12/26/3
The year ends with a bang!  All my labor is gone and I have no 
immediate hope for replacements.  I have a large supply of onion 
transplants I am struggling to get into the ground with my own labor.  
Significant quantities of spinach are still a few weeks away and I can 
only hope that pickers arrive before the spinach is ready to pick.
I was surprised this morning to find some cauliflower ready to cut.  
Not very pretty, though.  Also, some broccoli is close.
 
12/14/3
We have had several freezes in the past few weeks.  Tomato, pepper, 
okra, basil plantings are gone.  A few bell peppers are left in the 
cooler and a few green-picked tomatoes.  Very little rain, about 3/10" 
a couple of days ago.  A week ago, I rented a bulldozer and built an 
island in the new tank.  Before it catches much water.
Just made the third spinach planting.  The second looks good, but we 
are a ways from picking.  We are picking on the first planting, but it 
has suffered from heat, drought, and grasshoppers.  Baby salad mix is 
selling fairly well and we are keeping it cut short.
Planting onion sets (from Franklin Zieschang).  Also, more broccoli.  
Older broccoli should be producing, but is not.  It got burned in a 
freeze several weeks ago.  Dry pepper sales continue slow.  Supply is 
great!  All jalapenos have now been dried, about 400 lb.  Plans call 
for far more potatoes and onions than in previous years, about 2 acres 
of each.

11/22/3
Had conditions been better, we would be seriously picking spinach now.  
We picked a couple of bushels a couple of days ago.  More recently 
planted spinach doesn't look bad.  We got 1.35" of rain a few days ago. 
Very welcome.  At the Westlake market, we are selling a "baby salad 
mix" that is made up of mustard, spinach, arugula, and mizuna.  Mache 
coming soon.  I just had a left-over bag of it for supper; pretty good! 
Dry pepper sales are disappointing: 3 $1.50 bags in four weeks.  I 
continue to dry them and build stock.  At current sales rate, I have 
about 8 years worth.  Even though we have not yet had a frost, the okra 
is giving up.  Peppers continue.  Very few tomatoes.  Broccoli is close.  
I think.  We are looking at two possible freezing mornings in the next 
three days.
    I've been thinking that a weekly ladder fall might be good for 
general toughening up.  About three weeks after my first ladder fall, 
I'm now thinking that monthly is probably often enough.  Healing time 
for broken ribs seems to be more than three weeks.

11/8/3
Hot dry weather continues to hinder spinach development, though we do 
have some that is almost pickable.  Mustard is doing well.  If only it 
would sell well.  Same for arugula.  Still getting tomatoes trickling 
in.  Sold the first of the green beans at Westlake today.  I'm drying a 
bunch of red jalapenos that would otherwise be lost; hope to sell them 
through the winter.  And beyond.  
http://austinfarm.org/homegrown/drypepper.html
Safety note: use only ladders that are in good condition.  I fell about 
six feet off of a rickety ladder.  Cut my scalp, broke a rib, sore for 
a week or more.

10/31/3	
Summer time is here again.  Low last night was above 70 deg.  80-90 deg 
days.  I replanted spinach a couple of days ago.  I expect little from 
it unless we get some cooler and wetter weather.  Heck, had I known we 
were gonna have this kinda weather, I would have cantaloupe, 
watermelon, and more peas and tomatoes in the ground.  Still no green 
beans.  Few peas and tomatoes.  Starting to pick some mustard.  Peppers 
continue to do well.


10/26/3
How time passes!  I've had people demanding more of my sterling prose.  
Well, one guy.
Recent hot, dry weather has squashed my dreams of early spinach.  Not 
to mention grasshoppers.  My first two acres is just about gone.  I 
hope to re-plant in the next few days.
Those wonderful June planted Sunmaster tomatoes continue to supply a 
few gleenings.  Multi-colored bells and jalapenos continue to produce 
well.
Have I mentioned that I have direct seeded two acres of onions?  The 
hot dry weather has taken a toll on them; it is not yet clear whether 
it is a successful planting.  In past years, I have run out of both 
potatoes and onions long before they reached the end of their storage 
lives.  Next year, I hope to have a much better supply; I plan to have 
at least two acres of both.  We are currently preparing fields for 
potato planting, though they will not be planted before February.  
Transplant onions will go in about the same time.
Plantings for winter production of broccoli, cauliflower, brussel 
sprouts, radish, mustard, arugula, turnip, and some funny asian greens 
seem to be doing pretty well.  These are modest sized plantings: 20' to 
about 500 feet of row per item.
Peas are now doing very poorly.  Rust.  Grasshoppers.  Green beans 
don't look too bad; we should be picking some in the next week or so.
Okra has continued to produce fairly well; this cooler weather should 
slow it significantly.
Blackberries are doing fairly well; I'm trying to find time to prune 
them.  Right after the fruit was harvested in June, I mowed all the 
older rows; those rows will be lower next year and will have less 
production potential.  That loss will be offset by newer berries 
maturing.  Since this past season's exerience, I'm reluctant to make 
berry production forecasts.  In April, I though that a freeze had taken 
95-99% of the berries.  At harvest time it was evident that I had at 
least half a crop.  We had about 1700 gallons last year; I hearby 
overcome my reluctance and forecast 2000-4000 gallons for next year.

