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eNewsletter Archives
At the Market – July 15th
This week we have harvested over 70 lbs of tomatoes – from huge pink Brandywine “sandwich” tomatoes that average 1-1/2 to 2 lbs each to the small beautiful Black Plum roma style tomatoes. Combine these with some fresh basil, and you have a dish that sighs “summer”. We have combined our tomatoes with our fresh herbs to create a wonderful salsa which we will have available this Saturday.
Hopefully you didn’t miss the Sweet Corn Roast last weekend at The Matthews Community Farmer’s Market. Ray stood in line for over 15 minutes to bring me the most delicious roasted corn ear bathed in basil butter! Mark your calendars for next Saturday when the Market hosts the annual Tomato Tasting.
What’s New in the Greenhouse and in the Garden
This week we added several propagation plants to our family which will provide us with cuttings this fall. There are now 9 varieties of thyme, 5 varieties of oregano, scented and ornamental geraniums, 8 mint varieties, rue, and lavender that are being pampered as “mother” plants for the babies we will offer in the Spring.
The Celosia flowers (common name Cocks Comb) are really putting on a show in the garden. We will have several bouquets available at Market on Saturday. These flowers are always a conversation starter, have a long vase life, and can be dried for arrangements.
Did you know?
Aloe is one of the most familiar of all healing plants. It has a 2,000 year medicinal history and today it is the number one home remedy for burns, poison ivy and other skin afflictions. Aloe is a base ingredient in many cosmetic creams and lotions due to its tissue restorative properties. The Greek historian Dioscorides recorded its use and it is said that Alexander the Great conquered Madagascar so that his army had a good supply of the herb for healing wounds!
Studies show that fresh aloe gel produces the best result because its healing properties dissipate in storage. The best way to use this herb is to break off a leaf, slice it down the middle and apply the gel to the skin. When you harvest, cut the outermost leaves first.
Aloe is easy to grow but must be brought indoors when the temperatures drop below 40 degrees. They thrive in crowded conditions, which makes them an excellent potted plant.
Out and About
As I was harvesting our tomatoes this week an article came to mind that I read in a trade publication for commercial vegetable and fruit producers. The article profiled a large and successful family farm that grew hundreds of acres of tomatoes in the Midwest. As I enjoyed handpicking each tomato based on its blush or fullness of color, I thought about how these farmers chose tomato varieties that are uniform in color and shape and that all ripen at the same time. These varieties allowed the farmers to harvest with a machine that gathered the entire vine, then separated and sorted the fruit. In contrast, our heirlooms tomatoes are certainly not uniform in color or shape (in fact, they are sometimes challenged in that area) but rather have been chosen for their taste and heritage. While I realize that factory type production is necessary to feed our nation and the world and probably affords a decent financial return for the farmer, I am glad I have the opportunity to experience and share the diversity of these wonderful tomato varieties, even in smaller quantities.
There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day.
-Alexander Woollcott
At the Market – July 8th
It will be a potpourri of items at the Market this week. Blueberries, flowers, herbs, tomatoes, sweet banana peppers, salsa! July is the busiest time at the Market and we hope you will take advantage of the wide variety of wonderful locally grown produce and support your local farmers.
Don’t miss the annual Sweet Corn Roast this weekend at The Matthews Community Farmer’s Market, which has a website at http://www.matthewsfarmersmarket.com/.
What’s New in the Greenhouse and in the Garden
The fall lettuces have been sown and a new round of rosemary cuttings are ready to get their rootlets in the dirt. We are getting a bit of rain today during our harvest for Market. It was a nice change to have the water that ran down my head come from the sky and not from heat, humidity and perspiration.
Did you know?
There are seven species of edible tomatoes and there are several thousand tomato varieties listed in the Seed Savers Yearbook. All of the tomato species originated in the high coastal mountain regions of Chile and Peru. The Spanish conquistadores were the first to write about tomatoes in the sixteenth century when they saw them being cultivated for food in Mexico. The first tomatoes described were yellow. Tomatoes in the continental United States were written about in the late 1680s by William Salmon, a visiting Englishman, who observed them growing in “Carolina”.
