News
12/30/4
The year is coming to a close. For better or worse. It hasn't been a
bad year for us. Good to semi-good crops were blackberries,
persimmons, pears, and onions. OK were tomatoes, okra, peaches, and
peppers. We did poorly with fall tomatoes, peas, and potatoes. A
highlight of the year was Kitty Crider's mention of our blackberry
jelly; that really spurred sales at the Westlake farmers market. For
the second year, we are doing Westlake through the winter.
It is still dry; we are looking for moisture in the next few days. I
have about 1/2 of my onions in the cooler waiting for wetter soil.
The normal winter crops (broccoli, mustard, chard, etc) still have not
recovered from the freezes of a couple of weeks ago.
We planted some green peas a couple of weeks ago. It looks like birds
may have un-planted most of them for me; I won't know how bad it is
until I get some germination.
My main spinach seed order has been on back-order for several months; I
am buying relatively small quantities of not the desired variety as I
need to plant. I have planted 2.5-3 acres; all that is up and doing
well. About two more weeks until the first pick. Preparation for
planting is going well. I have about 2.5 acres ready for more spinach
and about 3 acres ready for potatoes. I'll check with my seed potato
supplier right after New Year.
Have I mentioned the new fence? Last year, I had Robert Martinez do a
pipe and cattle panel road frontage fence on the new land across the
road. When that came out well, I told him he could do the same to the
other (old) side of the road. So, he brought a bulldozer out, cleared
brush and the old fence, and put in a very nice new fence. I do have a
bit of "buyer's remorse" because it was quite expensive and produces no
income.
I just put in my third 40' shipping container / storage building. The
produce people at HEB Buda have been nice enough to save banana boxes
for me. I heavily use banana boxes to pack spinach; I might use as
many as 2,000 in a season. HEB Buda has been giving me 20-30 boxes a
week and I had filled the barn with them. They are now going into the
new container.
12/19/4
It is drying out. I am waiting for a little rain before planting the
next batch of onions. I have about 1 1/2 acres prepared for potato
planting; will start planting as soon as seed is available, maybe 2-4
weeks.
Hard freeze this past week did much damage. Froze back figs I was
planing to take cuttings from. Killed many of the broccoli transplants
that were waiting to go out. Burned plantings of lettuce, broccoli,
and mustard.
We are getting some green peas planted.
Most of the garlic is up and going well. Onions have not yet started
growing well.
Pre-Christmas blackberry jelly sales have gone well. I will almost
certainly have more made from part of next year's crop. My current
price barely covers costs, so I am contemplating a more appropriate
price.
Since Christmas and New Years fall on Saturdays this year, we will have
no Westlake markets for two weeks. So, we have no sales prospects for
the rest of the year.
12/7/4
Not much rain recently, but it is still plenty wet; some fields are too
wet to tractor in. Austin, I think, is reporting 20" above "normal"
for the year.
We are well into the the onion planting, about 4 of 10 boxes are in the
ground and we should finish those this week. So far, I have near two
acres of land ready to plant onions.
I'm now considering where to prepare to plant potatoes, which need to
go in in late January or early Feburary.
We had a great Westlake market last Saturday due to a glowing
recommendation of blackberry jelly written by Kitty Crider and
published in last Wednesday's Austin Statesman. Sold about 150 pints.
We also sold the last of the tomatoes, peppers, and okra.
"Winter" crops continue to do fairly well; we are making weekly
broccoli cuts and picking a little mustard and arugula. New hand-push
seeders came in last week. A Glaser does not work well, but a Earthway
does. Planted more chard, radish, and chinese greens.
All seed garlic is planted and I'm buying grocery store garlic to
finish out some rows. Birds are pulling some of it out of the ground,
apparently thinking it looks like grub worms.
Spinach planted about a week ago is up.
