Sometimes the pictures are better than the words
It is amazing how fast the young fruit trees are growing
One of the things that I enjoy on the farm is the ability to stop and pick fruit or berries while I am taking a break. This time if year, you might think there we don’t have a lot of berries and growing plants. But I stopped for a few minutes on Friday and snacked from berries I was able to pick right off the vines.
The goji berries have really produced this year. If you want goji berries just let me know and we’ll set up a time for you to come pick them.
The last round of figs is about to hit. I’m not sure if they will ripen before the first frost, but it was nice enjoying the fruit off the vine as I took a break
The comfrey plants are enjoying a warm october and still growing. Comfrey isn’t edible off the vine, but it is still nice to see it growing.
The raspberry plants are still growing. Hopefully next year we will get to enjoy berries from them.
One of the traditions on the farm is planting garlic in October. We actually started growing garlic on the farm before we owned the property. We grew garlic with the previous owner. We have continued the tradition every since.
We plant garlic in Oct and really don’t do much with it until spring. Once spring arrives, the weeds come with the warm weather and it is time to weed the garlic.
We have almost sold out of this year’s garlic. We have maybe 2-3 lbs left. It is available in the store. We hope to have more garlic available in July 2025.
This year we planted garlic in a new location. We work hard to minimize how much we till the soil, as part of building better soil on the property. The soil in this area did require tilling the beds prior to planting the garlic. We planted over 800 garlic starts.
Once the garlic was planted and covered with soil, we covered the bed with hay. The hay was cut from the back field on our property. Using the hay is an example of function stacking. The hay helps in several areas. As the hay breaks down it adds nutrients and orgranic matter to the soil. The hay also supresses weeds. The garlic beds won’t need any significant weeding until March.
We saw lots of woolly worms. Here are some pictures
We had the privilege of going to help with the recovery for a few days. The damage is hard to describe. One of the major problems is that the power and data infrastructure can’t be repair because major swathes of power lines and power poles are just gone. Power poles snaped in half. Cars wrapped around trees. We were working in an area where power may not be restored for 6-9 months. Thanks so much for everyone in our crew and the many people coming to help out and sending supplies. Here are some pictures from our trip
We plan to have a booth at the Sanford Farmer’s on Saturday, Nov 11th, 2023. Come join us and grab some of our wonderful honey! The market is open from 8:30 AM – 1 PM. The address is 115 Chatham St, Sanford, NC 27330, USA
If you can’t make it to the market, we can ship honey or you can do a porch pickup in Sanford. Click on the image below to place your order.
Check out the new logo for the farm. Comments are welcome.
Horizontal version….
This isn’t normal August in NC weather. It was almost chilly this morning.
The agenda for this weekend:
It has been a busy summer. The winter garden is much smaller and should be much less work, giving everyone a much needed break. Our farm functioned this year as a community garden. I’m proud of the fact that we’re winding down the growing season with the families that we started in the spring with! Go team.
Preparing a Winter Garden Bed
Pictures from the farm this week – thanks Connie!
Come join us on Saturday, July 30th at the farm for our annual farm tour. You can meet the families involved in the community garden and see how it works. The farm is located in Bennett, NC. Get your tickets below.
Summer is here and we are starting to harvest veggies!
Check out this video showing our progress.
My wife and I love spending time outdoors. Having a farm and garden is a great way to do that. It also means we have more nutritious foods. Many of the people we have met on this journey like similar things and that makes it even better. I’m a mechanical engineer turned weekend farmer, so I’m just smart enough to know that there is a lot that I don’t know especially when it comes to farming, permaculture and food forests. Come on the learning journey with us!
We would love to share what we are learning so that you can grow at least part of your own food. It is within your grasp to grow part of the food that you eat. You can improve your food security and enjoy higher quality food in the process.
We also have limited opportunities for you to camp out on our farm, enjoying the serious peace and quiet. Sometimes we hold classes, usually on Food Preservation. Join us for those too.
Meet the Farmers
I’m a mechanical engineer turned weekend farmer, so I’m just smart enough to know that there is a lot that I don’t know especially when it comes to farming, permaculture and food forests. I’ve been heavily influenced in my love of farming and permaculture by my Mom and Dad and also by people like Jack Spirko (TSP) and Dan (Plant Abundance)
Connie has her certificate in Sustainable Agriculture from CCCC. She really enjoyed the classes at the community college and learned a lot. The program was a mixture of classes and work on the school farm. What she learned has really added to our technical proficiency on the farm.