Here’s a recipe for a simple and delicious way to enjoy any variety of heirloom tomato you find at the Market. (From “The Tomato Festival Cookbook” by Lawrence Davis-Hollander)
Tomato and Mozzarella Salad
1 lb. mozzarella, sliced ¼ inch thick
1 very large or 3 medium tomatoes, cored and sliced
1-2 stems of fresh basil
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Sea salt
Edible flowers, such as nasturtiums, marigold petals, borage blossoms, or cilantro blossoms (optional)
- Arrange the mozzarella alternating and overlapping with the tomatoes on an oblong platter or large dinner plate. Slip some basil leaves between the slices along the sides so they are protruding halfway out.
- Drizzle or spoon the oil over the tomatoes. Do the same with the vinegar. Lightly sprinkle salt over the tomatoes. Distribute the flowers on the slices and plate if desired. Let sit for a few minutes and serve.
Variations: Mayonnaise may be substituted for extra-virgin olive oil, producing a slightly different effect. Spread ½ teaspoon on top of each tomato slice as you arrange them on the plate and let site for 10 minutes. Very thinly sliced rings of red or sweet white onions may be scattered on top of the cheese and tomatoes.
Check out this link
Several weeks ago, I told you about the site http://whatsthatbug.com that helps you identify the creepy crawly things in your garden. This week I found a forum site on Garden Web (good all round site) at http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/namegal/ to help you identify “exotic” plants you may have growing in your yard. Although you have to click through each post see the pictures, this can be a good resource to help you decide if the plant that you inherited or volunteered in your yard is a keeper or a compost component. I spent a minute (or two) on our rainy Thursday clicking through to see how many plants I could identify before I scrolled down the page to see what the answers were. I chalked that time up to education!
If you visit a favorite gardening, food, or culture website, please let me know and I will share it in a future newsletter.
Yesterday is ashes; tomorrow is wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.
-Old Eskimo proverb
At the Market – July 1st
The star of the Market continues to be BLUEBERRIES! They just keep getting bigger and bluer and if you have not made room in the freezer for a few extra pints you will wish you had. (Think blueberry muffins with hot coffee in the Fall!). We will also have a few containers of edible flowers – Nasturtium and Pansy, as well as Sweet Banana Peppers and the beginnings of our Heirloom tomatoes. Of course, we always have fresh culinary herbs and plants for the garden.
If you are making pickles, we have beautiful Mammoth Dill heads to provide that “pickle” taste!
New this week will be fresh Confetti Salsa – a mild blend of 5+ heirloom tomatoes + our naturally grown cilantro, onion, and sweet banana peppers. And we will also have limited supply of fresh Pesto.
What’s New in the Greenhouse and in the Garden
Nothing else will teach you about the land you farm quite like flooding rains. This week I spent more time digging trenches to release standing water than I spent digging to plant, harvest, or weed. We hoped for rain and boy did we get it! Although the sun came out by Wednesday, it will be several more days before we can really get into the garden without sinking to our ankles. Only last week we worried about getting enough rain for juicy tomatoes and now I worry that the abundance of rain will cause the fruit to swell and crack. Mother Nature certainly does not want us to rest on the laurels of our beautiful Spring harvest and is teaching us a thing or two about working with our Summer crops.
I am seeding more flowers in the shade house and will start the cool Fall crops (!) in the next few weeks. I have been taking lots of pictures and hope to share them with you soon on the website.
Did you know?
Lemon Balm has a long history as a medicinal herb. Its lemon-mint fragrance and taste is one of the herbs mentioned by ancient Greek authors, physicians and scholars. Old Williamsburg recipes called for it and Thomas Jefferson grew it at Monticello. Lemon Balm is not a showy plant, but as the British herbalist Nicolas Culpeper said in the mid-seventeenth century, lemon balm…”causeth the mind and heart to become merry,…and driveth away all troublesome cares and thoughts out of the mind, arising from melancholy and black choler…”. Today we use lemon balm in our cooking and add it to a base of black tea for a lemon-mint flavor. It can be used as a mild substitute for lemon verbena, which has a stronger lemon flavor.
We will have a flat of this wonder addition to your herb garden at the Market on Saturday.
Out and About
Our first year at the Matthews Community Market has been a wonderful and educational experience. The community of vendors has been supportive – and delicious at the end of the Market day when vendors swap what’s left in their booth with each other. Their tips and encouragement have helped me overcome first year jitters.