12/1/4
Writting this about 5am. It is about 30 deg; checking the weather
station data, I see that it has been freezing since about 2am. And, we
have about two more even colder hours before us. So, that makes this a
pretty thorough freeze; not much chance of any tomatoes, peppers, or
okra surviving. A day ago, when the forecast was more optimistic, I
decided not to do a salvage pick (pick immature stuff) yesterday.
We sold a little broccoli last Saturday and we will have significantly
more for this Saturday.
Day before yesterday, I got another acre + planted of spinach. A total
of about 2.5 acres, a bit more than 1 acre up.
Franklin Zieschang brought me onion transplants a couple of days ago;
we should start putting them in today. Ten boxes of 30 bunches, maybe
60,000. 5 boxes of 1015Ys and 5 of 1025s; the 1025s should be better
storage onions than 1015s. Most of the garlic is in, about 60lb.
Seed catalogs have arrived. Starting to plan Spring planting.
11/25/4
Just escaped a classic radiational cooling freeze: cold front blows in,
blows all day, stops blowing at dusk, clear. Low was only about 38, so
we are still looking for our first freeze.
We have had about 7 inches of rain the past week. 100% humidity
between rains; everything has been wet for many days. Thoroughly
ruined already ruined tomatoes.
Spinach is up. Finally. Looking for dry enough conditions to make the
third (second successful) planting.
Worms eating lettuce, broccoli, mustard, etc.
Planting garlic, will soon get onion sets.
Okra is down to a pound or two a day. Peppers are still fair. Going
to pick the first broccoli in the next day or two.
11/14/4
No freeze. Yet. Not even close. It has been cool enough to bring the
okra almost to a halt.
Tomatoes are way past their peak. Mostly ruined by wet weather. I
believe we will, however, have some tomatoes until the freeze.
I abandoned the first spinach planting and made the second.
11/2/4
Election Day.
We got another 1.5" of rain yesterday. :-( And a cold front just came
in. :-( Temperatures approaching freezing this coming week. :-(
But that should make good spinach planting and germinating weather. I
would go out and plant spinach if we had any solid ground anywhere.
We are getting a fair number of tomatoes, maybe 5 boxes a day of #1
grocery store tomatoes a day. And about 10 boxes of #2s which we throw
out or sell too cheap.
Purple Hulls are about done.
My weather software quit working back in June and I didn't have time to
try to fix it. Think I just fixed it. Let me know what is wrong. I
think it uploads every 15 minutes whenever my internet connection is
up.
10/22/4
For those (if any) reading this to keep track of canning tomatoes:
We got a couple of bushels today; we hope to sell most of them at the
Westlake Market tomorrow. Our next pick will be Monday (10/25/2) and I
expect to have several boxes of canning tomatoes available by Monday
afternoon. After Monday, there should be plenty of canning tomatoes.
The hail marked many of the tomatoes but the fruit was young enough
that the scars have healed without rotting. For the most part.
The unseasonable heat we have been having has kept orka production up;
it will decline as soon as temperatures return to "normal".
He are finally getting some nice looking bell peppers. This is normal
behavior for bells. They produce shyly in the spring, struggle through
the summer, getting a lot of sunburned fruit, and then do well in the
fall.
Purple hull pea production has picked up a bit.
10/19/4
We got another 2+" of rain a few days ago. Along with a thunderstorm
and some hail. Lots of big tree branches down, lots of little dings on
tomatoes, lots of shredded leaves. Outhouse near blackberry patch was
blown to pieces.
Tomatoes are STILL not producing well; we are getting less than 1/2
bushel per picking, mostly dinged or rotted. With wetness and hail,
the plants look less good.
We have been picking some mustard, arugula, and radish.
First planted spinach still not up.
Potatoes: maybe 5% emergence. maybe less. Just enough to keep me from
planting spinach on top. Spring potatoes are now completely sold out.
We are STILL gleaning onions from storage. Even as I make plans for
winter onion planting.
Persimmons have produced this year better than any previous year. I
haven't been counting, but I suspect something like 50 boxes.