10/5/3
We are only gleening tomatoes, now.  A half bushel at a time.  Sure 
wish I had planted more in July.
Asparagus has slowed, also.  Rainy weather has caused a lot of rust in 
the new purple hull peas, but we are picking a few.
I'm now planing on growing some winter stuff for the Westlake market: 
broccoli, cauliflower, mustard, onions, carrots as well as spinach.  I 
planted the first of the spinach a week or so ago; some of it is up.  
Just seeded an acre of onions.  Transplanting broccoli.
Okra, bell peppers, and jalapenos continue to produce fairly well.
Sales at farmers markets are way down, primarily due to short supply.  
I am making almost no grocery store sales.


9/23/3
Tomatoes continue to trickle in.  The next planting of peas (purple 
hulls only) are looking promising; they should be along within the next 
two weeks.  Peppers continue to produce well.  We have a few spinach 
rows prepared; the first significant cold front that comes in, in they 
go.  Cantaloupe are gone.  Watermelon are gone.  Some green beans are 
up, they are about 40 days away.  We continue weeding and pruning 
blackberries.  Asparagus is the big news; recent rains got it all 
excited and we are picking 5-10 lbs a day.
The WIC program coupons will expire at the end of September.  With 
that, many farmers markets will cease: Elgin and Killeen for me.  I 
have already dropped South Austin Farmers Market due to other problems. 
Georgetown re-starts 9/25/2003.  We will be doing only Sun City, 
Georgetown and Westlake after the first of October.

9/14/3
We continue to get just a few peas.  Very few.  A recent rain of 3.75" 
gives hope that recent plantings may produce though they look sparse 
right now.  Tomatoes are past their peak, but it looks like they may 
last another week or two.  Peppers have picked up now that the heat of 
the summer is past.  Okra continues to produce more than is easy to 
sell.  We have run low on pears so we are picking the remaining few on 
the trees.  BTW, I got a couple of messages on my telephone answering 
machine, the first telling me that the caller was on her way to pick up 
pears, the second telling me that they had arrived but could find no 
one here.  Neither leaving a call back number.  I remind the reader: we 
are open by appointment only; you are likely not to find me if you 
arrive without an appointment.  I hope to start preparing fields for 
spinach planting in the next week or so.  I guess I have already 
started; I shredded several fields of spent crops.  Next step will be 
herbiciding surviving vegetation.  Then, cleaning bed tops down to bare 
soil.  Sprinter update: the odometer seems to be accurate; I believe I 
am getting 23-25mpg.  Sales remain very good for us at Sun City, South 
Austin, and Westlake.  I will be at the Fall opening of the Georgetown 
Market 9/25/2003.

9/4/3
Peas ARE "over the hump".  We are getting only 20-40 lb/day.  Tomatoes 
are peaking.  I hope.  Lots of canning tomatoes available.
I'm a bit deflated on the Sprinter; it seems the speedometer/odometer 
is about 10% fast.  Meaning I am probably getting about 10% lower 
mileage than I thought.
I had something of a disaster about a week ago.  I got home from 
somewhere in the evening and found my big walkin not running.  There 
was more stuff in it than would fit in the small walkin and the 
temperature was already up above 60 deg.  I called Stephens Electric 
in Lockhart and he came right out and diagnosed it as a bad 
compressor.  He put one in the next morning and I was back in business 
before noon.  But, $1100 poorer.  A step forward and two steps back.

8/31/3
The peas have been abundant for the past week or so.  Lots more, but I 
think we are "over the hump".
We have a good supply of tomatoes and I can tell you that it is a real 
pleasure to sell them in the absence of any competition.
Okra, otoh, is selling relatively slowly and we are cutting back on 
it's picking.
I have become a Sprinter evangalist.  I just love it.  Last tank was 
24.6 mpg.  I met the Killeen Dodge dealer at the Killeen Farmers Market 
Friday; he told me that they are in the process of handling the Dodge 
version of the Sprinter.
We did exceedingly well at the South Austin Farmers Market yesterday. 
and poorly at the site of the Round Rock market.  We will be doing 
South Austin probably at least through the end of September.  We will 
continue doing Westlake, Elgin, Sun City, and Killeen both Tuesdays and 
Fridays.

8/21/3
A reader points out that I have been neglecting this news column.  And 
so I have.
Recent photos:

Though we have been just about out of tomatoes for a couple of weeks, 
we are on the very verge of having a good supply.  This due to a fairly 
mild July which allowed tomato fruit to set on plants that were planted 
too late in early June.
We have a whole bunch of peas that have been thriving in the absence of 
deer depredations.  We are just starting to pick and will probably be 
supplying all comers in a week or so.  For the next few weeks, we will 
continue to try to get peas planted.  Then, it will be time to prepare 
for spinach planting.
Cantaloupe have been producing very well, far more than we've been able 
sell.  I just hope they slow down before the walkin cooler is full.
Okra is producing well also.  Another selling challenge.
We got 1.25" of rain about two weeks ago.  It's all gone and we are 
again irrigating heavily.
Peppers have hit their mid-summer slump, though we continue to get a 
small number.
I bought a new Ford pickup a few months ago.  I then noticed the vans 
being driven by UPS and FedEx and researched them.  Mercedes with 
Freightliner labels.  2.7L diesel engines.  I bought one.  See above 
photos.  First two tanks gave me 24.2 and 23.3 mpg.  Except for the 
height, it is the PERFECT vehicle.  For me.

