Carrots in a Coke bottle

As promised, I am sharing my carrot and celery experiments, so this is how it is going so far.

Not a lot going on at the farm last week, other than Gary almost has the Greenhouse ready to put the plastic on, I have transplanted the cabbage and broccoli. The Kale got to spindly to transplant. I might put it outside with a white storage bin over it to see what happens. It is fun to experiment with plants.

Today, I did took about 36 cuttings off of my rosemary bush. I would really like to have a large herb garden this year & start a lot more different Herbs that I usually don't grow. I'd like to try and make tinctures, and learn more about medicinal uses.

Getting back to the farm life, is so rewarding, relaxing, & mind stimulating.

See you next week!

This is what we were able to do on the farm this week. Gary got the Greenhouse up, except we need to get the plastic on it.

I had seen where someone had taken a coke Bottle and planted some carrots in it so we could grow them inside for the winter. I am going to try it. and when the Grandkids get here, I have some for them to try with too. Another thing that I read was how you can cut the bottom off of the celery and start it in water then plant it 1 inch under the ground and it will grow another celery stalk. So follow me to see how these to grow. I'll try to give you a picture every week so you can see it happen.

I also started seeding Broccoli & Cabbage & Kale, I know that it is a little early for the Kale, but I just want to see how it will do. Hopefully we will put it in a hoop house in a couple of weeks.

We also ordered Tomato and Cucumber & purple Cauliflower. We have grown all the these varieties before. except for the Purple Cauliflower. We really like the flavor of the tomato's. I thought you might like to know the story about the "Granny Crantrell Tomato" taken from the

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog

This meaty beefsteak-type tomato is named after Lettie Cantrell, who received seeds from a soldier returning from Germany during World War II. She grew this tomato in the hills of eastern Kentucky for many years. This was her favorite tomato and the only one she grew. Each year she saved seeds from the largest tomatoes, some of which reached 2 1/2 lbs. Our growers find it to be quite productive. Ahh! What a flavor! This variety was named best tasting tomato of the year at the 2006 Heirloom Garden Show in our taste testing contest.

A New Year

As we are getting ready for a new year, I looked on my blog and was disappointed that I quit posting in August 2011, So One of my resolutions is to Make sure I post at least once a week if not more.
Just to let you know what is happening on the Farm, Today Gary is going to be working on finally gettng our Greenhouse back up, after the Tornado did its job in April. I have been pouring over Seed catalogs on line, and Today, my biggest project will be Checking what seeds we have left and what seeds we need to order. Making my schedule of when to seed indoors and when to plant in the garden.

There are several new plants I would like to try this year like the Cheddar & Purple Broccoli, Red Okra, Yellow Patty Pan Squash, Rhubarb, Ground Cherries, & I would really like to get some Asparagus in the ground too.
Here is the last Garden Pic of last year. It was taken in October. An very interesting Thing we learned last year to keep the deer out was, we put up stakes at about 100 ft intervals around the garden & just strung a string about head high and one about knee high, tied plastic grocery sacks on the string on the top string so that when the wind blew, it would blow the sacks down the string. Something else we did different is that we planted Squash, beans, and cucumbers the end of July and still get a good harvest before Frost.

Heres to hoping you have a great year in your Garden.

Local Restraunts are using our Produce!!

Wow It has been a long time since I wrote on here. We have been so busy!
We decided to try 3 markets this year. The Main Street Market in Chattanooga, on Wednesdays from 4-6, Blue Cross Blue Shield invited us to sell to their Employees on Thursdays from 3:30-5:30pm, and The Chattanooga Market at the Tennessee Pavilion on Sundays from 11-4

On market days We start about 6:00am, picking and working in the Garden before it gets to hot for a couple of Hours. Then we bring everything back to the house to wash & pack for Market. We get done just in time to pack the truck and head to Market. We usually get to the Market about an hour before to start setting up.

One of the greatest things that has an impact on us is, that we have really have met a lot of neat people at Market. Like other farmers, that we have learned tips from. Also it is really neat how all the farmers really like to help each other out. Such as one farm gave our farm name to a restaurant that wanted to buy Patty Pan Squash. Right now we are featured on the St Johns Menu for our heirloom Tomatoes.

We have also learned that there are a lot of People out there that are really concerned about what they eat. They want to make sure they are not getting the pesticides on their foods. There is a foundation out there called Gaining Ground that is promoting Locally grown foods within 100 miles of Chattanooga. Maybe you have noticed the bill boards for MSFM, or the magazine called Taste Buds, we are also featured in there as one of the local farmers. They have a listings of the restaurants that use local farmers too.

To Market to Market.