I just got my second bad check in 20 years:
Cynthia M Rentel
4600 Nckols Crossing #2001
Austin 78744
512 445-7469
Account closed, she has moved.
Cost me the amount of the check ($6) plus a $7 fee.
10/8/4
We got 3" of rain last Saturday, 6 days ago, and none since. For three
successive days, I tried to plant some spinach; by the third time, it
was finally dry enough for the planter to work. I got about 1/2 acre
planted; two more acres are ready to plant. Still no potatoes
emerging; that acre will probably become spinach.
Tomatoes continue to look good; no significant number turning red yet;
probably within the next week.
Purple hull peas are producing a little, maybe 100lb/week.
I'm astonished that we are still able to find some salable onions.
But, we are.
I'm down to two field hands from four. That helps cash flow but limits
production.
Winter crops are progressing; we transplanted some broccoli, mustard is
growing well, chard, beets, radish, etc are readily visible.
9/28/4
Muddling along. Tomatoes look very good; still several weeks away.
We've been picking purple hull peas about a week; quantity and quality
is disappointing. We continue to clean up sprouted onions. Less than
a week's worth of potatoes left. Still salvaging a few ripe pears out
of the coolers. None of the potatoes planted more than a month ago are
up. Planting a little arugula, mustard, beets, chard, etc. No spinach
planted yet; cold front due in a few days, will probably start spinach
planting as soon as it cools down. Okra is still producing, but is
selling poorly. Farmers market sales are poor. Grocery store sales
are poor. Labor expense remains high. Just bought $3K worth of drip
tape and about $1.4K worth of chemicals. Bah! Humbug!
9/4/4
Doldrums continue. Cash flow is alarming. Tomatoes are doing well;
there are plenty of small green tomatoes out there. Still several
weeks away. Pears are plentiful, sales are abysmal. Peas continue to
disappoint; some purple hulls are near to blooming. We continue to
glean a few saleable onions from the large stock of sprouts. We have
several rows of potatoes planted and we got several more fields burned;
they will mostly become spinach fields starting in another couple of
months. A few days ago, I went from five working tractors to three.
One apparent bad rear wheel bearing, one broken tie-rod end. Price of
new Mitsubishi tie-rod end is $110; I will fabricate something.
Weather has been abnormally cool and normally dry.
8/17/4
Doldrums. Weekly labor expense is approaching weekly sales.
Peas are producing almost nothing. Cool weather has slowed the okra.
We are getting a fair amount of pepper. Got about two acres of
tomatoes in; the oldest are blooming. SHOULD have tomatoes in 5-6
weeks. We continue to plant purple hull peas, but are still having a
hard time getting them up even though we continue to run sprinklers.
I plowed out 12 rows to plant leftover #2 potatoes. Maybe we will
have potatoes in October or November. Onions are (is?) the real sad
story. They are mostly sprouted and un-saleable. I should have
stored them colder; with another month, I could have sold most of
them. We have several thousand pounds that will have to be thrown
out. Thinking about preparing fields for the first of the spinach.
Mowed a bunch of head-high weeds and I'm looking for an opportunity to
burn again.
8/4/4
Burning went well, we got about 4 or 5 1 acre fields burned. The fire
department did come out to see if our "controlled burn" was really
"controlled". We are approaching the point where burning will be too
dangerous. But it feels so good to put the torch to all those insects.
We now have a hole in our pea production. And I have many disappointed
customers. Even irate. "You said you were going to have peas
continuously!". The first two plantings of (cream) peas are about
finished; the third planting failed; the fourth (purple hull) is in the
ground (burned area) but emergence is spotty due to dry conditions.
We are running sprinklers trying to get them up.
"Juliete" small roma tomatoes continue to produce some; all large
tomatoes are gone. The new planting of tomatoes looks good; they are
on the verge of blooming. We have most of the first batch of about
4,000 tomato plants out and I go today to pick up the second batch.
Pepper production has picked up. Still only fair production of okra.
7/20/4
George Vandervort has been after me to update this again; he's a
slavedriver!