8/3/3
No rain since the last post here.  And no prospects.  It has finally 
gotten hot, near or above 100 each day.
Everything looks pretty good, though.  The earliest plantings of 
tomatoes have petered out and the latest have not yet started producing 
well, though they look very good.  Watermelon have been a 
disappointment; they must have a disease.  I still have hopes for the 
last planting.
We're picking pears.  We've picked and sold almost all of the asians, 
only twenty boxes or so.  Our best fresh eating pear, Warren, is about 
picked; looks like 6-8 boxes which is far more than we have had before. 
Should I mention that Warren is very shy in bearing?  Lots of Orient 
and LeConte to go.
Okra is finally picking up; we are getting about a bushel a day now.
Peppers are doing very well.  We are picking about 10 bushels of the 
multi colored bells a week and several hundred pounds of jalapenos.
About three acres of recently planted cream and purple hull peas look 
very good (protected from deer by the new fence) and should start 
producing in a few weeks.  Today, I planted about 2 more acres of 
purple hulls; that will probably be the last planting of peas for this 
year.  Old cream peas are still producing about 10 lb every second day.

7/17/3
Claudette missed us!  Gave us less than .2".  :-(  We're irrigating a 
little bit right now and resume full scale irrigation in a few days.
Our Caldwell County tax appraisal appeal board is made up of land 
owners; they turn out to be much more reasonable than the appraisers.  
I will not be forced to turn my land into trailer house lots.  At least 
until the appraisers get around to again considering me.
Blackberry plants are recovering very well from their traumatic mowing.
We continue to get VERY pretty multi-color bell peppers.  Okra 
continues to disappoint; we are getting 3-10 lb/day.
We picked our first red seedless watermelon the other day; we sampled 
one.  Fantastic quality.
Cream peas are producing fairly well; we are meeting farmers market 
demand and selling a few to grocery stores.  Newly planted cream and 
purple hulls are doing very well with recent rains.  We are trying to 
stay ahead of the weeds.
We recently unsatisfactorily concluded a legal conflict with Home 
Depot; I would be pleased to inform interested parties of the details.  
I can recommend against doing any business with Home Depot.

7/7/3
RAIN!  Not much.  1/2 inch here, 1/4 inch there.  Less than 2 inches 
altogether.  I got about three acres of cream and purple hull peas 
before and during the early part of the wet period; they are all up and 
we look for a good supply in about 60 days.  We are also picking some 
cream peas; the wet weather is making them ugly.  Peppers are producing 
well, both multi-color bells and jalapenos.  We've given up picking 
green beans, but we are starting to get a bit of okra, about 1 peck a 
day.  First mowed blackberries have sprouted back and are growing well.

7/3/3
The tomatoes are finally picking up in volume and I'm selling 10-15 
boxes at a time to grocery stores.  Appearance is disappointing: small 
and lots of blemishes.  Our later tomato planting does look very good 
and we hope for August tomatoes from it.  
Our berry pick Sunday was 1/2 gallon and I mowed most of the rest of 
the older rows.  
We picked our first bushel of cream peas Saturday; it looks like they 
will be coming in at the rate of about 1 bu (~10lb) every two days, not 
enough to supply grocery stores or farmers markets.  We are in the 
process of making our major pea plantings that we should be harvesting 
in about 60 days.
Two evening showers the past two days!  A total of about 1".  I turned 
the wells off.
This is our busiest time of year; from about mid-May until late 
July, I generally put in 6 or 7 14 to 16 hour days each week.  Truck 
farming is not very financially rewarding, so it irritates me when those 
that do not work hard for a living, yet are well paid, are able to 
put stumbling blocks in my path; especially at this time of year.  
Caldwell County puts pressure on it's property owners to turn their 
land into trailer house lots; they do this by levying property taxes 
that can not be paid from proceeds from agricultural endevours.  
However, the State of Texas mandates that counties valuate land in 
agricultural use according to it's productive value.  The counties, or 
ultimately the courts, are tasked with determining if land is being 
used for agriculture and, if so, what it's agricultural value is.  I 
contend that my 180 acres is in agricultural use.  Caldwell County 
contends that it is not.  Several months ago, I received a request for 
my 1040 Schedule F from the Caldwell County Appraisal District.  I 
spent about 1/2 day locating the tax return, getting it copied and 
delivered to the District.  A few months later, I got a notice that my 
"Ag exemption" had been denied.  I have an "appeal" scheduled with the 
"review board" for July 10.  Let me paint this picture:  a District 
"appraiser" works around 40 hours a week; he/she drives a new fancy 
air-conditioned pickup truck or SUV.  He works either out of his 
fancy vehicle or his air-conditioned office.  He receives a fixed and 
presumably generous salary for his efforts.  To justify his salary, 
he attempts to victimize people like me.  People that make little 
money, people who are at high risk of actually loosing money on crops, 
people who are forced to drive old trucks and use old equipment, people 
who work long hours in harsh conditions for no fixed pay.  Should I be 
outraged?  I am. 

