. We laid one on the summer squash last week. The bean field still looks ok but it is needing rain and we won't be trying to water that field. We are picking lots of zucchini and summer squash! We have been grinding and freezing lots of it so I can make zucchini bread and chocolate zucchini bread, both good sellers at market. We are also picking lots of peppers and some eggplant. Last week we had a tray of tomatoes so those are starting to come on finally! Everyone is anxious for them! We've got all of the candy onions pulled and in the barn and those have been selling really well. Nothing to exciting just keeping things watered now! Some rain would be very much appreciated now. But that is the "joy" of farming I guess.The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-15881099015745214692013-07-13T19:37:00.000-05:002013-07-13T19:37:31.915-05:00More Farm and Market PicturesI got new batteries for my camera and remembered to take it back out to the field to get some more pictures! The two pictures below are of one of our sweet potato fields. The second one shows our zucchini planted along the left side with our field of dried beans on the left of them. The beans came up very spotty as it was old seed. We have been trying to get them planted for the last two years, but weather has not cooperated with us. We may end up picking them as green beans.<br />
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The picture below is another one of our sweet potato fields. As you can see we also grow weeds really well! Greg has since taken care of them! I think I counted we have around 32 different varieties of sweet potatoes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij4lP8E9KWQQU29Xcc0tdIDdjgAJgnv9e9L1ixrpKdTWeQKrT-A6xtrmG3k5a74IUQAjBKSRIRqqWYnAjoiABWaTJtDsq9W8sEkxY0XluUrNdYQr5YRHQHrzzCZrWsE0xwXurIOBCf3_yr/s1600/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij4lP8E9KWQQU29Xcc0tdIDdjgAJgnv9e9L1ixrpKdTWeQKrT-A6xtrmG3k5a74IUQAjBKSRIRqqWYnAjoiABWaTJtDsq9W8sEkxY0XluUrNdYQr5YRHQHrzzCZrWsE0xwXurIOBCf3_yr/s320/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+062.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Our weekly trip to the horse barn to get loads of manure for our compost pile. You can see the steam rising from the pile on the truck! We make a trip once a week. We have two nice compost piles going. We are getting tired of scooping them off however, so we are in the process of purchasing a dump trailer to make that job quicker and easier. Should have it sometime the first of August. Can't wait!<br />
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This was our stand at market this morning.</div>
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We took some of our garlic that we got dug last week. It seemed to go over very well, so we are excited about that. We only took about 15 different varieties and sold out of 3 that we took. We only took one bunch of each so next week we will add some more varieties in our offering as they get dried.</div>
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These are some of our candy onions. We just started pulling them.They look the best we've ever had them! That's some basil behind them.</div>
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This is some of my baked goods and dried goods hanging up behind. I bake sweet breads using our produce in all of them except the banana bread, but I use our eggs in those! I bake applesauce bread, banana, banana coconut, strawberry, green tomato, persimmon, persimmon pudding, chocolate zucchini and plain zucchini. Dried goods range from apple slices, strawberries, tomatoes, tomato powder, peppers, okra and soup mixes.</div>
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These are some of our peppers that we had today! They are just starting, this was our first real picking and we sold all out of them!</div>
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The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-33253094231933505022013-07-01T14:07:00.001-05:002013-07-01T14:07:12.884-05:00Farm Pictures!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Well I finally remembered to take my camera out to the field with me to get some pictures for this blog. It's always more interesting to see some pictures about what we are talking about. But my batteries died before I could get some taken of the sweet potato field and the winter squash field. Maybe next time...:)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_TaIjD0KkWqAFzqTxdd4HlJPxhH1J-xHrN2lwzcxrcFmXGlqtnDNeM7WxuzzitoUg6bVeVRDrKDm87b10h6qkV91JPCpxuW6i11_wmM6it6auY_6RT7_765S_wfZOGd97SWtrqg6stvZ/s1600/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi_TaIjD0KkWqAFzqTxdd4HlJPxhH1J-xHrN2lwzcxrcFmXGlqtnDNeM7WxuzzitoUg6bVeVRDrKDm87b10h6qkV91JPCpxuW6i11_wmM6it6auY_6RT7_765S_wfZOGd97SWtrqg6stvZ/s320/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+044.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here are some pictures of our farm. This one above is some of our basil. We picked 50 bags off it to sell last week at market.