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!

A Busy Wednesday at The Simple Farm

The day after our market days is always busy and today will be no exception. Michael's going to build some raised beds in a few areas where he decided the ground just wasn't workable and yet the spot was perfect for our organic vegetables and herbs.  This is exciting for me.  I think the spot he's choosing has been crying out for something to happen and I can't wait to begin to seed there.

I love how Michael designs and creates. He'll often stand back and just stare at a spot. I've learned to let him 'stare' because he's really designing and pondering and considering in his head about what should go where.  So, in our farming relationship - he designs and builds and I get to fill it in with beauty. It works well for us. His ideas are always pretty amazing.

Today, I'm doing some goat kidding preparation work and researching a bit on some health issues with a few of our does. The community of "goat lovers" is wonderful - extremely helpful when a problem arises.

I'm also pulling out bitter lettuce in my personal potager and will amend those raised beds to get ready for planting - what, I'm not quite sure.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

The Days are Full

The past two Tuesdays we closed our farm market store due to the need to do freeze cover preparations and then this past Tuesday - spring cleaning of sorts.

Our vegetables stayed covered for a good three days and to be honest I was afraid to lift the coverings off to see how things looked.  We did take a bit of a hit - but isn't that how farm life goes?

We've been pulling out older plants that have gone to seed making room for new plantings.  Wednesday Michael tilled 100' along the vintage fence. There's nothing like fresh tilled ground.  He trenched out that 100' row, laid down sprinkler hose so I could come back and add soil amendments like kelp and humic acid so the sunflower, asparagus and French filet beans will end up happy.  76 Cucumber heirloom seeds will go in on Monday.

I've been adding some color spots to different garden areas while Michael planted pomegranate and pecan trees and added a few little fencing structures.

The end of December Michael built our Simple Farm Greenhouse out of pvc pipe.  I couldn't have been more proud of him. After hours and hours of research and scratch pieces of paper with different designs and drawings he built a wonderful green house perfect for our present needs.  I imagine as we grow the farm he'll be building a second one.

The greenhouse is full of about 300 + heirloom tomato starts, basil, 3 kinds of eggplant, 2 kinds of okra, cucumbers, beans, thyme and different kinds of peppers.  I can't wait for the soil to warm up so these babies can find their new spots in the ground.

Saturday At The Farm

Normally, we seek to take a Saturday Sabbath and yet today, it's such lovely weather to plant more radishes, turnips, carrots, beets, peppers and the tomatoes we started that have been growing in the green house.

And, so, we'll do a bit of that today and then enjoy the rest of the day.

Simple Farm UPdate . . .So, What are WE doing?

It's been a busy week since the bobcat visited our farm and took out 70 hens.  Michael's been busy repairing and shoring up every tiny space that a cat could squeeze its body through. Finally, our seven new girls (thanks to the gift of these beautiful hens that Bobbie - in Mesa gave) and our five remaining girls, were able to enjoy the spaciousness of the hen yard. We enjoy watching them scratch and dig and dig and scratch some more.

The day of our attack, I called Western Ranchmen and had them hold ALL the pullets they had left. Seventeen babies came to our farm later that afternoon - thanks to our daughter and grandkids who took the trip to WR to pick them up.

Those babies have since graduated from the baby coop - to the teen coop and now to the inner coop of the hen yard. My do they grow fast.

Subsequently, Michael and took the trip out to The Stock Shop - way out on 67 ave and Thunderbird and bought what they had left...those babies are now chirping away in what we call the "teen-age' coop. In time they'll join the other girls in the 'inner coop' of our bigger hen yard.

Needless to say, I'm still a bit skiddish - I jump easy even at the sight of one of our farm cats....trusting that time will improve and calm my nerves.

So, not only has much time been spent on the hen coops but also in planning for a lovely spring harvest. I've planted a ton of tomato starts along with bell peppers and some herbs like basil. Our plan is to be able to sell some of these starts at our Tuesday farm store.

Today, we're doing some forward thinking as to our tomato garden area. Last season we had 100 heirloom tomato plants and when we began to sell at the market - we'd always sell out. This season we've decided to increase our production quite a bit.

Heirloom tomatoes are part of the spring/summer centerpiece of The Simple Farm. So, today we're evaluating increasing that space and will begin the prep work this week.

Another thing we've been mulling over is beginning a CSA and changing our Tuesday market day to Saturdays. More news on those things to come.

Back to work now :-)

What's Happening At The Farm Today

That desert rain was wonderful yesterday and it gave Michael and I bit of down time catch up time.  Yesterday we researched ideas for putting together a green house that could accommodate all the starts I've seeded.  As Michael can attest to, I sorta can get ahead of myself. I start planting things and then forget how we're going to water it.

Or, like the starts - with all this wonderful weather I thought it'd be just as wonderful to start some starts - heirloom tomatoes (can you tell I'm anxious for them?), basil, dill, and peppers . . .and now we need a green house type of thingy to house them through another few months. Oh, well.

Today, Michael finished the last of the two gates around The French Garden. Looks nice if I say so myself.  I'm working on an area that I noticed quite a few gourmet lettuces popping up - in spots and in pathways we didn't seed them.  So, I'm in the process of expanding that area to accommodate the lettuces and I have seeded some lovage, mammoth sunflowers, garlic chives, nasturtium and for fun I tossed in a few Italian Pole Bean seeds next to the sunflowers (even though it's not quite the season for them).

. . . and, that's what's happening today! Hope you have a great weekend and that you plan to come to the farm this Tuesday.  Pssttt...it's our market day.

What Michael Did Saturday