6/28/3
The berries are very nearly gone, I plan to mow down most of them 
today.  Oddly for this time of year, we have little to sell.  Tomatoes 
are slow, ugly, and small.  We are STILL trying to get okra 
established.  We are getting very few cream peas.  We are between 
squash plantings.  We did about 4 boxes of La White peaches and have no 
more to look forward to.  Peppers, both multi colored bells and 
jalapeno, look very promising; but, we are not yet getting many.
The first planting of watermelon, seeded "Sugar Baby", is about gone 
and we are several weeks away from production of the first seedless 
planting.  We did finally get all the potatoes dug; yield was 
disappointing, but not surprising.  As usual, I have not been able to 
keep all the figs well watered and we have had significant leaf and 
fruit drop; figs should be starting in the next week or two.  We are 
picking a few butter beans, but are finding them difficult to sell.
We are still getting a few green beans; we have had a very poor crop.  
We do have a crop of late tomatoes that is looking VERY good; we are 
staying on top of the weeds and watering where berry picking prevented 
good care of the earlier crop.  Inspection of the pear crop reveals 
that we have had significant damage to the Asians from fire blight.  As 
usual, Orients will likely produce a very big crop.  It looks like the 
startling high quality Warren will produce it's biggest crop ever, 
though a small amount compared to other varieties.

6/20/3
Very busy here.  Blackberries are still hanging on, though we closed 
several days ago for PYO.  Yesterday was our lowest pick in about 5 
weeks: 13 gallons.  We have been selling just a few tomatoes, I expect 
it to pick up in coming days.  We are getting some very pretty 
multi-colored bell peppers and some very nice jalapenoes.  Second 
squash planting is producing now.  Been getting some Sugar Baby seeded 
watermelon; the first planting of seedless watermelon is still weeks 
away.  Second planting of seedless watermelon is in.  Over the past two 
weeks, we have gotten about 2.5" of rain.  It is about gone now and we 
are about ready to start irrigating again.  Within the deer fenced area 
we are getting some deer damage on peas; I need to start closing the 
gate at night; I saw one come through the gate during daylight a few 
days ago; it jumped the electric fence as I was shooting at it.  
Getting some coyote or coon damage to watermelon within the electric 
fence.  Still haven't dug all the potatoes, hope to do that day after 
tomorrow, Sunday.  Still struggling to get a good stand of okra.  Still 
trying to find time to get a bunch of peas planted.  Been picking a few 
cantaloupe.

I baled about 600 bales of weedy hay off of about 20 acres last Fall 
and have recently applied it as mulch to peppers.  All that hay off of 
all that land mulched only about 1/8 acre of peppers.  Grass is much 
better now; I need to get out there and turn it into baled hay.  No 
time.

6/7/3
GOOD Eatin': Randall's sesame seed bagel, sliced, buttered, toasted 
and topped with a 1/2" slice of tomato!  Randall's has unusually good 
bagels.  We picked about 1/2 bu of tomatoes yesterday; sent them to 
Round Rock Farmers Market.  Our first tomatoes are mostly Bingos; they 
are very big (bagel slice sized), poorly colored, but very good.
Berry production remains surprisingly good, we picked over 60 gallons 
yesterday.

6/5/3
Berries continue to produce well, but the end is in sight.
We've gotten a handful of tomatoes.  It is time to dig all the 
potatoes, but haven't gotten around to it.
Today's big news is 1.3" of rain.  Turned off the irrigation wells.
Yesterday, I picked up the last of the watermelon and tomato 
transplants.

5/30/3
It seems like a month since I last posted here.  The berries have been 
very demanding of my time, the past few days we've been getting 60-80 
gallons a day.  It has been taking until 3pm-4pm to get the picking 
done.
To supply early demand, we have been plowing out one row of not quite 
mature potatoes at a time.  We did the third row yesterday.
I picked the first tomato two days ago; others do not look close; I 
expect to be surprised.
Green beans have picked up to about a bushel every two days; that's far 
less than my farmers market demand.
Same deal on sweet corn, we've been selling it at farmers markets for a 
week but could sell much more.  Much more is coming.
In spite of the dry (three months without significant rain), crops look 
pretty good.  We have trouble getting seed up, but, once they're up, 
they do fairly well.  We are still trying to get a significant stand of 
okra.
My neighbor's cows have been coming in through a weak place in the 
fence.  They were after my relatively lush coastal bermuda and not 
bothering crops, so I didn't get excited about it.  A couple of days 
ago, they broke some plastic pipe and left me with little water 
pressure.  When I discovered the problem I had a delivery commitment, 
so I had to leave the irrigation system down for about half a day.