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioXwpD-rnmPUPRUnEulKiQ0PannfgO2Bh3lAd2X0Rja7i0cMyDNejFu44GGJ90C442cDhlVbbk-7XUore3MPVwCAIPMbp4SP_nVCbY8rnPfMVKPxcW7GSE22lFPDbs1arU5TUrOPf55POb/s1600/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioXwpD-rnmPUPRUnEulKiQ0PannfgO2Bh3lAd2X0Rja7i0cMyDNejFu44GGJ90C442cDhlVbbk-7XUore3MPVwCAIPMbp4SP_nVCbY8rnPfMVKPxcW7GSE22lFPDbs1arU5TUrOPf55POb/s320/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+045.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is our okra. It's not very big yet, but we've already had two small pickings off of it. The hoop house at the end is our new one we put up this winter. We have some early heirloom tomatoes in it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2I4dfWe4ithtUKaVvosJhFq4vhzNSzeVnUUE-AvUHqs5pwuDgK_Z5cN7U7Aeo-69Z6niEFSlJaNHfnTugNUOiHgUikq45wi8-QEcCkjByM_ZcMtp-dTUUVzzjuoESyGmnGhmTmrIsmNa/s1600/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+048.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2I4dfWe4ithtUKaVvosJhFq4vhzNSzeVnUUE-AvUHqs5pwuDgK_Z5cN7U7Aeo-69Z6niEFSlJaNHfnTugNUOiHgUikq45wi8-QEcCkjByM_ZcMtp-dTUUVzzjuoESyGmnGhmTmrIsmNa/s320/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+048.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here are our outside tomatoes. We've been working on getting them all strung up. I have one more row to do and then it'll be time to start the second stringing! Ha! :)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixeOAx1j6U4e7aO8Y-KwZpXLOLvo-8GFVJJH7nhG4B1kt6wZJ766hGfWLJ0LKv6OnkjNLHpArkCSQVgVbG7k33Fj_3174Z7PkLSJ-VUUhWEc7FZGT78F5Vu6VZfN4bhDYN9PmmGRwHraCS/s1600/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+047.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixeOAx1j6U4e7aO8Y-KwZpXLOLvo-8GFVJJH7nhG4B1kt6wZJ766hGfWLJ0LKv6OnkjNLHpArkCSQVgVbG7k33Fj_3174Z7PkLSJ-VUUhWEc7FZGT78F5Vu6VZfN4bhDYN9PmmGRwHraCS/s320/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+047.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Just another shot of the tomato field.</div>
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This is our potato field on down from the tomatoes. We got them in late this year so they are still growing, but they have started blooming. Hopefully they will make potatoes this year. We have around 10 or so different varieties with two different blue kinds!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgEmvspWOANfzt8Bh0LIf6YQzVolGgnxm3h62hfkCUMa8bYMm8ji71ZHzAdIOPGlamoXqd1rPA3SPn4MuxgQFdy5y88NejWtgqXGxVYsOHt6KBiBgINaijLinox2jt3GvZpbxf3F7aaVx/s1600/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifgEmvspWOANfzt8Bh0LIf6YQzVolGgnxm3h62hfkCUMa8bYMm8ji71ZHzAdIOPGlamoXqd1rPA3SPn4MuxgQFdy5y88NejWtgqXGxVYsOHt6KBiBgINaijLinox2jt3GvZpbxf3F7aaVx/s320/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+050.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is our bed of candy onions on the far edge of our potatoes. We are excited about them this year as they are really looking good. We don't seem to be able to grow very big onions, but this year looks like we will do a lot better job than we have in the past. See picture below. It's amazing what composting and soil amendments can do!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoTwhZXB6WsDYabuoIhwaB0_HZJ2tICLH0lt_yt_3BNM7OvjIJ6urmIN4O9v5UwWZHBbKOYb_lJqQxUNwhKYQky0Bvqv8yO1amnedR4E4-DMumqw68pl7wKZbnztYfdnquoFvAZgTeGKjR/s1600/Grandpa%2527s+auction+%2526+farm+pictures+053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoTwhZXB6WsDYabuoIhwaB0_HZJ2tICLH0lt_yt_3BNM7OvjIJ6urmIN4O9v5UwWZHBbKOYb_lJqQxUNwhKYQky0Bvqv8yO1amnedR4E4-DMumqw68pl7wKZbnztYfdnquoFvAZgTeGKjR/s320/Grandpa%2527s+auction+%2526+farm+pictures+053.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is our ginger and tumeric in one of our hoop houses. Last year was our first year doing ginger and it went over really well at market. So this year we ordered more to plant and they mistakenly sent us some tumeric also, so we are trying that this year as it is grown pretty much the same as ginger.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXirVQOvS0rDS4NxEbmY45Y8eOb4IUO9D-q037ZpBgDRKOcTpgMKyjAoDUCqUyHH4xDuIKbjJeedYq2US4Zm6ChTf86LH4APDLBnvRm3JAlUZQPG0L6Pj8gCI4Um5U1-3nzEZwq92-KGXT/s1600/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+055.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXirVQOvS0rDS4NxEbmY45Y8eOb4IUO9D-q037ZpBgDRKOcTpgMKyjAoDUCqUyHH4xDuIKbjJeedYq2US4Zm6ChTf86LH4APDLBnvRm3JAlUZQPG0L6Pj8gCI4Um5U1-3nzEZwq92-KGXT/s320/Grandpa's+auction+&+farm+pictures+055.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And last but not least here are a couple of pictures of the garlic we've been digging. We've only gotten one bed dug so far, have about four more to dig. We've got around 30 different varieties so hopefully there will be something for everyone's taste!</div>
