Apples and Peaches are Ripening At The Simple Farm . . .

. . . and besides our excitement of new triplet bucklings to care for and getting a new supply of fresh (raw) goats milk,  I'm looking forward to making a few peach and apple pies.  I've already made jars of confiture de peches {peach jam} for our market store.

Our farm has four kinds of peach trees and two kinds of apple - Anna and my fall favorite - Fugi.

What's growing at your urban farm?

Turning Ugly Into A Beautiful Garden Area

This past year has been quite the adventure!  We've spent the last year turning dirt and sticker bushes into spaces and places of beauty.


We've Michael has ripped out fences, torn up dirt, built barns, put up fences, moved dirt around, built raised beds, made little gates and a lot more to reclaim 9080 E. Cactus Rd (Scottsdale, AZ) back into the farm/ranch land it once was.

His newest spot of attention has been to redefine and redesign the center island area of the turn around on our farm. It's been ugly for the past thirteen years with what I'd say would have been hopeless for anything other than the pine tree and the big rocks.

Creativity flowed the day my husband stood staring at this ugly place {here}

Today Michael spent time on Ugly and he's slowly turning into a spot of sanctuary.  Stay tuned for part 3 pictures!

It's Going To Be A Big Event At The Farm - Vintage Market

Needless to say, we're looking forward to the big Barn (well, we have a small barn) Event we're having at our farm the end of this month (March 31, April 1 and April 2).

It's our first Vintage~Barn sale with about fifteen of the coolest vendors who love finding cool, old pieces of furniture and decor and restoring them into very, very, very cool pieces that you'd want for your home.  We'll have furniture, art pieces, vintage garden pieces, some antiques, vintage clothing pieces, vinyl lettering pieces, glass ware and more.

We will be having our Farmers' Market that Saturday - (April 2nd) with our gourmet, organic produce, Jill's organic peach jam, and farm eggs along, Michael's fresh juice bar and a fresh lemonade stand.

Items like these will be for sale during those three days.  I've taken borrowed these pictures from the blogs of the vendors - just to give you an idea of the kinds things that will be available.  These items are just samples and are NOT available - but they'll give you a good idea of the fun pieces that will be at our farm event.

One Thing My Farmer Husband Will Be Remembered For

I just happened to be outside preparing some areas for heirlooms and I just happened to have my little Canon in my pocket and I just happened to catch the beauty and joy of seeing my husband with two of his grandchildren.

And then this third little one wants a ride too!

I don't think they'll forget these days.

Kickn' It In

Today was a FULL day for Michael and I. We worked from early morning until about 6:45 and it's an understatement to say 'we're tired'....but feel good about our tired.

There's something right about good, honest, hard work knowing that in about 40-50-60 days we'll see the fruit of our labor.

I planted about 30 or so Black Beauty eggplant that have been growing in our green house. Michael worked on the irrigation for those eggplant as well as two new raised beds - which hopefully I'll get to plant bell peppers in tomorrow.

We both pulled a ton of weeds today out on the 'field'...that's what we call the area south of the vintage fence. I might add, that if ever you feel like helping out - weeds are always something we appreciate a hand with. It's never ending with those stinkers and as you can see we've lost the battle with the mallow on the east side of the property....but...not the WAR!  We had some help today pulling some and last week a few young men helped out too. That whole area has to get cleared out for melons and squash and things like that.

I also seeded some more beets, transplanted some kale and little lettuces to an area that might make them stay 'happy' a bit longer. Michael added some fill and dirt to a new area - just outside the fence on the east side of our drive. It seemed to be crying out for a ton of flowers and the desert spring mix of color that I had in my seed stash seemed to join in. For fun I tossed in some lemon balm, arugula and borage. Not sure why that crazy combo, but it'll be fun to see what comes up.

Tomorrow will be another very busy day: okra, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, egg plants are all on the list - we'll see what we get accomplished.

Now, all this to say - Michael and I really really really appreciate the support and encouragement we feel from the community that surrounds our farm. It means a ton to us!

What You Can Expect This Spring From The Simple Farm

Here's just a quick list of what  SOME of we've seeded (in our green house) and what's coming up!

Peppers:

Anaheim Chili

Bell Sweet Peppers

Sweet Asian Peppers (long and short)

California Golden Wonder

Jalapeno

Eggplants:

Long Purple Japanese

Black Beauty

Rosa Bianca

Squash:

Black Beauty Squash

Cucumbers:

Mirella Lebanese

76 Cucumbers

Okra:

Red

Clemson Spineless

Tomatoes:

Tons of heirloom varieties 

Beans:

Asparagus

French Filet (green and yellow)

Melons:
Those lovely French ones!