The community of customers that supports the Market has been delightful. There are the patrons that plan their shopping to include as many vendors as possible – even if it is the smallest purchase for each. There are lots of Dads out with infants in backpacks and toddlers in tow for a Saturday morning out. (I imagine Moms at home enjoying the peace and quiet time to recharge). The elderly are escorted by adult children to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Market. There are regulars and there are those that are just discovering the Market. There are always a lot of questions - which we love! I have a notebook page filled at the end of the day with ideas and items to research. I can’t image a better way to connect with customers – its fun market research!
Check out this link
www.GoodSearch.com helps direct a portion of the $6 BILLION search engine advertising revenue to charitable organizations. Go to GoodSeach.com, enter your favorite charity and use the search engine (it’s powered by Yahoo). One cent is donated for each search. That may not seem like much, but I know how many seaches I do in a week and if you multiply that by the number of people searching on the internet, it adds up! Success stories can be found at the GoodSearch.com site. It is an easy way to donate by doing something you already do. I have switched from Google and downloaded the GoodSearch toolbar. I haven’t been disappointed by the results.
Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.
-Robert Frost
At the Market – June 24th
BLUEBERRIES! The highbush blueberries are yielding their bounty and we are bringing all we can pick to the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market on Saturday. (I keep checking the mirror to see if I have blue teeth yet from eating blueberries like candy this week!) Make room in the freezer for a few extra pints for muffins, pancakes and fruit sauces throughout the year. Our Wednesday Monroe Market took several pints this week and Patty R. reports they are “perfect!”
The Brandywine, Roma, and Yellow Pear tomatoes are coming in and we have a limited supply of these tomatoes as well as a few heads of cauliflower this week.
Want to dress your salad in something special? How about trying Nasturtium flowers and leaves? They're high in vitamin C and reputed to contain a healthful ingredient that seems to mimic penicillin in warding off infection. The leaves, flowers, seeds, and stems are edible and have a peppery taste. Their common name is Indian cress, because their taste resembles that of watercress.
What’s New in the Greenhouse and in the Garden
We continue to add more herbs and perennial flowers to the garden for cutting, propagating, eating, and education. Sweet Annie will go into the plot behind the barn (see below) and the Chamomile and Sage now surrounds the front of the hoop house. We had help this week (thanks Jan B.!) with seeding more heat-resistant lettuces and herbs into seeding flats.
The “Cilantro Box” has been moved into a shady spot and filled with recycled potting soil, McEnroe compost (excellent!), and baby cilantros from the shade house. Cilantro isn’t a heat loving plant, but we certainly want this herb to go with all those great tomatoes that will be coming out of the garden during the hot summer. So we move it into the cooler shade, and keep it well watered. The 3’ x 6’ Cilantro Box was Ray’s first garden project at the farm (little did he know what he was getting into!) and served as his first season’s cold frame. The next year he put up the big greenhouse – the rest is (making) history. Now he never knows what project may await him when he gets home from www.thingshusbandswontdo.com !
Did you know?
Sweet Annie (Artemesia annua) keeps its sweet, basil and honey-like scent much longer than almost any other herb and is a great herb to grow in your garden for flower arrangements, wreaths, sachets and potpourris. Its fern-like foliage makes a wonderful 3’ to 7’ high backdrop for your flower or herb garden. Some folks grow this herb as a hedge to deter deer! Also known as sweet wormwood, it can be planted just once in a sunny location and it will readily reseed itself each year. However, it can reseed quite aggressively (ie. become a weed!) so you may want to harvest the branches as the mainstay for your wreaths and dried arrangement before Sweet Annie flowers. My mother’s name is Anne, and I remember my Grandmother and her friends calling her Sweet Annie.
If you would like to try Sweet Annie in your garden, we will have a flat at the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market on Saturday.
In the Garden
With the warm nights and hot days, the Basils are lush and ready to harvest. Our sweet Genovese Basil has been a popular seller for us at the Market this year, so we know you have a leaf or two ready for delicious Pesto. In case you don’t have a recipe, here it is! Remember, you can freeze Pesto to enjoy after the cool weather takes our fresh plants away.
Pesto Recipe
- 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup Olive oil
- 3 tablespoons pine nuts or walnuts
- 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
Place basil leaves in small batches in food processor and whip until well chopped (do about 3/4 cup at a time). Add about 1/3 the nuts and garlic, blend again.