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The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-40029563116710328062013-06-05T13:33:00.004-05:002013-06-05T13:33:57.828-05:00We've been picking strawberries for 4 weeks now and are about done. The outside ones aren't doing so well with all this rain. We've gotten most of the sweet potato slips planted (1,400) but still have a couple hundred to go. The problem is we've run out of bed space and need to make up more but the rain keeps us from being able to work the ground! Plus the bunnies and deer like munching on them! Greg has been spraying an egg and hot pepper spray on them, but again the rain keeps washing it away. We missed last nights chance of rain, but they are calling for more rain tonight so we'll see if we can dodge another one! I've been pulling weeds out of the garlic. They are make scapes now and have been cutting them to sell. We've gotten the ground worked in the big hoop house and trenches made so I can plant my ginger, now just need to find time. All the tomatoes are planted so now we need to get them all staked and twine strung. UGH!!! I absolutely hate that job! We put an electric fence around the okra to keep the deer out of them so we don't have a repeat of last summer with no okra! Well I need to wrap this up and go switch the water in the hoop house. Kind of ironic with all the rain that we still have to water!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-36063006224495935742013-05-16T16:05:00.000-05:002013-05-16T16:05:17.883-05:00Yeah!!!!! No rain since middle of last week! We've got two of our plots tilled and fertilized and beds made! And we've got the potatoes planted! Making progress. We picked 106 quarts of strawberries last week for Saturday market and had green onions, arugula, radicchio, Swiss chard, tomato plants, basil and rosemary plants, along with our baked goods and dried goods. Looks like this week we will have some tot soi and mizuna also! We've had to put up chicken wire fencing around the greens inside our little hoop house to keep out the bunnies! Boy are they ever in abundance this year! The sweet potato slips need to be planted next as they are taking over the green house, also my turmeric and ginger are sprouting well and also need to be planted out in the hoop house. Then of course there are the field tomatoes to go out, there's only around a thousand of those....Greg is still working 1pm to 1am for the outage at his work. He said today that there were around 10 more days of that yet....The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-83048546272613286192013-05-01T12:00:00.000-05:002013-05-01T12:00:30.245-05:00Well yesterday and today are in the 80 degree range and haven't had any rain since Saturday and things are drying out. Could work the ground tomorrow and get potatoes planted the next day, but they are calling for rain tonight, so we'll just have to cross our fingers and wait and see! We have sweet potatoes slips sprouting in the green house and my ginger and turmeric are also starting to sprout. We finally got the new hoop house filled with heirloom tomatoes and another one filled with peppers and eggplant. Strawberries are ripening in the big hoop house. We had a quart last Saturday for market! The apple trees are blooming and the outside strawberries are blooming, but they are calling for temps. to drop down in the mid to low 30's Friday night! Again we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that that doesn't happen as I really hate covering and uncovering the strawberries! Finally got the yard mowed Monday. Couldn't get the lawn mower started and had to get a new battery, then when I was just about done mowing the deck broke away from the spindle on the left side, so had to replace the spindle. We've been hauling manure every week and shuffling trucks to the repair shop for maintenance and repairs! Greg has been working 12 hour night shifts at his work for 3 weeks now, and will probably have to go for another 2 weeks at least! So as you can tell we are keeping busy and not getting much planted! The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-60350657770386298932013-04-08T12:50:00.001-05:002013-04-08T12:50:55.223-05:00Finally some nice warm Spring weather! The Forsythia bushes have started blooming the last 2 days, daffodils are blooming, rhubarb is starting to peak through, the garlic we planted last Fall is looking good, the peach trees are about to pop out, the apricot trees have been blooming for a few days, strawberries in the hoop house are blooming and making little berries, and the grass is going to need to be cut in the next week! It's amazing how quickly things start to grow with just a few days of warm sunshine!
We've planted around 2000 candy onions, and 2 bushel of onion bulbs for green onions. We've got sweet potato slips to get going and regular potatoes to cut up and cure so we can get them planted. Uncovered the outside strawberries so hopefully it will stay above freezing and we won't have to cover them back up. They should start blooming in the next week or so if it stays nice and warm. Of course now that it's warm enough and dry enough to do these things it's started to rain! It rained last night and more expected tonight and tomorrow!
