7/17/10
Peaches are now gone and tomatoes are about gone.  I was about ready to 
stop farmers marketing since I had only eggplant and peppers.  But then 
came the figs.  So, we'll stick it out another week or two.  Or three.
I shredded around the pears a week or so ago and found almost no fruit. 
Very odd.
The eggplant and peppers are well weeded and I'm starting on the okra. 
We sold our first two pounds of okra today and we should soon have more 
than I'm willing to pick.
Recent rains split almost all the tomatoes and promoted fruit rot.  
Outstanding for crack resistance was SunMaster.  That's a variety whose 
seed is no longer being produced. :-(

6/27/10
I was expecting a laborer to show up by the middle of June.  He has 
not, so now I'm making plans to do without hired labor.  Fortuitously, 
the okra planting is not doing well.  That's probably due to complete 
lack of in-row weed control.  I may (or may not) plant only a few rows 
of peas rather than tens of rows.  No cantaloupe or watermelon have 
been planted.  If I plant any, it will probably be for our own use.
We are finishing up the last of the freestone peaches.  I was open 
yesterday for a single day of advertised PYO.  I was disappointed to 
sell only about 15 gallons; that's really not worth my time to deal 
with the pickers.
I've considered shutting down production for the season after tomatoes 
go out but I have a lot of peppers I would have to abandon.  Maybe I 
will or maybe I won't.
The tomatoes are doing fairly well but they should reach their end in 
another couple of weeks.  I'm struggling to keep the eggplant and 
peppers watered and weeded but they are looking good.  Not yet 
producing much.  Since the old diseased blackberries did better than 
expected, I will give them a little care; I'm trying to find time to 
shred them down along with the weeds in the next few days.

The Sunset Valley Farmers Market has been a great disappointment this 
year.  It did pick up a bit yesterday.  Due mainly to not selling 
enough at SV, we have been doing the Sunday Hope market.  That's about 
1100 E5th.  Right now, we are selling big tomatoes, Juliette tomatoes, 
tomatillos, jalapenos, bell peppers, peaches, potatoes, onions.  Coming 
are eggplant, okra, and habaneros.

6/1/10
We've been picking a few tomatoes; I expect good volume soon.  
This time last year, we had a lot of squash.  None in the near term 
this year.  That's due to asparagus demanding my attention when I 
needed to be working on the squash planting.  I did get the okra 
planted a couple of weeks ago and it is coming along.  I still need to 
plant cantaloupe and watermelon.  We have a small potato crop which is 
about 60% dug.
Blackberries were a pleasant surprise.  We seemed to have peaked out at 
about 6 gallons a day, up from less than one gallon per day last year.  
New blackberry planing is doing poorly AGAIN; may have to re-plant AGAIN 
this winter.
Except for brown rot, peaches have been doing well.  I was picking 
asparagus when I should have been putting fungicide on peaches.  We're 
losing at least half the peaches to brown rot.  We finished the first 
variety, FlordaKing, and are almost done with GoldPrince and Delta.  We 
have a nice looking crop of SouthernPearl (our first white peach) which 
we are just starting.  The first freestones, LaFelciana and TexRoyal 
should be along in a couple of weeks.  Generally, my peach trees are 
declining and will be gone in another year or two.

5/4/10
We just finished up a phenomenal asparagus season.  It'd be a great 
crop.  If it didn't have to be picked.

We will start picking FlordaKing peaches in the next day or so.  With 
the asparagus to be picked, I haven't found time to plant everything 
that needs to be planted.  Tomatoes are within a couple of weeks of 
producing; eggplant and peppers are in the ground but a long way from 
producing.  I badly need to seed okra and squash.  And watermelon.  And 
cantaloupe.

Old blackberry planting looks just a bit better this year than last.  
We may get a few out of it.  The new blackberry patch looks weak, but 
better than last year.  Potatoes, inter-planted with the new 
blackberries, look pretty good; we will dig a few in the next week or 
so.

Our drought ended a few months ago; most of our tanks have spilled.  
And spilled.  And spilled.  The next drought has now begun.

I spent much of the winter cutting dead trees both to keep them from 
falling on the road and for firewood.  I had been claiming that 20%-30% 
of our native trees were dead from the drought.  Now that everything is 
leafed out, it is obvious that the loss is at least 50%.  Very sad.