Farmer Friday

The last few weeks have been doozies. In fact this whole year has been something else. My culverts clogged a bit and I had some run off from the hill pen. You can see more of that in the video  below. 

I worked on new steps up to the hill pen. 

And it rained. A lot in a few days. I’ve gotten as much rain this month as I did for the whole year of 2019. 

So the goat pens flooded and needed mucked out. 

14 bags of bedding barely dried out the goat pens and the brooder coop. Most of the other pens had at least some dry space. 

I dug a little ditch around Caramel’s pen so hopefully the water won’t run in there again. 

There was so much water on tarps it was bending the kennel panels. 

View from the top. Took me all one day to bail water and muck out pens. 

And THEN!

It rained some more!

Since it was nice and cool I did make a pizza: Brick House Bakers pizza dough, home made mozzarella, homegrown tomatoes, basil, garlic chives with some figs from the Superior Farmers Market. 

Tons of weeds growing like crazy but so is everything else. A little birdhouse gourd. 

And a big one. 
Cosmos or maybe coreopsis 

Dahlia 

Tomatoes are starting 

Armenian cucumber 

A jungle out back

I got some of it tamed

Wild fungi

Another dahlia I love the colors, reminds me of water lilies 

Sorting out some Nankins. Nankins are little bantams that shouldn’t be too big. A young cockerel like this should only weigh about 20 ounces. Some of these are too big or don’t have the right coloring to keep for breeding. So I’m giving them away to 4H kids for showmanship birds. I have several pairs. Message me if you are interested and local

I did pick tomatoes and okra and a couple cucumbers but forgot to take pictures. Maybe in the morning. But I did get one of this weeks flowers. 

#appreciation

Today I appreciate we’ve gotten rain. I appreciate that despite the wildfires and floods I still have my house, my gardens, my animals, food in my belly and clothes on my back. 

Harvest Monday

Pandorino cherry tomatoes

Harvest Monday is a great blog hop to show case what you are harvesting and doing in your garden each week. Host by Dave over at Our Happy Acres it's a lot of fun to visit the other gardens, even if I can't go there in person.

I picked 11 pounds of cherry tomatoes last Friday. I am really enjoying the Pandorino, a grape tomato from Italy. They make large clusters which almost all ripen at once, making for very easy picking. They also taste good. Will be planting more of them for sure next year.

Lancinato Kale

Scarlet Kale

I picked  a good amount of  kale, which is  a staple seller at market.Some customers look for the Lancinato, aka Dinosaur kale and others like the Scarlet. I will probably try some new ones this fall. I also picked a small amount of chard, but didn't take a picture. I used to wait and let the chard grow large and put it up in bunches but most people like the smaller baby size leaves.

Albino, Golden and Ruby Queen Beets

green onions

I picked some beets, the Albino and Golden beets grow very slowly compared to Ruby Queen and Chioggio.  I also picked some green onions.

Straight neck, Gold Rush zucchini

I picked a lot of squash this week, this was just one crate full. I have 10 different kinds and pick the patches clean on Friday, so generally even the largest ones are only a week old. Even a lot of the large ones still have very thin and tender skins.

something eating the melons!

Still some good ones!

Until recently nothing had bothered the watermelons, but now something is eating them. There were still some good ones to pick though. I am really disgusted with things though. It looks like I won't get any cantaloupes. Now the birds and squirrels are eating them before they are hardly half grown. Seriously considering pulling all the melon vines out as soon as the last watermelons are ready to pick and planting something else.

Black Beauty and Black from Tula tomatoes

I picked some ripe and almost ripe large tomatoes. Bird pecks, squirrel bites, blossom end rot, growth cracks, they were sure ugly and only about half were edible. But they sure tasted wonderful. I'll be brainstorming over the winter how to protect them better next year from all the wild life.

herbs and flowers

Of course I picked herbs and flowers. I don't sell that many fresh herbs so bring them home and use them myself or dry them. I am still trying to figure out how to keep the flowers longer, especially the dahlias. By mid morning at market the stems are turning black and the flowers are wilting. I am wondering if it's because I tie the bunches together and maybe the stems are getting crushed. I think next week I'll try just making the bunches in individual containers and not tieing them up and see if that helps. I also think the heat in my house is not helping. I sure need a walk in cooler!