Add about 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese; blend while slowly adding about 1/3 of the olive oil, stopping to scrape down sides of container.
Process basil pesto it forms a thick smooth paste. Repeat until all ingredients are used, mix all batches together well. Serve over pasta or in soups.
Basil pesto keeps in refrigerator one week, or freeze for a few months.
Check out this link
My friend and Windcrest Farm supporter, Frank C. from upstate NY sent me a great article originally published in the St. Petersburg Times called “Fixing the problems in our food supply is really a matter of taste”. If you have a moment to read one person’s perspective on the joys of fresh, local and tasty food, go to http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/18/Columns/Fixing_the_problems_i.shtml, get inspired, and join us on Saturday at the Market! (Frank, you are just going to have to visit again!)
At the Market – June 17th
The early morning conversation at the Market always includes the topic of RAIN! The last few weeks it went something like, “Did you get any rain in your part of the county?” “Did you get just enough this week to make you mad or enough to make you hopeful this season’s crop is going to do alright?” Well after Tuesday & Wednesday’s abundance of rain, listen for talk about what got washed away!
We will be bringing lots of herbs to Market again this week – both plants and fresh cut herbs while we wait for the tomatoes and blueberries to ripen. I will have rosemary wood for your grill dishes. If your cilantro has already bolted (gone to seed) we have your next planting ready. And the chamomile is starting to flower - now is the time to plant your tea garden. We also have salad pots and pesto pots for your patio or deck.
What’s New in the Greenhouse and in the Garden
Both the greenhouse and the hoop house have been cleaned out and are ready for our next round of planting. We took more rosemary and pineapple sage cuttings for the field this week and they are setup in our “propagation zone” (aka – around the kitchen sink) which supplies just the right humidity and daily attention.
We harvested a tomato sample – three lovely Romas! Can the rest be far behind? We are gearing up to start picking blueberries too. We’ll keep you posted.
Did you know?
With it’s applelike scent, easy care routine, and soothing medicinal virtues, Chamomile remains one of the world’s best loved herbs. Whether it is used in your landscape as a flowering ground cover or cultivated for medicinal use, chamomile is a worthy addition to your herbal collection.
Chamomile is a perennial herb that likes full sun to partial shade and light dry soil and blooms between May and September. If a few flowers are left un-harvested, chamomile will reseed. As a companion plant, herbalist of old called chamomile “the plant’s physician” because it contributed to the general health of the garden and if planted near an ailing plant, the sickly one was supposed nearly always to recover!
Chamomile has been shown scientifically to be very beneficial for treating ulcers and also to have anti-toxic and antibiotic properties. If you are using the herb for teas, harvest the flowers for drying when the petals begin to turn back on the flower disk. As a tonic for colds, headaches, nervousness, cramps, dizziness, gas, and indigestion, brew a tea 1 cup at a time, two or three times daily.
In the Garden
Our zinnias are giving us quite a show and every room in the house now has a vase full. If you are picking from your own flowerbed or getting beautiful blooms from Harriet at the Farmer’s Market, here’s a recipe for a cut flower preservative which supplies the nutrients and disinfectant to keep your flowers fresh in the vase longer.
2 cups nondiet lemon-lime carbonated soda
2 cups of water
½ tsp. bleach
Or
2 Tbs. white vinegar
2 Tbs. sugar
½ tsp. bleach
1 quart water
Check out this link
Need some cooking ideas for those herbs you have planted in the garden or for the freshly cut, fragrant herbs from the Market?
Visit http://organiclifestyles.tamu.edu/herbs/herbcooking.html. You will find recipes for beverages, dressings, vinegars, butters, dips, salads, soups, entrees, and more. Be sure to click on the “Hints and Shortcuts” link at the bottom of the page for tips on using and preserving your herbs.
If you have a favorite site you would like to share, please let me know!
At the Market – June 10th
We are in the transition between Spring and Summer produce. We will be bringing the last of our peas, carrots, and broccoli and waiting anxiously for the first of the tomatoes, peppers, squash, okra, and other heat loving plants. We will also have a few tomato and pepper plants as well as the Basils (sweet, cinnamon, lemon, and purple) plus other herb plants. It’s not too late to plant for late summer and early fall harvests.