Last week we went to the Main Street Farmers Market for the first time. Here is their website. http://mainstfarmersmarket.com/

Wednesday morning up bright and early to pick in the cool of the day, and that is when you can capture the best flavor of the veggies. We picked Broccoli, Kale, Collards, Onions, Turnips, Peas, and took some of the Tornado survived plants to the Market. Later that morning we cleaned and packaged the veggies, on this Table Gary built. It really did the trick.

Of course it was the Hottest day yet this year. 100 DEGREES!!!!
We defiantly were not prepared. We didn't have a tent to keep the Sun off the produce, but were very fortunate that another farmer had an extra tent to let us borrow. We also did not take enough Water for being so hot. Then we should have taken Ice Chests to keep the Greens cool. We also forgot our Sign and cards. Lesson well learned. I am sure we will learn more as we continue on.

We are still planting too. We planted Yellow Brandy wine Tomatoes, and also replanted yellow squash & pink-eye purple eye peas. Today I planted Basil & Marigolds to help with keeping the bugs away. Talking about bugs. Remember I said we were going to try to grow all organic this year. Well we have found an organic bug spray made from Chrysanthemums, Called "Pyrethrin". It really is working well, since it is made from flowers, you can pick the same day. We don't do that though.

Hopefully this week we will get all the fall seeds in the ground like Pumpkins, winter squash, gourds etc.

A very busy week........ planting, planting, planting.





Tina and the kids came up to be with us the last week of April for Planting the Garden. This is the week we are planning on getting most of the Veggies in the Ground. And did we work hard! We also had a friend come up because she wanted to learn, to plant her own garden.
While Tina and I were putting stakes in the ground Part way through Gary Rototinng, we heard this awful noise that made me think OH NO! and then Gary tried to start it again. It wouldn't start. He thinks it threw a Rod. So off to Northern Tool to get a new engine. We planted, Yellow Squash, Clemsen Spineless Okra, Kolbs Gem Watermelon, Blue Lake Bush Beans, Patty Pan Squash, October Beans, Cucumbers, Lima Beans.

The next day we planted 2 different Varieties of Heirloom Tomatoes, Corn, and Zuccino. When we plant Tomatoes there is several steps we do. First we take the first two sets of leaves of the plant and dig the whole as deep as the height of the plant. We put in a teaspoon of Epson salt and mix it with dirt in the bottom of the hole, this keeps the tomatoes from getting blossom end rot. Then we put in the compost and throw a little dirt in and mix it in the whole. Then we put the tomato in the ground and just leave the top two sets of leaves out of the ground. The tomato plant will grow roots all along the stem that is in the ground and make it a much sturdier Plant. Gary had Rototilled one pass on a plot above the cabbage so Tina & I set up the stakes and Strings before we went to fix Supper.

Wednesday Morning the storm was coming.... could we get anything in the Ground before the Rain? We grabbed a Banana for breakfast Gary started rototilling the second pass above the Cabbage patch. Tina Spread Compost & I started planting. We got in one row of Chambers Renegade Watermelon & 3.5 rows of Pink-eye purple hull peas in the ground as it was raining on us. That was it for the day. As the day continued the first storm was so bad we went to the basement for fear of a Tornado. The winds were so strong that is threw our Swing across a log and moved the Greenhouse 1 ft off the foundation. That evening we got another storm that rolled through and finally did a job on the Greenhouse. We will have to rebuild it. But I have to be thankful for only that damage. In the valley less than 1 mile from us in Trenton there was a large Tornado that passed through and destroyed some homes and there were some folks that did not make it. My heart goes out to their family's. Although I am so proud of my home town. Everybody pulled together helping each other. Even some of the business gave out water, instead of gouging people.

seedlings growing

Yesterday It was down to 40 degrees in the morning & when I walked in the Greenhouse and all my baby tomato plants leaves were folded together like little praying hands. We had not put down the back side of the greenhouse because we didn't think it was going to get that cold. I had never seen that before, and thought it was interesting, then in the afternoon when it got warm they opened their leaves. We have about 300 tomato plants started.

We are planting all Heirloom plants, Last year we planted about 4 different varieties of Tomatoes and came out with 2 that we really liked. Granny Cantrel and Romenesco. This year since I like the taste of Yellow tomatoes we adding a Yellow Brandywine to see if that is a good one or not. Yellow tomatoes are not one of Gary's favorites. I collected some purple Tommy toe tomatoes from a farmer an we are going to plant those too.

We are really going to try to grow all Organic this year too. To do this we are going to interplant with a lot of Herbs. I got a list from the extension office of which herbs help to deter different bugs. I have started these in the green house so we can plant them the same time we plant the Garden. But when the bugs start destroying the food , I don't know if I can keep Gary from spraying. He just hates it when food goes to waste. I talked so some friends yesterday and they suggested that we use an organic spray derived from Chrysanthemums. It kills the bugs and you can harvest the next day. We will try that and see if Gary will be happy with the results.