Time continues to fly : Last two weeks in photos

Blink and two weeks have flown by! Life continues to be busy on the farm with prepping fields, weeding, transplanting and keeping up with the strawberries. We are picking every 2-3 days and getting 10+ lbs every time. Next year we will have twice as many! We are doing two markets a week, restaurant deliveries and have 13 people on our ESA (e-mail supported agriculture) weekly delivery. Everything is growing and looking good. At market, we have been bringing microgreens, strawberries, herbs and flowers. We are just starting to have lettuce, garlic scapes and Asian greens. We are just on the precipice of everything blowing up and the produce flowing in. This coming week we will have the annual vegetable and flower fields transplanted and planted from the last of the greenhouse starts. Squash, cucumbers and eggplants are in the ground. Tomatoes are in the greenhouse and the blackberries are blooming. The farm is vibrating with life and the promise of great harvests to come.

 Blackberries and asparagus in the lower field.

 An old table, white board and tub has(found on the property years ago) has transformed our work station in the barn. Storage underneath is also crucial.

 Annual veggie field is tilled again.

 Second chamomile harvest for the season.

 Prepping the greenhouse for cucumbers and eggplant transplants

 Annual Flowers and Vegetables waiting for transplant

 Morning strawberry harvest under row cover

 One of the first big strawberry harvests for market

 Microgreen harvest

 Mason jar of the week Red hot pokers, irises, wild daisies, wildflowers and weeds

 Greenhouse #1 is planted

 Greenhouse #2 getting its plastic put on

 Transplanting winter squash

 Finished fire pit made of creek rock

 Yuns is definitely a girl....#eggaday

 Asian Greens

 Basil starts

 Greenhouse is filling up...

 Annual flowers

 Stoked about the rock work I uncovered

 Lettuce in the lower field

 Lil' Joe Briggs the lower field scarecrow

 weeding the lower field

 #tinyhouse and irises

 Weeding beets

 Wild daisy bouquet

 Apple-strawberry?

 Morning strawberry harvest

 We sold out at the market....

 This weeks Mason Jar picks 

 Perennial flowers

 New farm friend. Eat those moles!

 Thinning carrots in the lower field

 Aesa, guardian of the porch

Double Decker microgreens

Bring on the heat....May Week 2

The heat has arrived! This week felt more like Summer than Spring with daily watering and temperatures in the mid 80s. We set up sprinkler systems and new hoses around the property. This is the exact opposite of last year when the rains just wouldn't stop and we lost so many crops due to rot and flooding. We are also utilizing more of the property this year and all the established perennial crops require a lot more water.

This week we harvested the first strawberries and they were amazing. From here on out, the strawberries will be blowing up and will be ready to bring to market. This upcoming week will be filled with getting all our little plant starts out of the greenhouse and planted in the fields and in the two greenhouses. Let the exponential growth begin.

One of the big projects marked off the list this week was building the second greenhouse. A good friend from Utah randomly showed up just in time to help with building the end walls. Thanks, Dave! This year, the new greenhouse will be planted with some of our 26+ varieties of tomatoes (the rest will be in the field). The other greenhouse will have our cucumbers, eggplants and peppers.

On the flower side of things, the red hot pokers and irises have finally started making an appearance (almost 2 1/2 weeks later than usual!). I love all of the flowers that came with the property that come back every year. The new beds have all been designed and assigned their perennial flowers. 36 types of flowers and 53 varieties. With a 10% failure rate, we are going to be seeding over 700 seeds in the next week! Kathleen and I have started the physical job of creating all of the raised beds around the property. We have to tear up the grass, build the beds (with either creek rock or logs from the property) and prep it for planting. Over the next few weeks, we will concentrate on one bed a week until they are all done. The property is really transforming and will only get prettier over the years as the perennial flowers fill in and share all their beauty. It is a lot of work, but it is so rewarding year after year.

Spring Farm. Orchard view.

First red hot pokers have made an appearance.

 First strawberry harvest

 Waking up

 Mason jar of the week

 First West Asheville Market. (photo by Kathleen McVeigh)
Early season. So much more to come.

 

Microgreens for dinner. (photo by Kathleen McVeigh)

 Thanks again, Dave. So good to see UT friends in NC!

 Building the end walls

 

 Good thing it's not too far of a drive from Lowes...

 

 Morning watering

 Transplants almost ready for the field

 Flower baskets started for the front porch

 Chamomile in the perennial herb garden

 Grapes

 

Irises

 

 Yuns's orchard view for the week.

 Putting up the new greenhouse

 

 

 

 

 haha....Kathleen needed a little boost to reach

 

Soon, plastic....and many, many tomatoes.