5/25/3
Starting about the first of May, my website host has given me a great 
deal of trouble.  They have garbled maillists, moved to different 
servers several times, had austinfarm.org offline for long periods of 
time, disrupted mail, and been very uncommunicative.  This is 
dzones.com; I recommend steering clear of them.  I just switched to a new 
host, Plesk/DBHosting, and so far they have had austinfarm.org offline 
about 50% of the time; they are not very communicative either.  Maillists 
are still in a state of flux and we may miss some newsletters next week.
The Rosoboroughs and Brazos are just about gone; Chickasaws and Kiowas 
are producing.  Today, we were to 40 gallons and will clearly be 
increasing in coming days.
We sold a bit of sweet corn last Thursday in Georgetown; we ate our 
first of the season for supper tonight.  It was GREAT!
We have been digging only enough potatoes to sell for the past two 
weeks.  The plants are declining and it will be time to get serious 
about digging soon.
Tomatoes don't look great, though we have some fair sized fruit.  They, 
along with everything else, are suffering from insufficient water.
We don't have any significant amount of okra up.  Again, lack of water. 
We are re-planting and trying to get some water on it.
Green beans don't look great either.  Can you guess why?  Poor 
germination and lack of water.  The deer fence protected beans are, 
however, producing; we are selling a few bags here and there at farmers 
markets.
Onions are all pulled and stored in the barn.

5/17/3
The Rosoboroughs and Bazos are past their peak; we are now down to 
about 20 gallons a day.  Chickasaw and Kiowas will be starting in a few 
days, when they get going, we will see our highest production of the 
season, probably 50-80 gallons a day.
Green bean and squash production is picking up just a bit.
The electric fence is up and working all the way around one area.  
Beans in that area are un-touched while beans out of the protected area 
are heavily damaged by deer.  I guess I need to concentrate my bean and 
pea plantings inside the fence.
We've picked about 1/2 box of FlordaKing peaches spread out over three 
pickings.
We are harvesting the largest part of our onions now.  There are a 
many!
I plowed out a row of potatoes; it yielded only about a bushel.  When 
they are mature, we should get 5-10 bushels per row. 

5/13/3
We are covered up with blackberries!  The past few days we have been 
picking between 30 and 40 gallons a day.  What a poor blackberry 
prognosticator I am!  We are now open daily for PYO from 8am until 9am 
and later if we have business.  Since I have mostly Kiowas and they 
have not yet started, production is almost certain to pick up in coming 
weeks.
I've started digging just a few potatoes for farmers markets.  Squash 
and green beans are low yielding, but should pick up soon.  Tomatoes 
are still a long way away.
There was a lot of rain all over Austin yesterday, I was delivering in 
it.  Just a light sprinkle here, though.

5/7/3
The blackberries are coming along a bit better and earlier than 
expected.  The first pick was about three gallons Monday (5/5/3); 
yesterday (5/6/3), it was five gallons.  We expect a pretty good supply 
at farmers markets in the near term.  It is still uncertain when we 
will open for PYO; we need to get up to around 20 gallons a day to make 
PYOers happy.
My web hosting service has been having trouble.  If you notice anything 
not right while browsing, please let me know (thanks, George!).  
mckemie@austinfarm.org does not work, please use mckemie@spamcop.net in 
the near term.  Maillists are in considerable disarray.  I hope to get 
things straightened out within a week or two, but my time is short 
right now.
We got 1/4" of rain yesterday.  First in 70 or 80 days.  That's not 
enough to slow down irrigation, though.
We are still pulling carrots as needed, we are selling more and more at 
farmers markets.  We have a good supply of onions; it looks like that 
will continue for months.  I hand dug a few potatoes; I may dig a few 
more, but I need to let them get a bit bigger.
I have green beans planted both in a semi-protected area and in an 
un-protected area.  Deer are leaving them alone in the former and 
eating them in the later.  We plan to pick green beans for the first 
time today.
The first squash pick was a couple of days ago.
FloridaKing peaches are showing some color.  I'm guessing we will have 
about two boxes of them.
I picked up the first batch of seedless watermelon transplants 
yesterday.  I hope to get them in the ground soon, though we are still 
cleaning up the areas where they will go.

5/1/3
The Brazos and Rosoborough blackberries are turning red!  That means a 
week or so until picking begins.  But, they are sparse.  Experience 
tells me that PYOers have a low tolerance for sparse, so we are still 
at least three weeks away from offering any for PYO.  Look for them at 
farmers markets first.
We have a few surviving peach fruit, mostly FloridaKing and LaWhite.
Potatoes are starting to bloom, we can start digging a few soon.
Onion tops on the most recently planted onions have fallen over; they 
were planted too late and have made generally small bulbs.  We have 
picked them up and are curing them.  About 1/4 of the crop, the 
remaining 3/4 are making larger bulbs, but the tops have not yet fallen.
Tomatoes are blooming a little and there are some fruit out there.  In 
spite of the dry conditions.  We haven't had any significant rain in 
two months.  I'm pumping out of three of my four wells.  I have about 2 
acres of tomatoes in and hope to get in another two acres in the next 
two weeks.
Green beans are doing fairly well considering dry conditions.  Deer are 
eating them and they have not come up uniformly.
We are within a few days of picking zucchini.  Corn looks good, but is 
several weeks away.  The first watermelon planting (seeded only) is 
doing well; the first seedless planting is scheduled to go in in about 
two weeks.
Some cream peas are up and we continue to plant them.
Some okra is up; I expect we are more than a month away from any fruit.
Asparagus has slowed a bit.  We are struggling to get some water on it.
The electric fence is about 80% complete, but construction is suspended 
pending bulldoze work on some brush.  The bulldozer arrived yesterday.


