- 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 InnovatingSimply Us Farm has been a giant sketch and prototype from the beginning. I like to think of the farm as a sketch and a prototype where the lines are drawn with a tractor and the trees and bushes are dots on the sketch. We are still learning what our farm can become. Join us …
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- 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 …Continue reading “State of the Farm and 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 … - Planting Hazel Trees and Moving Pine Logs
We planted our first hazel trees. This is a test planting to see how they do. We should have our first nuts from the hazel trees in 2-3 years, if all goes well. We also pulled up drip feed lines so we can trim and to make it easier to cut the grass. Drip irrigation …Continue reading “Planting Hazel Trees and Moving Pine Logs”
- Planting Potatoes – Garlic is Growing Nicely
The potatoes are in the ground. Hopefully they really take off. The garlic looks great. - Planting a Pecan Tree and Flying a Kite
We planted the 3rd pecan tree, spread pine straw and took some time to enjoy the pleasure of flying a kite in the back field. What a nice day. Warm and sunny. - Blueberries Go In! Bees Go In!
Since we started the farm, one of the things I’m looked forward to is planting blueberries. We had a couple of delays putting them in, but now they are finally installed. My wife Connie, came up with a wonderful idea. She suggested that we plant blueberries in the Hugelkultur mound. This gives the blueberries a … - How a Simple Idea Saved Us Time on the Farm
Walk with me on my update on the winter garden, cover crops and how a simple idea saves time while mowing the grass. Just a simple change of how where posts go in for the anti-deer fence means less time spend weed eating. Odysee embedding powered by embed.tube - Winter Garden is Growing
There are lots of great crops to grow in the winter. The best part is that there is much less weeding in the winter! - Mowing Grass and Enjoying a Slower Pace on the Farm
It was relaxing putting lime on the back field and getting it mowed. It is ready for winter. Nice to be able to take a break from a very busy summer growing season. Checkout the winter garden - After the Hurricane Passed Through
Thankfully the damage was minimal. We did lose a few trees, but nothing major. Here are some pictures from after the hurricane passed through. The winter garden is coming right along and it chilly outside, just like it should be in October. - Questions from the Farm – #2 in an Ongoing Series
We get lots of questions from community farm participants. Here are questions that came up this week. 1) How do you know whether you should plant 1 seed or multiple seeds in the same spot? If the seed are purchased then the back of the seed packet will usually show planting information that includes desired …Continue reading “Questions from the Farm – #2 in an Ongoing Series”
- Wrapping Up the Summer Growing Season and Getting Ready for Winter
Thanks to the families that have made this year’s community garden a success! - Questions from the FarmWe get lots of questions from community farm participants. Here are questions that came up this week. 1) How do you store peas in fridge after taken out of their pods 1-2 weeks. If you dry them (unrefrigerated), they can last for 9+ months 2) Can you feed bad produce to farm animals? We need …
- The Last 2 Weeks in Pictures
- Summer Growing Season Dwindles / Fall and Winter Garden UnderwayThis isn’t normal August in NC weather. It was almost chilly this morning. The agenda for this weekend: get the winter garden plot ready – the plot was previously grass, but a black silage tarp had been over the spot all summer. We ran the spring tooth harrow and the the disc through the plot. …
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- Some Pictures from JulyIts been a hot month, but the produce keeps rolling in. The okra and peppers love the heat!
- Simply Us Farm – Community Farm TourCome 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.