Blackberry production is now down to a small fraction of a gallon a
day.
We did get one row of tomatoes planted in a freshly burned field. We
have several more fields to try to get burned before the fire hazard in
native brush becomes high. I want to let stuff sprout back in the
burned areas, then herbicide it again before we plant more.
Peas planted several weeks ago have not come up. We are picking quite
a few cream peas from the first two plantings; that should continue for
another week or two. Then, we will have a hole in our production.
Okra continues to pick up; we are getting about a bushel a day.
We continue to "scrap" for tomatoes; we get a couple of bushels every
couple of days; REAL sorry things. If it weren't for the money, I'd
be ashamed to sell them. :-)
Fig production is not too bad, we are getting 2-8 gallons a day.
It is very dry and we are irrigating seriously.
We haven't picked any pears yet, but we will just any day now.
Peppers are not producing much, but show some promise.
A week or so ago, I found a watermelon that a coyote (or coon) had been
after; we started closing the gate on the electric fence at night in
hopes of keeping the coyotes out. Deer have not found their way to the
peas through the open gate.
After the wet weather ruined all the tomatoes, I thought I was in good
shape on labor. But, one of five guys left and we are struggling to
keep up with the peas.
7/10/4
Well, it sure hurts having almost no tomatoes at this time of year!
We are into figs now. Again, a disappointing crop. On the other hand,
some of my neighbors have fair crops ("appointing" crops?). That would
be Billy Hanks and Lupe Natal; I'll put their contact information under
my "friends and competitors" link.
I just hauled a load of tomato transplants; we will be putting them out
over the next several weeks.
Peas are suffering from lack of spraying; they are very costly to pick
over.
Blackberry production continues, but continues to decline. Two gallons
today.
Much of our moisture is gone. We started irrigating peppers yesterday.
Pears should be starting soon.
Okra is finally picking up a bit; we got about 1/2 bushel today.
7/2/4
Yesterday was the first non-rainy day we've had in a long while. Gary
Rowland opines that yesterday was the first day of the next drought; I
will not argue otherwise.
On the tomatoes, even the #2 are gone now. We have no prospects for
any significant number of tomatoes in the next couple of months.
Only okra and other weeds have responded well to the rain; we hope to
have much better production in the next few days. We did get some very
pretty yellow bell peppers today; prospects are good for the other
multi-colored bells as well as the jalapenos.
6/28/4
The blackberries are near enough to their end that I declare: no more
PYO.
Heavy and frequent rains have just about done in the tomatoes. So far,
plenty of #2s left though.
We are starting to get some very nice "Conchos" jalapenos. Deep, dark
green and very large.
Cream peas are doing fairly well, though we are not yet selling any
wholesale. Okra is picking up, but very slowly. Again, no
wholesaling yet.
Peaches are about gone.
6/20/4
We are no longer keeping "regular" hours, though we still have a good
supply of blackberries. Contact me for an appointment.
Supply of tomatoes remains good.
I think we will pick the first of the cream peas within the next
several days.
We picked the first of the jalapenos a few days ago, only a couple of
pounds. It will be several more weeks before the supply improves
significantly.
Same deal on okra. We are picking a pound or two a day.
6/14/4
One more week on U-Pick berries; we will cease regular hours after
6/19/4.
I think we now have all the onions in. Wet soil has prevented digging
the rest of the potatoes; they are probably rotting.
We have some pretty nice white peaches coming in; I haven't sprayed
them with either insecticide or fungicide this season and brown rot is
ruining many. Tomatoes and berries threaten to overwhelm us.
6/9/4
Persistent rains have greatly enhanced our supply of #2 tomatoes.
Though the supply of blackberries remains very good, PYO demand has
been disappointing. We will remain open from 9am through 11am daily
through this weekend. Then, we will probably go to "appointment only"
hours.
Following rain, I was able to get the watermelon transplants out.
Both potato and onion harvest is suspended until things dry out.