On Sunday I picked all the apples off a small tree because the birds were attacking them like crazy. Out of the 19 pounds about 2 pounds were half eaten. I saved them to make vinegar out of.

This weeks harvests:
7-5 Cherry tomatoes  1# 13 oz
      Large tomatoes     3#  6oz
7-6 carrots                  1#  2oz
      lancinata kale       2# 8oz
      green onion          4# 10oz
      scarlet kale           4# 7oz
      beets                     6# 0oz
7-7 curley parsley             8oz
      Italian basil                 4 oz
      Thai basil                    2oz
      Cherry tomatoes   11# 0oz
      Watermelon           20# 10oz
      squash                    67# 0oz
      chard                            12oz
7-9 apples                     19# 4oz

TOTALS
cherry tomatoes         12#  13oz
large tomatoes             3#    6oz
carrots                          1#     2oz
kale                               6#   15oz
green onion                    4#  10oz
beets                              6#     0oz
herbs                                       14oz
watermelon                   20#  10oz
squash                           67#   0oz
chard                                      12oz
apples                            19#  4oz

GRAND TOTAL    143 # 5oz

Harvest Monday

Cherry tomato mix

Linking up with Harvest Monday, a great blog hop with gardeners around the world showing off their harvests. Lots of fun!

This week I finally had enough cherry tomatoes for both my Superior customers and our Globe-Miami Farmers Market.  I picked almost 10 pounds. I think next week will be even better. Next year I don't think I'm going to plant to tiny currant tomatoes. They just take way too long to pick. I am liking the Italian grape tomato call Pandorino. They are a nice size, good flavor and heavy producers, 8-10 fruit in a cluster. On the other hand I am not liking the Blue Cream from Baker's Creek. They are really splitting badly and don't want to come off the stem. I will not plant them next year. Besides I wasn't impressed with the flavor. I much prefer my old Snow White.

yellow scallop squash

This weeks squash harvest was only a little over 20 pounds.  I had a day when the plants wilted badly which reduced yields. But next week should be better as I've been trying to keep them more evenly watered. 

Black Tail Mountain Watermelons

Amazingly I have watermelons. So far nothing is bothering them so next summer I'm going to plant a lot more. I still have Hopi Yellow melons but they were planted later. They are new to me. I am thinking about covering my hoop houses in hardware cloth so I can plant cantaloupes in them next summer and actually get some!

Just hatched butterfly

Sunday morning I saw a just hatched butterfly.  I think it's a double swallowtail, our Arizona State butterfly

before

after

Also on Sunday I spent a little while cleaning a weedy corner.  There is still more to do but it was getting too hot. The little bit of green left on that bed is actually carrots.

dried basil

I also spent some time stripping leaves from dried herbs and putting them in bulk bags until I have time to put them in smaller ones and label them for sale. 

I picked some green and yellow snap beans but forgot to take a picture.  

Albino & Golden beets, small onions

I pulled some Albino and Golden beets. They grow a little slower than red ones so I try to plant them in their own beds. 

I also had a few very small onions. One of my lists said plant in January. I didn't think that was right but tried a few. Very tiny bulbs. So will stick with Sept/Oct plantings.

I picked flowers too, sunflower, yarrow, zinnia, marigold. I don't think I got a picture of them tho.

This weeks harvests:

6-28

Cherry tomatoes 1# 4oz

Beans.                  1# 14 oz

Scarlet Kale.         1# 0 oz

Squash.                 3# 8 oz

6-29

Scarlet kale.         1 # 4 oz

Lancinata kale      2# 7 oz

Belinda potatoes.  30 # 0 oz

6-30

Cherry tomatoes.   8 # 4 oz

Sage.                            2oz

Italian basil.                10 oz

Thai basil.                    10 oz

Flat parsley.                 10 oz 

Curly parsley.                8 oz

Lovage.                         4 oz

Squash.                   20# 8 oz 

Black Tail Mt. Watermelon 29# 0 oz

Carrots.                     1# 0 oz

Beets w/greens.        2# 0 oz

Small onions.            2# 0 oz

5 bunches flowers

Harvest Totals Week June 26-July 2
cherry tomatoes       9# 8 oz
beans                        1# 14 oz
Kale                          4# 7 oz
potatoes                   30# 0 oz
herbs                        2# 8 oz
watermelon             29# 0 oz
carrots                      1# 0 oz
beets                        2# 0 oz
onions                     2# 0 oz
TOTAL                82# 3 oz
Harvest totals do not include all the things I ate while I was working!