4/22/3
We sold the last of the spinach last Saturday, three days ago.  40,252 
bags all together.  Maybe 1/3 more than our previous best spinach year.
The blackberries are looking up a bit.  The Brazos and Rosoborough are 
through blooming and the current estimate on them is about 10%.  Other 
varieties (Kiowa, Chickasaw, Apache, and Shawnee) continue in their 
bloom period.  Kiowa may be around 5%, but Chickasaw and Shawnee are 
about 50%.  I have relatively few Chickasaws and Shawnees, 
unfortunately.
I have a few FlordaKing, LaWhite, and LaGold peaches, maybe 5-10% of a 
crop.  But that's better than nothing.
Tomatoes are coming along, but not yet blooming.  Potatoes have buds 
and will be blooming in a few days; that means we may be only a couple 
of weeks from digging the first few.  Planting conintues on tomatoes, 
peppers, beans, and peas.  I planted the first Cream peas a few days 
ago.  The electric deer fence is under construction and should be 
complete in a week or so.
Sweet corn is coming along well; I have it planted over about a four 
week period and hope it will produce over an even longer period.
Squash, cantaloupe, and some seeded watermelon are up but nowhere near 
production.  First seedless watermelon are scheduled to go in in about 
three weeks.
With the spinach gone, we are going into a slow sales period.  We're 
selling onions, carrots, and asparagus.  Next will be potatoes and 
squash, then, blackberries.
We are teased every few days with rain possibilities, but we are 
irrigating around the clock from two wells.
Concurrent plantings:  We are harvesting carrots from spent spinach 
fields that were seeded with carrots and spinach together.  We are now 
planting those same fields (with some carrots not yet harvested) with 
green beans and okra; the green beans will be harvested and gone by the 
time the okra develops just as the spinach was harvested and gone by 
the time the carrots were ready for harvest.  The draw back to that 
kind of planting is that the spent spinach must be hand pulled (and the 
beans and okra must be hand seeded) to preserve the inter-planted 
carrots.  The spent green beans will not need to be hand pullled, 
though.  The inter-planted okra will shade it out.

4/12/3
Spinach continues to trickle in, but the end is very near.
Blackberry plants continue to look very good; there are some berries 
out there, but very few.  I also notice some peaches, again, very few.
It's dry; we started irrigating fairly seriously a few days ago.
We continue to plant tomatoes, though planting into dry soil slows the 
planting.  Will start planting peppers in the next few days.
We have the second planting of corn in and have re-planted the frozen 
portions of the first.  Onions continue to look good.  As do potatoes.
We've only been picking the second planting of arugula for a couple of 
weeks and it is bolting; we picked the first planting several months 
during the winter.  I plan to make a third planting soon.
We have hand pulled spinach and hand planted beans in two fields.  I've 
inter-planted okra in those two fields also.  Four crops in two 
plantings: spinach plus carrots followed by beans plus okra.
The electric fence guy is supposed to begin work next week.  He may 
have to wait to complete the job since the bulldozer guy is not 
expected for another week and a half.

4/5/3
It's been almost a week since the freeze and I took a good look at the 
fruit situation.  Reports from Fredericksburg are that the peaches are 
almost all gone and that seems to be the case here, too.  Though I have 
some very old LaGold trees that had set a good crop, most of my trees 
are only a couple of years old.  So, it's no big loss.  More 
distressing is the damage to blackberries.  It looks like 90%-95% are 
gone.  I'm guessing that we will have approximately the same number of 
berries as last year.  I am now planning on being open for 
pick-your-own only about two days a week.  Suprisingly, the spinach was 
significantly damaged by the freeze; perhaps 20%-30% of the leaves were 
rendered un-marketable due to freeze burn.  This will probably be the 
last week for spinach.
OTOH, asparagus has recovered from the freeze and is producing well.  
We've gotten all the frozen tomatoes re-planted.  It's getting a bit 
dry; if we don't get rain tomorrow, we will start irrigating.  Potatoes 
are FINALLY coming up well.  Onions are bulbing and looking very good.  
Last year, we had grasshoppers eating most all of the onions.  We 
continue to pull carrots from the exhausted spinach fields and have 
prospects of having a great number.

