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!

They're Back. Bummer . . .

. . . is what I said to myself and then out loud as I took a walk over to tomorrows planting area.

Coyote. But, of course, this really is the place they call home. And, we call it ours. Our little LGD is {hopefully} growing strong for The Simple Farm. We need her/him.

Tree Experts. . . Now

Unfortunately, I didn't make it to yesterday's Tree Pruning Workshop with Certified Aborist John Eisenhower of Integrity Tree Service.  That 'special' flu bug has hit a few of the people in our home and I was so snub to think it'd passed me by.  Nope. It gripped me like a .....well, never mind.

I understand that the workshop was a success and that those that attended went away encouraged with a "you can do it" attitude of confidence.

A HUGE thanks to John for sharing his expertise with The Simple Farm!   

The next event at The Simple Farm is {here}

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.

Happenings Today At The Simple Farm

It's nice to know that a bit of spring could be in the air with the freeze on the other side of us.

Today, we're evaluating the different garden areas on our farm as well as seeing how the wonderful pepper, basil, thyme, tomato, eggplant, okra. . . have done in the greenhouse.

Poor babies...they were so thirsty!

We also are unfreezing the water lines to the hens, chicks and goats. Fun!

The other thing I thought I'd do is show you my new farm boots.

Positon number one . . .

 Position number two . . .

Position number three . . .

. . . and, finally . . . position number four.

Sweet Girls

Our chicken/bobcat fiasco (one hungry bobcat killed 70 of our hens - leaving us 5) made news this month and out of something so tragic came something so good.

Michael and I have been surrounded by new friends who reached out to us with compassion and care. . . that came in the form of some of the best chickens being given to The Simple Farm.  Bobbie, Cynthia, Anna Marie and Hal and Jill of Sweet Life Garden.


I have to tell you that there's something very special about the community of people who garden and farm and who raise chickens and other livestock. . . they care and they understand.

It's Cold Out There

Monday evening we decided to close the farm store and regroup with a bit of "spring cleaning" around the farm.  We'd heard that cold front freeze thing was expected one more time, but for some reason we didn't think it was today.

In light of it hitting - it was a good thing we closed the farm store as it has taken most of the day to prepare and cover as much of our produce as possible.  Even as I write this post, my dear farmer husband is outside covering the rest of the citrus. What a guy!