News
1/12/12, Thursday
We've been eating kale, arugula, and spinach. Sold a little arugula.
All the greens are very nice; very little bug, wind, or freeze damage.
Yet.
Since the greens look so good, David has agreed to try the Lockhart
market next Saturday. That would be 1/21/12. He should have Tender
Green mustard, arugula, spinach, chard, kale, dividing onions, leeks,
and green garlic. There is no one but me to pick, so there will be
only modest quantities of each.
New asparagus crowns are due to arrive in late February. I haven't
done anything about getting blackberry or peach nursery stock.
1/2/12, Monday
A new year!
After the first freeze in November, I was able to devote three or four
weeks to cleaning things up and preparing rows for the next plantings.
We have arugula, mustard, kale, spinach ready to pick or near ready to
pick. No one to pick and no one to sell to, so we'll probably pick
only for our own use. In addition, about 20-30 more rows near ready to
plant. If I decide to plant anything. Due to my
wife's illness, we may travel next summer if she is able. I might try to locate
someone to take care of business for a weeks at a time.
No matter what, I plan to grow very little for farmers markets. I will
have a lot of asparagus (maybe as early as February and going to May)
that needs to be sold at farmers markets.
The two rows of zucchini froze while under row cover.
11/4/11, Thursday
Freeze last night. Looks like it got most everything. We had been
doing two farmers markets: Lockhart and Dripping Springs; we gave up
on Dripping Springs a couple of weeks ago. We got our normal Friday
picking done Thursday anticipating the freeze so we will have stuff
to take to Lockhart tomorrow but probably not afterward.
Most of my business all season has been okra and zucchini for grocery
stores. Mostly, that's all gone and I look forward to not having to
sell and deliver it. We did cover up two rows of young zucchini and
that could produce in a couple of weeks. Though it did get some damage
through the cover. We might be able to glean some stuff from dense
rows; I have tomato rows that are about 3' high and 3' wide. We can
see in a couple of days. Sadly, the big tomatoes were just starting to
produce their fall crop.
Sparse plans for the winter. A row of kale is up. Jean wants me to
do a row of spinach for our own use and I probably will. I enjoyed
doing some onions last season but demand was so low I plan to skip
them this season. I normally do some winter broccoli but demand for
it is low too.
Drought continues. A burn ban remains in effect. Most of our native
trees are dead and pose a fire hazard. In several months, we had one
rain of about 1.5" and, more recently, about 2.3". After the recent
rain, we were able to pick a little asparagus. No runoff from either
rain. A little mud in the bottoms of our tanks. A couple of months
ago, I had some bentonite put in the bottoms of two tanks. I eagerly
await a runoff rain to see if they hold water better.
With the experience of the 9/11 fire, I put some well water in one of
our dry tanks to make the water available for fire fighting. Pumped
about 50 gpm for about three days.
I have tentative plans to skip most growing for Spring and Summer and
do some traveling.