For those of you with limited garden space or who would like to have a pot of herbs at your doorstep, we will be bringing beautiful herb garden pots, baskets, and deck rail planters. Each one is filled with an assortment of fragrant and colorful herbs ready for pinching.
What’s New in the Greenhouse
There’s not much to report from the greenhouse this week. Any tomato or pepper plant that does not find a home with one of you this weekend will either go out to the fields, be planted in a pot, or complete its cycle of life in the compost pile. It’s time to play outside!
Did you know?
Sage makes a wonderful addition to flower arrangements, whether it is in your flower bed layout or in your cut flower vase. Its silver foliage is a great backdrop or vase filler.
Most of us think of sage for our Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey, but its uses as a medicinal herb date back to Roman times. The generic name is derived from the Latin salvere which means “to save or cure” and salvia which means “the healing plant”. One medieval tradition said that the growth of sage in the garden indicated the prosperity of the household; business would thrive if the sage bush was flourishing, business was bad if the bush withered. Sage has been prescribed through the ages for everything from digestive disorders to stress to teeth whitening.
Sage is easy to grow in the garden and likes ordinary, dryish soil and plenty of sun. In the Spring sage is covered with beautiful purple flowers against the grey foliage. Plants should be replaced four to five years. Sage varieties also include a purple, white and variegated color.
In the Garden
We did get a couple hours of refreshing rain this week. Ray takes some credit because 1) he was working on the irrigation system PLUS 2) he gave me the $3 to get the truck washed = 3) RAIN.
We have the first blush of red on our Roma tomatoes! I highly doubt these will make it to Market, or even as far as the kitchen before they are eaten. Hey, this hard work does come with some privileges.
Out and About
This is our first year as a member of the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market. Preparations for the Market begin with this newsletter and deciding just what is ready to go on Saturday. Is the cilantro big enough to bring? Is the lettuce past its prime? Why didn’t I plant more peas!
On some Fridays I worry that I don’t have enough to take and on some Fridays I worry about how I’m going to get everything into the truck. I worry about the 4:30 am alarm not going off and not being set-up and ready for the 7:15 Market start bell. Is my display attractive? Is the farmer banner straight? Are my prices right? Did I bring that extra plant someone requested last week? Do I have enough change?
And then the first customer arrives and everything is alright. And the guest Chef chooses our carrots for the cooking demonstration. And my neighbor vendors are sharing their stories from the week. And I go home with a lighter load.
I love the Market!
Check out this link
If your interest is peppers, Cornell University has a great page called “A Plethora of Peppers” at http://www.plantations.cornell.edu/collections/botanical/peppers.cfm which has great pictures of the plants and their peppers. This was one of the first pages I looked at to decide what varieties we might grown here at the farm.
Please pass this on…..
We are interested in growing our mailing list – particularly with over 200 tomato plants in the ground that will be producing soon! If you know of anyone that would be interested in our newsletter, please pass it along.
If you have received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up for your own fresh copy by logging onto our website at www.windcrestorganics.com and click on the link for newsletter signup. I am working on posting past newsletters to the website.
I am also looking for some intern help here on the farm for a few hours each week. The pay is delicious (see note on tomatoes above) the work is rewarding (squash, cucumbers, herbs, flowers) and the environment beautiful. Its farm work (weed, water, weed, pick, weed, plant, weed) but it’s a labor of love and a great opportunity to learn about organic gardening.
At the Market – June 3rd
Thanks to all of you that have stopped by our booth at the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market and taken home our heirloom herb, tomato, pepper plants and blueberry bushes. Despite the lack of rain, we have heard from many of you that your plants are doing well. We still have a number of hot & sweet pepper plant varieties as well as tomatoes in gallon containers for those spots in the garden that have yet to be filled. We will also be bringing the first of the new Basil plantings – Genovese, Sweet, Purple, Lemon, and Cinnamon. All of these are excellent container plants as well as companions to tomatoes.
Fresh this Week
We began harvesting our carrots, broccoli and wonderful English peas. The peas have been shelled and are an excellent variety for freezing. We will also be bringing fresh cut herbs as well as our herb plants.
What’s New in the Greenhouse
In the hoop house, we began clearing out the last of the lettuce that was planted in February. The horses are thrilled with the discarded lettuce even though it is past its prime and they practically do dance steps for the carrot tops. It is hot work that is definitely planned for the morning hours. We will put in one more crop of basil and dill before a soil building cover crop in the late summer. Then we will be ready for a cool weather crop for the winter.