4/1/3	
We had a fairly severe freeze last Sunday morning.  Very radiational.  
Figs surrounded by brush were almost un-touched; everything in the open 
was heavily damaged.  I estimate mid 20s out in the fields.  Very nearly 
all the planted tomatoes were killed (including ones under 5 gallon 
plastic buckets) along with 90% of the sweet corn.  Potatoes were burned 
almost to the ground. Some spinach, acclimated to warm weather, was 
burned.  Much fruit on blackberries and peaches was killed, we won't 
know how much for a week or two.  I expect that the first week or two 
of blackberry production has been destroyed.  The pear fruit appears ok 
at this time, but there is probably much damage there too.  We were only 
a few days shy of our record late freeze of 4/2 or 4/3.
Spinach is suffering from high daytime temperatures; we have three 
un-picked fields left and I hope to get some production off of them in 
the next couple of weeks.  At this time, I estimate that spinach will 
be gone by mid-April.

3/23/3
The cool weather has returned and the spinach no longer seems to be 
immediately threatened.  We started picking the next to the last 
planting, two fields.  Remaining un-harvested is the last planting of 
three fields.
Cool weather has slowed, but not stopped, the asparagus.
The first planting of sweet corn is up.   I've got about two acres of 
green beans planted, some are coming up.  Potatoes continue to straggle 
up.  Tomatoes are growing very slowly.  Second planting of arugula is 
doing well; we are picking flower buds from the first planting.
Wild dewberries are blooming profusely.  Brazos blackberries are just 
starting to bloom; other domestic blackberries will bloom later.  
Prospects for a very large blackberry crop remain very good.  I intend 
to be open for pick-your-own most mornings beginning sometime mid to 
late May.
Most of the european pears are past full bloom; asian varieties will 
bloom later.
Figs have sprouted; they seem to have suffered no winter damage this 
year and seem to be in no danger of getting frozen back this season.
I am back up to nine pickers.
Deer devastated bean and pea plantings last year; I've had little 
success thinning them.  I meet with a fencing contractor tomorrow.

3/16/3
Still bad weather for spinach, though we're supposed to cool in a few 
days.
Asparagus is coming up profusely.  I'm sending 35lb to Westlake this 
morning; that's about 4 picks.  Grocery store sales are lined up for 
next week.
Disaster in labor.  I returned home from delivering in San Antonio this 
past Wednesday and found only 5 of my 12 pickers working; the 7 missing 
ones were drunk.  I had to cancel a large delivery to the Dallas area 
scheduled for the next day.  The drunks are now gone, so I have 
insufficient labor to keep the spinach picked; I guess it is just as 
well that it will be soon declining.
A dry period, contrary to forecasts, has allowed me to get all needed 
cultivation done.  On to planting; I hope to get some green beans 
planted this afternoon or tomorrow.

3/12/3
Spring seems to have sprung.  We've had several days with night time 
temperatures above 50 and day time temperatures approaching 80.   Bad 
for spinach!  We are still only 1/2 way through the crop.  Potentially.  
There are two fields approaching first pick and three more fields that 
are about three weeks away from first harvest.  We are still making 
deliveries to San Antonio, Houston, and DFW.
We have had a very wet period; I was able to get into the fields about 
three days ago for the first time in two weeks or more.  Potatoes are 
starting to come up again after their icy experience.  Likewise, 
asparagus.  We planted the first tomatoes several days ago.  And the 
first of the sweet corn.  We've been trying to get fields prepared so 
that the first of the green beans can go out.  Onions continue to look 
good.
All of the spinach fields have been planted with a spinach and carrot 
mix; we are now pulling some carrots from the oldest spinach field; 
many more to come from the other spinach fields.
I recently received seed that I need to get to my transplant grower; 
that includes yellow tomatoes and a multi-color bell mix that we were 
pleased with last year.
Twelve pickers.
Some markets have opening dates set.  Sun City will open April 9.

3/1/3
Last week we had two icy days; spinach was covered with ice almost all 
of both days.  I had to turn back from a delivery trip to Austin.  
Spinach seems to be un-damaged.  I delivered one load to Houston last 
Sunday and have another scheduled for tomorrow.  Took a load to Ft 
Worth and Plano yesterday.  9 pickers right now and we are not keeping 
it thoroughly picked.  Last planted three fields are germinating.  All 
except the oldest field looks very good.  Truly, a banner year for 
spinach.
I had 10 flats of tomato transplants sitting out during the ice; not 
covered well enough, I lost 4 of them.  The ice put a stop to the 
asparagus, it should be back in another few days.
Arugula and mustard is bolting; I have a bit more arugula seeded, but 
it is 4-5 weeks from producing.  Plenty of bok choy left, but it is 
selling poorly.
I pulled a few green onions this morning for sale at the Westlake FM.

2/17/3
We had a very heavy frost this morning even though the temperature at 
the house was no lower than 34 deg.  During the spring, summer, and 
fall we have little time to devote to weeding asparagus; we do try to 
get the asparagus fields cleaned up at this time of year.  We mowed and 
burned the last couple of weeks.  Since the frost knocked down the few 
asparagus spears that were up, I went out this afternoon and applied 
herbicide to the weeds and ran the cultivator between the rows.  The 
asparagus fields look very good!  If only it would last.
We planted the last of the potatoes and onions yesterday and got 
another arugula patch seeded today.
Spinach continues to look good and produce well.