This is not the time to ask a fruit and vegetable grower "Aren't you
happy to be getting all this rain?" A very large fraction of the
tomato crop has been ruined due to fruit cracking and we will be seeing
much more tomato disease problems in coming weeks. We missed a whole
day of berry picking and many berries have been ruined from the water.
Almost certainly, onions and potatoes are rotting in the ground as I
write this. For at least several days, it will be too wet to cultivate
or do any other tractor work in the fields. But, the weeds are loving
it!
6/3/4
Things roll on. Time remains extremely short. We are not keeping the
berries thoroughly picked as we try to get the onion and potato harvest
under control. As we approach half of the onion harvest, we have about
20,000lb in the barn. When it was about half full of 50lb bags of
onions, I turned on the big walk-in cooler and set the thermostat to 50
deg. We have about 1/3 of the potatoes in. I did get a fair supply of
containers for potato storage. Three neighbors are working nearly full
time in the barn cleaning and packing onions and potatoes. Watermelon
transplants are starting to vine as I try to find time to get them set
out. Other crops, peppers, tomatoes, okra, peas, are being overwhelmed
by weeds. Tomatoes have begun to trickle in and threaten to become a
flood.
5/27/4
It's been busy around here! I have a couple of opening day photos I've
been intending to post for more than a week. PYO berry business has
been generally disappointing. Most days, my attendant labor cost
exceeds sales. Except for Saturday, of course. I remain short of
labor and we are leaving the less valuable crops largely un-picked.
That includes carrots and green beans. I'm still struggling to get in
the tremendous onion and potato crops; we have only around 10% of each
in. Storage containers and harvest labor are both problems.
I've had watermelon transplants for a week now and have not found time
to get them set out.
We had an all-time record day at the Westlake Farmers Market last
Saturday.
I picked the first of the tomatoes yesterday, about 15lb.
The webpage problem seems to be resolved; we have been up for about a
week with no interruptions.
5/16/4
Opening day! And I'm only semi-prepared. I went to mow the blackberry
area yesterday and snapped the PTO shaft off my big John Deere tractor.
A semi-major repair. I got another tractor with a sickle-bar mower
going and got the mowing done, though.
I just learned that Kitty Crider gave me a mention in Wednesday's
paper; I didn't see it. I ask anyone who finds it convenient to bring
me a copy. I believe she mentioned my URL. Which was down at the time
:-(
Since I'm short on labor, I sent out a newsletter a couple of days ago
offering pick-your-own potatoes, green beans, carrots, and onions. The
price is $.25 per pound plus a $4 sur-charge for each item. Blackberry
prices are $7 for a 5 quart box, $6.50 if you bring back one of my
boxes. Picked berries are $15/box.
5/14/4
Well, it's been a trying week. Austinfarm.org has been down, due first
to troubles with the host, then with the domain registrar. I THINK
things are working now with a new host; please let me know if they are
not.
Good news is that the blackberries are coming in well. Bad news is
that I don't have labor to keep them picked. We have stopped picking
green beans in order to pick the maximum number of berries. Zucchini
is about to start, but we may not pick it. We have frighteningly large
amounts of both potatoes and onions we need to get in.
Our first pick-your-own blackberry day is day after tomorrow, Sunday,
and it looks like there will be plenty of berries.
We got about 1.5" of much needed rain yesterday.
We've been getting a fair quantity of FlordaKing peaches the past
week.
5/6/4
Cool weather has slowed the blackberries. None for Sun City day before
yesterday. Two pints for Georgetown today. We will not open 5/9/4; we
WILL open for pick-your-own blackberries 5/16/2004. We should have a
good supply by then.
Green bean harvest was better than expected; I hope to have a good
supply for about three weeks. We have two rows of pintos, so if you
like pinto green beans, ask for them.
We are now pulling onions and allowing them to "cure" or dry.
Peaches are still not producing much, about 30 lb yesterday.
5/3/4
A bit more rain Saturday, day before yesterday; we're looking at a dry
week, though.