- Growing, Growing, Growing
- Cantaloupes, Pumpkins and Winter Squash are Growing Like Crazy
- Pictures from the Farm – 2nd Week of May
Summer is here and we are starting to harvest veggies! - First Weekend in May – Update
Everything is growing! Here are some images from this week. - Rolling with the Challenges on the Farm
Some days are easier than others. Being flexible helps turn a frustrating day into a productive and happy one! The zero turn is fixed and the garlic bed is weeded and hay put down around the garlic. The blackberries are starting to fruit! - Gemba Walk after Mowing
Lets take a walk around the farm and see what is growing! One of the topics that comes up in the video is the concept of imposing my will on the farm. Planning for the growing season requires creating a calendar of when to do what. Different crops need to go in at different times … - Food Forest is Growing
Our food forest is starting to grow with the warmer weather. Here are some pictures - Why You Probably Aren’t Planting a Garden / You Can FarmWhat Can You Do This year has been a challenging year when it comes to supply chain issues and inflation. The rising price of gas and food has impacted all of us at some level. People with the least disposable income getting hurt the worst. At some point, rising food prices will lead to political …
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- Planting Time
The last two days have been a blur. We have been busy. Even with 4 people on the farm working hard, we still have more stuff to do before everything is been planted. We are on still on a rapid learning curve as we work hard. The garden area in the pictures below was pasture … - Flowering Mandrakes / Almost Time to Plant
It is the time of year where you never know if it is going to be an 80 degree day or a 40 degree day. We are still getting ready to start planting our summer garden. This was also the first time I mowed the grass for the season. More and more plants are starting …Continue reading “Flowering Mandrakes / Almost Time to Plant”
- Meanwhile on the farm, mayapples and the preparations continue…
The Mayapples are up and thriving. We noticed the fruit starting to form. We are hoping to try the fruit this year, assuming we can beat the deer and raccoons from eating it first. Weed Control with Silage Tarps We put down silage tarps earlier in the winter. The goal is to help with weed …Continue reading “Meanwhile on the farm, mayapples and the preparations continue…”
- Getting Ready for Spring – Putting Down Hay and WeedblockerThe weather on Saturday was kinda crazy. It started out fairly warm and then just kept getting colder. Sometimes You Can’t Do What You Plan We had planned to plant beets, peas and radish. The plan was to pull back the tarps and build beds to plant in. The silage tarp has been down for …
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- 2022 Spring Homestead Experience
What a busy few days. When it comes to homesteading there is always a lot to learn and share. We worked on the following: installed an anti-deer fence installed 15 elderberry plants with a biodegradable mat around them with hay on top planted 7 fig and 2 peach trees planted a lantana in the pollinator … - New Tractor, Putting Up Blackberry Trellis and A-Frames
Getting a farm up and going has been a big project. Sometimes it seems like the world has gone crazy, but on the farm there is a peace and serenity. We’re getting ready for growing season and the plants don’t care about politics or ideology, they just want great soil, rain and sunshine. So after …Continue reading “New Tractor, Putting Up Blackberry Trellis and A-Frames”
- Covering the HugelKultur Mound
Let’s start off with what is a Hugelkultur mound. Here is a great video that explains Hugelkultur Our First Hugelkultur Mound We built our first hugelkultur mound in our garden at home. The mound is about 35 feet long and used trees that we had cleared on the back of the property. It has worked … - Shopping List – Main Items that you need to preserve food
Why – Cost of Food is Increasing, Availability is Decreasing https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-10/price-shock-at-the-meat-counter-worsens-u-s-inflation-jitters – as an example beef is up 20% this year I’ve seen numbers from 6 to 20% for other sectors of the food supply. Lets do the math. Here is one analysis: $1 product in 2020 became a $1.20 product in 2021 (using 20% …Continue reading “Shopping List – Main Items that you need to preserve food”
- 2022 Community Garden InfoWhy Have a Community Garden The last few years (2020-2021) have difficult years for everyone. When we originally bought the farm from a friend in 2021, we had intentions to just having place for a larger garden / fruit orchard, recreation and eventually build a house. The growing possibility of food insecurity and food cost …
- Making Horseradish
My wife and I have this love / hate relationship dynamic with horseradish. We only eat a small amount of it, but we have several family members and friends that really like it. We mostly use it in Connie’s homemade cocktail sauce or on roast beef. Here is a chart showing the pros/cons with horseradish. … - 5 Month Update – We Have Been Busy!Check out this video showing our progress.
- How It Looked When We StartedHere are some of the pictures we took after buying the property, before all the work started.