In the big greenhouse, the last of the peppers remain. Despite the fans, it is getting much too hot for any of us – plants or people - to be in there past noontime. During the summer, we will use it as a big dryer for herbs and hot peppers. The smaller greenhouse has its shade cloth on now and the herbs have been moved to this summer home.
Did you know?
Today, Dill is grown for its culinary pleasures, but in the 1600’s it was grown to ease pains and encourage sleep. Almost everyone is familiar with using dill in pickles, but it can be used for much more. Try dill to flavor vinegars, cabbage and bread or use it as a wonderful salt substitute for egg and potato dishes. Adding dill to softened butter or mayonnaise makes a great spread. Our favorite use for dill is for a fresh salad dressing:
4 parts extra virgin olive oil
1 part lemon juice
1 sprig of dill, chopped
Garlic salt to taste
Dill is easy to grow and will reseed itself next year.
In the Garden
We have been busy getting all the irrigation working. Last year we invested in irrigation equipment and only needed to use it twice, but by the looks of it this year, the investment will pay off. Ray spent a day trying 4 different pumps at the pond until he got one that produces enough water pressure to water his side of the farm. Now that those tomato plants have gotten a good drink they are growing fast!
Our farm is located off of Sandy Ridge Road, so named because we are on a ridge of sand that runs up from South Carolina. Our soil is a grand mixture of SC sand and NC clay and everything we have planted so far has done very well. But we still face the same pressures of weeds and pests as any other farmer and gardener. The weeds grow whether it rains or not and the dry weather seems to make the bugs hungrier. At least we don’t have the same problem as my friend Jan who says her farm grows rocks. (It does - we harvested some to build a firepit last fall.) Still, it is the most rewarding work I have done yet and each year we can’t wait for that first red tomato.
Out and About
I had to chuckle when I saw that Harris Teeter now has “Meet our Farmers” posters in their “Farmers Market” section. One of the farmers featured works 35,000 acres in Georgia for Harris Teeter. I’m quite sure he won’t have time to personally met you, but I know all of the farmers at the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market or the new Market in the Plaza-Midwood Community in Charlotte would not only love to meet you personally but can tell you exactly where the food they are bringing to market came from.
Check out this link
For those of you that have tomatoes in your garden, check out this link to the ATTRA – National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service publication called “Organic Tomato Production” at http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/tomato.html#table3. This is one of the most comprehensive and easy to understand fact sheet on raising tomatoes. Take a look at the topics listed on the right margin while you there. It’s got enough info to keep you “virtual farming” for a good afternoon.
A Product We Recommend
We have been using Green Light Fire Ant Control with Conserve® here at Windcrest Farm and have had such success, we decided to offer it to our customers. We have found it to be effective on all types of ants, not just fire ants. This press release from Green Light explains it all:
“Green Light Fire Ant Control kills fire ants and their queen, is labeled for use in home gardens (one acre or less), and does not require watering in. In addition, this product is listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) for use in organic production. Other advantages include the fact that it controls fire ants for up to 2 months and one pound treats 10,900 square feet or 22 mounds. It is formulated to kill the fire ant colony, helping to ensure the homeowner stops new mounds from forming – controlling the mounds you see plus those you don’t.
Conserve® is actually a naturally occurring bacteria and is the first in a new class of insect control products known as “naturalytes.” It breaks down in the soil, does not leach into ground water, and represents another step in a program of integrated pest management. Easy to use, odorless and long lasting, Green Light Fire Ant Control effectively kills fire ants while providing consumers with a fire ant bait that will not harm beneficial insects such as ladybird beetles.”
If you are interested in this product, please let me know. We have it in stock at $12.99 each.
At the Market – May 27th
We hope you will stop by Matthews Community Farmer’s Market for some fresh lettuce (3 varieties), spinach, English peas, radishes, and fresh herbs. We have only 3 blueberry bushes left this season!
It’s not too late to plant tomatoes, and we have several dozen heirloom tomatoes potted in 1 gallon containers that are ready to set in the ground. We also have hot and sweet pepper varieties, potting soil and planting tips that are sure to give you lots of your own fresh produce!