The blackberries are about to hit the fan. We expect to pick a few
this afternoon for tomorrow's Sun City market. I expect to open for
pick-your-own next Sunday; that would be 5/9/4, I think. Recent cool
weather has probably slowed the berries a bit.
I picked a few FlordaKing peaches two days ago; we should be picking
many in the next few days.
I dug a whole row of potatoes last week, Wednesday I think. Got about
400 lb. That should do us for about a week, then I will dig another
row.
We have some fair sized green beans; will probably pick some in a
couple of days.
Onion tops are falling over; that means it is near time to pull them.
We are using the wet conditions to try to get the tomato planting
finished off.
4/27/4
Well, it was wet Sunday and Monday. Did the crop photos today.
4/24/4
Another near perfect rain last night and this morning, about 1 1/4 in.
No run-off, no soil washing. We were dry and had started irrigating,
but now we are fixed for another week. If you are watching the weather
station: the monitoring software quit working and missed the rain
event. It is working again. I think.
I did probably the last disking of the blackberries yesterday. And saw
some red ones. I expect to be able to pick a few for farmers markets
in the next week and then, probably, be open for pick-your-own in about
two weeks.
I hand dug about 30lb of potatoes a couple of days ago. I plan to plow
out a whole row next week; that will put us in the potato business. We
had a fairly good spinach week; we produced about 800 bags. We're not
done yet, but I expect less this week.
Small green beans are not hard to find in the field; probably another
two weeks on them.
This past week, I planted about two acres of cream peas and a fraction
of an acre of cantaloupe. We continue to plant tomatoes. I hope to
get started transplanting the colored bell peppers next week.
FlordaKing peaches are showing a little color. We may get a few in
about a week and probably have a good supply in about two weeks.
Asparagus continues, but is past its peak.
I'll probably take and post crop photos again tomorrow.
4/17/4
Recent cool spell has slowed growth. It was a blessing for the last
spinach planting, though. We are again picking spinach fairly
seriously. The coldest morning we were down to about 38 and there was
some frost on dry grass. No damage to anything, though.
Everything continues to come along very nicely. Some onions are
starting to fall over. I am hand digging a few potatoes. Second
planting of green beans is well up. Okra is up. Some gourds are up.
I plan to plant the first of the southern peas this coming week. We
continue to try to clean carrots out of spinach fields to free them up
for more planting. Berry pinching continues; I am almost keeping up
with them. We have about three acres of tomatoes in the ground and
about 1/4 acre of jalapenos.
I plan to take and post more crop photos tomorrow. They will probably
be there by the time you read this.
4/11/4
I had intended to do another batch of crop photos today, but the
weather is nasty; I'll do it in a day or so. We have been getting very
nicely spaced not-to-heavy rains. Including today. This is the kind
of weather that will ruin many near-to-harvest crops, but is much
appreciated at this time of year.
Crops continue to progress very nicely. I planted about an acre of
okra and 1/2 acre of gourds about a week ago, they are both coming up.
Second planting of green beans is up. The first planting is close to
blooming, meaning we may be only about three weeks away from beans to
sell. Tomatoes are doing very well.
I dug a few potatoes (less than a bag) day before yesterday and sent
them to yesterday's Westlake market (which was fantastic). A few more
next week and then we are in the potato business. Onions continue to
do well, there are some 2" ones out there already. We continue to thin
the ones that are too closely spaced and sell the thinnings in bunches.
We have started picking the last spinach planting. I don't expect it
to produce much or last long. Before the cold front came in yesterday,
it got up to 92 deg. Cool weather over the next few days will help the
spinach. And slow down the other stuff. I plant carrots with spinach;
as the spinach goes out, we pull carrots. Right not, we're trying to
get all the carrots pulled from the oldest spinach fields to make way
for following crops.
I have pinched back new growth on all the blackberries. This is a
never-ending task this time of year, we try to do it at least once a
week. The pinching creates a dense hedge which will bear next year's
fruit. The nice, easy to pick, surface set of this year's fruit is a
result of last year's pruning.
