Trellis for Goji Berry and Raspberry
Onions! Lots of Onions!
The onion harvest was wonderful. The sweet potatoes are not planted and the drip irrigation for the potatoes. The irish potatoes are growing. It will be time to harvest them soon.
The black berries are blooming and growing. We’re looking forward to picking and eating black berries. The warm spell in February followed by a deep freeze really did a lot of damage to the fig trees, but those are coming back nicely.
The elderberries are growing and blooming. We are hoping for a nice elderberry crop this year. We had to replant some of the winter squash and pumpkins, but they ones that came up are finally starting to take off.
Bees on the Farm
Camping on the Farm
It was nice to have a weekend where we just enjoyed camping on the farm, without working. The grilled creation was cooked over the fire in the black cast iron cookers. The shell was made of corn dog roll with hot dogs, chili and onions inside. Tasty!
The Mayapples are growing. We never get any of the fruit because the critters always beat us to it.
You can camp on the farm too, just visit
https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US/land/north-carolina-simply-us-farm-and-camping-retreat-zwjhp868
Elderberry Explosion and Cactus Blooming
Check out our very happy elderberries! Please leave a comment, let me know how you want us to prepare them for you. Do you want jam or fresh, juice, sauce, tea, or something else? Just let us know.
The cactus have bloomed and the deer enjoyed the tasty treat
New Logo is Here!
Check out the new logo for the farm. Comments are welcome.
Horizontal version….
Learning About What Our Farm Can Become and How We Are Innovating
State of the Farm and Pictures from This Week
This has been a busy week on the farm. We try to give a semi-annual update that talks about what is going on at the farm in detail. We’ve also been working this week on our potatoes, developing the back field and planting a few ornamental plants.
I had a few days on the farm this week to ponder the future plans for the farm. I’m taking a class with IDEO on Insights for Innovation. The class project revolves around the farm so it was good having time to ponder the future plans for the farm while working in the field.
Here are some pictures from this week
Interview with Niti Bali – Food Church founder
I’m taking a class called “Insights for Innovation” with IDEO. Part of that class is doing interviews for developing empathy and better understanding customers. Niti was the perfect person to interview to better understand the farm-to-fork community. I learned a lot in the interview and hope you do too.
Mulch, Mulch, Mulch and Soggy Potatoes
The last few weeks have brought us rain every week. We had hoped to start planting this week, but it was just to wet to prep the beds for the winter squash, pollinators and summer cover crops. Instead we worked on planting olive trees and a Yaupon holly tree. We also trimmed the grass in the blackberry beds and put down mulch in part of the blackberry beds. We also started putting mulch around the mulberry trees and a few of the elderberry bushes in the food forest area.
We planted comfrey around the trees and bushes in the food forest area as we put the woodchip mulch down. It will take several work days to put all the mulch down and plant comfrey, but we are off to good start.
The garlic is putting out scapes. Those are great for cooking. The taste is similar to a green onion.
The bees are staying busy. We hope to have our first harvest of honey in June.