I've got basil seedlings to transplant and need to get more started and also want to get parsley started. Things are starting to get busy, busy, busy!!!!!!! :)The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-36658241705044906332013-03-27T08:27:00.000-05:002013-03-27T08:27:17.486-05:00Wow! What a difference in years this Spring! At least the calendar says it's Spring, but after another major snow storm and temperatures in the 20's it doesn't look or feel like Spring. This time last year we were almost a month a head of schedule and things were blooming early and we were mowing grass already! They are calling for a warm up for Easter Sunday but then to turn cold again April Fools day. Well nature does have a way of putting us in our place and having the last say...!
Besides scooping snow off of our hoop houses, we have been trying to get a little bit done. We have got our ginger and tumeric pre-started in the green house. We have tomato, eggplant and pepper plants up and going. We have Swiss chard, and various greens sprouted and ready to put out in the hoop houses if we could get out there to them through the snow and mud! (Bright side...we are getting much needed moisture!) We have potatoes and onions ready to plant, and sweet potatoes ready to start our own slips this year. Our garlic we planted last fall is coming up and looking good. Strawberries in the hoop house are starting to bloom. We haven't even uncovered the ones outside yet.
So when it starts to warm up and dry out a bit things are going to get very hectic around here. This year the power plant where Greg works is having their Spring Outage where they shut down, refuel, repair and do maintenance work. It is done every 18 months and is a 4-6 week long period of lots of over time and extra work. So we will be double busy!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-47240803045737235512013-02-27T08:13:00.000-06:002013-02-27T08:13:03.207-06:00SNOWSnow, snow go away! We've had two major snow storms within a week of each other and it is still snowing today! I'm not sure how much is out there but at least 12" with another 2-3" expected today. In the first storm last Thursday we had damage to one of our hoop houses. It partially collapsed on one side. So we had to get out and push all the snow off all the hoop houses. That's a total of 4 now! Then in Monday nights storm we went out at 2:00 a.m. and cleaned off the hoop houses again. That took us 2 1/2 hours! Not fun! It was a very wet and heavy snow, but only around 4" this time. So we've been doing a lot of scooping and shoveling of snow. I figure our old deck will be the next to collapse as the snow from the roof keeps sliding off and it is now up to the deck railing! It is very pretty to look at but sure makes getting around to do chores difficult. But we will keep on chugging along! :)The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-34579507167170513312013-02-20T15:55:00.000-06:002013-02-20T15:55:10.300-06:00Well 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.
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The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-52344032537099275182013-02-20T15:52:00.002-06:002013-02-20T15:52:36.847-06:00Well what can I say? I'm going to try to start posting again!
We are still here and we are still farming and growing produce. In fact we've been selling all winter at the winter market in Columbia. We are picking some arugala and swiss chard. We also take sweetpotatoes, dried goods like apples, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and soup mixes.I am still baking breads and persimmon pudding. We also have frozen strawberries and frozen persimmon pulp that we sell.
We have built our fourth hoop house this winter. Greg has been busy ordering seeds. I went yesterday and picked up some of our potatoes and onion sets. We've got a few flats of tomatoes, swiss chard, peppers and eggplant started in the green house. We've been hauling horse manure every week to add to our compost piles.
So not much has changed still the same things going on. I hope to stay on top of this blog better and get back into the groove!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373648838211407735.post-3264917571439130222012-05-23T14:19:00.002-05:002012-05-23T14:19:39.263-05:00Well we are still picking strawberries. We took a little over 300 quarts last Sat. to market and did not get the patch totally picked. They are getting smaller but still very nice size. We've put another 20 quarts in the freezer and dehydrated another 10 or so.
We got the okra and field tomatoes planted, but may put in another row of tomatoes as we have the space and plants. The deer came through and ate on and pulled out some of the okra plants, so Greg sprayed some pepper and egg spray on them to keep the deer away. We also got the fennel, basil, artichokes, sunflowers and carrots planted yesterday. All the winter squash, pumpkins and gourds are up in the greenhouse and need to be transplanted out any time. We got the ginger planted in the hoop house on Sunday, am really looking forward to see how that does!
I noticed as I was watering yesterday that our blueberry bushes that we have in pots along the chicken yard have some "blue" berries on them! That means I need to get out to the field and check on the bushes out there! Not exactly sure when I'm going to be able to find time to pick them though! Very busy times and not enough time in the day or energy in the body!
Also the tomatoes in the hoop houses are doing well and need to be staked. That is always a job I do not like to do!
Well I'm off to the local Wed. market in town to sell some more strawberries! Then there's 3 more flats of seconds to process when I get home this evening! Yea! I'm very very very tired of strawberries!The Sellmeyer'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13436046356905908099noreply@blogger.com0