4/3/4
Just took (and posted) another batch of crop photos. Many peaches are
in dire need of thinning. Thinning is best done by freezes. Else, it
is very time consuming and costly. There is much blackberry fruit out
there; last year at this time, there was none. The freeze had taken
the first two weeks worth. I guesstimate that we are about 5 weeks
away from ripe blackberries. "Jericho" romaine lettuce makes it first
appearance in my photo gallery. It is the nicest that I've been able
to grow.
Last year at this time, the potatoes had been frozen back; this year,
we are within about a week of digging a few. It'll probably be 3-4
weeks before we dig very many. I didn't take a photo, but there are a
few potato blooms out there.
I did make my second planting of green beans a few days ago.
Today may be our last spinach picking day. OTOH, the last spinach
planting looks pretty good, though it is at least a week away from
producing anything. More than likely, the heat will ruin it.
3/31/4
In reviewing "News archives" I see that we had a very damaging freeze
about this time last year. Potatoes were burned, tomato plants killed,
many blackberry fruit aborted. Essentially ALL the peach fruit killed.
The blackberry crop turn out to be far larger than I feared in April
last year. But, everything looks good for this year. I expect
blackberries in early May along with the earliest peaches. We can
probably start digging a few potatoes in just a couple of weeks.
However, the 80 deg days have just about done in the spinach; we may be
out within a week.
The green beans are doing fairly well considering how weedy they are.
I'm trying to find time to make a second planting. I have not seen a
single corn plant; I assume my seed was too old.
3/27/4
MORE crop photos. Everything is looking good. With crossed fingers, I
say: "our chance of a late freeze is past".
3/23/4
Posted some new crop photos yesterday; check the "Photo Gallery".
FlordaKing peaches are beginning to excite me; I spent about a half
hour thinning on them. Spinach demand has slowed a bit and we've been
getting some tomatoes planted, about 1/2 acre so far. Beans are coming
up fairly well, but not yet corn. Onions are beginning to bulb and
the thinnings will soon be not saleable as "green onions". My domestic
blackberries are not blooming much yet but wild dewberries are in full
bloom. On the way back from Houston Sunday, I noticed some prime
roadside dewberries. Just east of Smithville. Details to anyone
wanting to pick them. I FULLY intend to REALLY disk my blackberries
tomorrow.
3/20/4
Having a hard time keeping up with spinach demand; labor is a little
short. I am delivering to San Antonio, Houston, and Plano as well as
Austin. The Sprinter has given me a peak of 29.97 mpg! And it
regularly gives me more than 26 mpg. I'm becoming fond of it.
We've got only a few hundred tomatoes out with many more waiting for
planting. Have to pick the spinach first.
I'm watching with anticipation for corn and beans to begin to come up
so I can make the second plantings. Last spinach planting is well up,
but very weedy. Blackberry plants are now very green but have no
blooms yet. I'm trying to find time to disk them.
3/14/4 Spring progresses. I just posted some crop photos; view
through the "photo gallery" link. We're getting a fair amount of
asparagus. Spinach is producing and selling very well. We are still
pulling some green onions and carrots. Got the first of the corn and
green beans planted. Green bean seed arrived a couple of days ago.
Every day brings us closer to the end of the freeze risk period.
3/7/4 Spring has sprung. Near 80 everyday. Most peaches are blooming
or past. Blackberries are sprouting and growing; they should start
blooming in a week or so. Spinach is producing well. Asparagus is
getting started. Tomato planting is progressing. I've finished
planting spinach and set up to plant beans. Then, discovered I have no
bean seed. So, I just planted a couple of rows of store bought pintos
to check out the planter. And ordered bean seed. We have more carrots
and green onions than we want to try to sell. Many potatoes are well
up. From now on, a freeze would do us a world of damage. My wife is
in Finland for a few weeks, so I am living a more primitive lifestyle.