Farmer Friday

It took me almost 3 hours to pick 8 pounds of cherry tomatoes. Good thing I had that many to pick. I delivered more than half to my customers in Superior. The rest will go to the Globe-Miami Farmers Market tomorrow. 

This weeks squash harvest was a measly 20 pounds. I over estimated how many days they could go between watering were getting and some of the plants were getting crispy when I got to them. 

I did pick lots of kale, both Scarlet and lancinata. 

I discovered 6 Black Tail Mountain watermelons had a dried up tendril and a yellow spot on the bottom.  I am amazed that the rodents have not bothered the watermelons.  That's almost 30 pounds of melon!

I only have a few rainbow carrots right now so I pull them on request. That yellow one is looking really nice. That tells me the soil is getting better. 

I pulled a couple of bunches of Albino and Golden beets. I experimented with planting onion seeds in Jan. they made very small bulbs but they are a great size for grilling. 

I picked a lot of herbs, flat and curly parsley, sage, Thai and Italian basil. The flowers this week are marigolds, zinnias, yarrow, a couple of sunflowers and some dahlias. 

I planted these collards plants and watered them the other day. Apparently not nearly enough water. I really poured it on and in a couple of hours it looked like most were reviving. This time of year is really hard. I will be working to automat and streamline a lot of my systems this year, especially water!

Harvest Monday

assorted cherry tomatoes

It's been quite awhile, but I'm going to try to start linking back up with Harvest Monday Harvest Monday is a great blog hop originally started by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions. She has passed the hat to Dave but still a great blog hop and great way to see what folks all around the world are harvesting.

For those coming to visit from Harvest Monday, I used to participate when I just grew veggies for myself. Now I have expanded a lot and grow for a couple of small farmers markets. So some things are coming in much larger quantities.

summer squash; I have 10 different varieties

Lancinata or Dinosaur Kale

I have a lot of summer squash varities; a generic zucchini plus, Black Beauty, Gold Rush, Mexican Grey and Tondo, a round Italian variety. Green and yellow patty pan plus one called Scallopini. Early Straight Neck. The Trombonccino haven't started yet as I got them in later than usual.

Right now I am growing 2 kinds of kale, the Lancinata plus Scarlet, which is a pretty red frilly one.

herbs and flowers

Marigolds and zinnias

I have a lot of herbs; most of them don't sell very well fresh, which is weird. People are more inclined to buy dry. So I take fresh ones to market and dry the leftovers. Four kinds of basil; Italian, Lime, Lemon and Thai. Curly and Flat Parsley. Lavender, Lovage, Oregano are all coming in now, tho the lavender is about done blooming.  I sell small bouquets mostly of zinnias and marigolds but also other things as they come along, like yarrow and calendula. I grew a lot of dahlias for the purpose but am still experimenting to see how to keep them from wilting right away.

So harvest totals from June 18-25;

6-21 squash 5 pounds 

         Leeks 10 ounces

6-22 Scarlet kale 5 pounds

         Lancinata kale 6 pounds

6-23 cherry tomatoes 3 pounds 4 ounces

        Squash 80 pounds 0 ounces

        Leeks 4 pounds 12 ounces

        Potatoes All Red 5pounds 10 ounces

                     Belinda. 8 pounds 6 ounces

                     All Blue 7 pounds 5 ounces

Totals:

Squash 85 pounds

Kale 12 pounds

Cherry tomatoes 3 pounds 4 ounces

Leeks 5 pounds 1 ounce

Potatoes 21pounds 4 ounces

Total Harvest 125 pounds 9 ounces