What’s New in the Greenhouse
Our Rosemary cuttings have rooted and have their feet in the dirt now and the Basils are growing quickly.
In the hoop house, the sunflowers we planted in March are ready to bloom, the carrots are coming along and the dill is gorgeous! But the spinach has had its day and we will be replacing it with some of the Basil seedlings from the greenhouse. Not to worry Windcrest spinach fans (you know who you are). There is more in the garden.
Did you know?
The common name Rosemary is derived from the Latin ros-marinus which means “dew of the sea” in reference to its favorite habitat near salty sea spray? Rosemary is a hardy soil and grows well in harsh conditions. Traditionally, rosemary was a symbol of friendship, love and fidelity. A rosemary wreath would be worn by a bride to denote love and loyalty. Our Rosemary should be ready for your garden in 6-8 weeks.
In the Garden
We are harvesting our Pioneer Shell Peas this week. This flavorful pea is SWEET and is a good freezing variety. Pick some up at Market and have a pea shelling party with your kids, just like you used to do with Grandma! We’ll be planting the Edamame next week.
We certainly do need some rain, but the tomatoes are still growing nicely and we still debate the best way to stake them up. There are three considerations – 1) trying to make time to stake over 100 plants in the Spring along with everything else going on, 2) what makes the easiest harvest, and 3) taking it all up in the Fall. Cages are off my list because it was so hard to harvest through them but Ray is going to give them another try on his side of the farm. I’m trying the “Florida Weave” with biodegradable twin and hoping my weave holds! We’ll keep you posted.
Ray’s okra seeds have sprouted so he’s a happy boy!
A Delicious Opportunity to Support Local Agriculture!
Join the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association and six local chefs for an evening of fine food and wine at New Town Farms, in beautiful Waxhaw, NC on June 3rd. You’ll enjoy a five course meal using only the finest local ingredients prepared by six of the most notable chefs in the Charlotte Metro Area:
Joesph Bonaparte of Art Institute of Charlotte
Blake Hartwick of Bonterra Restaurant
Tim Groody of Sonoma Modern American
Paul Malcolm of Johnson & Wales University
Bruce Moffett of Barrington’s Restaurant
Jim Noble of Noble’s Restaurant
Visit http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/calendar/CharlotteRegionalDinner.html for more information.
Check out this link
Ever ask yourself, “What’s that bug?” Well check out this link to the best pest (and beneficial) identifier I have found yet! (Trust me, I have search a lot of bug references!) It’s called appropriately www.whatsthatbug.com. It’s full of bug pictures taken by folks like you and me and sent in for identification. The pictures are so good you might feel a bit itchy after visiting the site!
If you have a favorite gardening site, please send it in and I will share it with our email list. And please feel free to send this note along to anyone you know that might be interested in naturally grown plants and produce.
At the Market – May 20th
Ray and I will be attending the wedding of our dear friend Shaun so we will not be at the Matthews Community Farmer’s Market on May 20th. I hope you will stop by for fresh lettuce, herbs and plants when we return on May 27th. (Only 3 blueberry bushes left!)
What’s New in the Greenhouse
We are in our next cycle of seeding and this week it was the Basils – sweet, lemon, purple and cinnamon.
Did you know?
Basil is a member of the Mint family and sometimes called St. Josephwort. It is a great companion plant to tomatoes, peppers, and asparagus. However, don’t plant Basil near your Mint because they attract the same pests.
Basil leaves can be used fresh or dried. Dried foliage loses color and flavor but can be used as a tea to aid digestion - use about 1 teaspoon dried leaf per cup of water.
Basil is best preserved chopped and frozen, or as pesto. If freezing pesto, leave out the garlic until you are ready to use it, as garlic has a tendency to become bitter after a few months. Basil keeps well in a glass jar covered with olive oil. Purple basil makes a wonderfully colored flavored vinegar.
In the Garden
We are harvesting Snap Pea Pods this week along with 4 varieties of lettuces, spinach, radishes, and fresh dill. It’s SALAD TIME!
The last of the first planting of tomatoes will be complete this week. At last count, we have 26 varieties of heirloom tomatoes! Next comes the peppers!
Ray has planted his okra seeds, and visits them every evening with words of encouragement. I’m waiting for warmer weather before seeding okra in the plot behind the barn. Let’s see who wins!
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