2/29/4 (my watch tells me "3/1", but I THINK it's the 29th)
We sold the first of the season's asparagus yesterday at Westlake.
About 3-4 lb. I never did get the asparagus burned thoroughly; I did
mow it as it started to come up. We also had the first of the green
onions and carrots. I cut a few heads of very nice romaine lettuce,
but forgot to send them to the market.
STILL trying to get the last of the spinach planted. It is getting
late. Right now, we have a good supply of spinach and we are
struggling to keep it picked. A few aphids have cropped up in the
spinach.
We had a noticeable freeze a few days ago. It got most of the
tomatoes, even the covered ones. Most of the potatoes survived. More
and more peaches are blooming. I expect pears soon. We will get
serious about planting tomatoes as soon as the labor supply allows.
I got the blackberries disked about a week ago; they look very good,
though I need to get some pruning done before they start growing.
2/23/4
We planted the first of the tomatoes a couple of days ago. About 100
in the ground and about 2900 more waiting to go in. Potatoes are
coming up. Asparagus, also. We hope to have some asparagus for next
week's Westlake market. Spinach still has disappointing volume. We
are making a big push to get the last spinach planting in. If the mild
weather holds, we will probably try to get some green beans planted in
the next week or so.
2/15/4
We are at the end (I HOPE!) of a wet, cold period. A bit of snow
yesterday. No picking of spinach for several days. I picked up the
last of the onions today and they will go in soon. We haven't sold any
spinach to speak of in almost a week. I think we will have plenty of
spinach whenever we can get out to pick it.
The newly re-worked tank is full; it took only about 3" of rain, which
means the tank is too small. It takes about 10" of rain on saturated
ground to fill our older tank.
Big news: I fixed software for my new weather station to upload,
whenever my dialup connection is up, every ten minutes. Checkout:
http://austinfarm.org/homegrown/weatherhtml.htm
I will soon put in a link on the main page.
2/4/4
All the potatoes are in the ground; 1500lb plus some left from last
year's crop. About three acres. Spinach supply remains short; demand
is very good. Prospects remain good for later production. All
available big heads of broccoli have been harvested and we are cutting
only side shoots and waiting eagerly for the next planting to start
producing. We are picking a few brussel sprouts.
No MAJOR conflagrations while burning asparagus, though we had several
exciting minor ones. More burning yet to be done. It's always
embarrassing to have to call the fire department and we've avoided that
so far this season.
I've been using the new IH274 tractor; it works pretty well, though I
haven't yet gotten the middle cultivators setup.
We've been having some wet spells. Crops have enough moisture, but
there has been no significant runoff to replenish tanks.
I hope to soon get out and take some photos and then post them.
1/26/4
The weather has been kind to us recently: we've had about 2.5" of rain
over the past two weeks. Very little run-off. Recently planted spinach
is coming up. Prospects for a good spinach crop have improved. Labor
is now in good supply. Right now, spinach supply is relatively short;
we hope for an improved supply in about three weeks.
I hauled in a load of seed potatoes and we should be planting in the
next couple of weeks.
Planting of about two acres of onions is nearly complete.
We have been selling broccoli from the first planting for the past
several weeks and we continue to make subsequent plantings.
We hope to get the asparagus fields burned soon. Without starting a
major conflagration.
1/8/4
Glory be! Four laborers showed up about a week ago and we are selling
spinach. We are caught up planting broccoli and onions. Getting ready
to plant the first of the potatoes. Used the new tractor to cultivate
to-be potato fields. Did I mention the new tractor? A IH 274 that I
bought out of Pennsylvania. 20"+ of ground clearance with the 3-point
removed; common tractors have about 16" of clearance. Offset, meaning
that the engine/transmission is off center. About 30 hp. Primary
purpose is to cultivate crops later, when they are too big to get over
with a common tractor.
Still very dry. We got about 1/10" of drizzle today and .55" about a
week ago. No run-off; tanks are still low/dry.
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.