2/14/3
Potatoes are coming up!

2/11/3
Some cold, wet, miserable weather just past.  More wetness in the 
future.  We seem to have settled in at about 3000 bags of spinach a 
week.  Very high production by historical standards.
Got all the asparagus fields burned and mostly plowed.  I hope for a 
good freeze to kill off the scattering of asparagus that is not worth 
picking so I can hit the remaining weeds with some herbicide.  There is 
a lot of plowed loose bermuda in the asparagus that needs to be picked 
up; doubt that I can devote any labor to that task.
Arugula is bolting; I should have planted more weeks ago.  New seed 
came in, maybe I'll get more arugula planted soon.
Winter farmers market meetings are in progress.  I hear that the Health 
Dept is pressuring farmers market associations to allow peddling to 
satisfy WIC demand.  Does not bode well for the legitimate honest 
farmers markets.

2/2/3
Things are moving along.  Finished the 5th spinach pick two days ago, 
will start the 6th tomorrow or the next day.  The oldest fields are 
starting to show their age.  We are keeping up with the picking due to 
the abundant labor supply.  Set a spinach production record for January, 
about 6000 bags.
Ray Menke did his first Westlake market for me yesterday with spinach, 
arugula, mustard and bok choy.  A pretty good market in spite of the 
negative impact of the Columbia disaster.We finished planting the 
potatoes yesterday; I may get a few more bags to finish the last six 
rows in the field.
With the recent mild weather, the asparagus could start popping up any 
time now; I need to get the fields burned right away.
I plan to make probably the final spinach planting in the next few 
days; probably three more acres.
I placed a seed order this past week: beans, beets, arugula, seedless 
watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, squash, and probably some things I've 
forgotten.

1/23/3
Started the fifth spinach pick yesterday.  We are near to continous 
picking; it looks like we may be doing around 20 boxes a day.  Every 
day.  Crop continues to look VERY good.  There was little to no 
damage from the freeze five days ago.  We are looking at another 
mid-20s freeze tonight.
Planted potatoes and more onions a couple of days ago.  Ten rows of 
potatoes, maybe 1/3 of the total.

1/18/3
Will deliver the last of the fourth spinach pick this morning: 67 boxes 
altogether.  I don't believe we have previously produced that volume 
as early as January.
Had a freeze (29 deg) night before last and it is 24 deg as I write 
this.  Hope for little spinach damage.  I am reminded of last year's 
devastating freeze the first of March: 17 deg at the house, colder in 
the fields, young spinach killed outright, all exposed spinach leaves 
ruined, we were out of the spinach business for about three weeks.
Labor is in good supply.  Good moisture.  Just got two more fields 
seeded to spinach.  Total of 8 acres, I think.  One more planting of 1 
or 2 acres in another week or two and that will probably be the end of 
it.
I picked up 1000lb of potatoes a few days ago; we should get started 
planting them in the coming week.  Potato field is nearly prepared.
Onions have recovered from transplanting and are starting to grow a 
bit.
I need to get busy ordering seed for the coming season.

1/7/3
Our third spinach pick was up considerably: 26 boxes.  Next pick in a 
few days.  We are getting a fair amount of arugula and mustard.  Just 
picked a few heads of bok choy yesterday.  Potato supplier is supposed 
to have seed potatoes available in a few days; will pick up on the 
second spinach delivery to San Antonio.  Spinach continues to look very 
good, aside from too many holes.  Onions are still recovering from 
transplant shock.  Near to getting the next spinach planting in.
I'm attempting to order some "fill in the holes" blackberries and 
peaches, but it may be too late.
Modest progress in digging for the rainwater collection system.  Good 
progress in cleaning up fields for planting.  No progress on deer.

12/23/2
We had our second spinach pick, a bit more than the first pick,  two 
days ago and delivered it yesterday.We expect a much larger third pick 
in about two weeks.  Mustard and arugula is also doing well; everything 
responding well to fertilizer, rain, and mild temperatures.
Got another spinach field planted day before yesterday; all previously 
planted spinach is up and looking well.
Last week, Franklin Zieschang called and offered to bring me some onion 
plants; I took six boxes and they are currently being planted.
Still need to prepare the potato field(s), though it will be nearly two 
months before it is time to plant; we expect to be overwhelmed with 
spinach at potato planting time.
I haven't seen any deer in the past two weeks or more.  Deer feeder 
drops corn on the ground, which the birds eventually eat; no deer 
tracks near the feeder.
Still no hard freeze, there are a few surviving tomato plants here and 
there and a few fig leaves that haven't been frosted.  Good for the 
spinach; hard freezes will damage and stop growth.

12/12/2
Spinach is popping up all over.  But, it's too wet to plant more.  Our 
first spinach pick yielded about 6 1/2 boxes; two boxes went to each of 
three stores on this past Monday.  Probably no more for another week or 
more.  Haven't located any potatoes and I haven't been willing to make 
a trip to San Antonio just for onions.  Deer have been maintaining a 
low profile, probably due to wet, foggy weather and lack of moon light.

I'm installing a rainwater collection system for household use.  If 
anyone is interested, ask.