Tomates Are Coming Soon

Trying to harvest our spring crops while planting for the summer requires the farm to be run in "full throttle mode," which makes idle time scarce. This hopefully explains why we have not had a lot of time to update you in more than a week. We've provided a few pics below that will hopefully "tell a thousand words."  As with most farms this time of year, we're currently wishing that there were eight days in the week rather than seven. Guessing though in retrospect that wouldn't make a much of a difference though as goes the adage "... a farm's work is never complete."

News from the farm:

Rain:  About a week ago, we received over an inch of rain which was so very welcome. The bad news was that it all came in about 30 minutes, which resulted in a little flash flooding on our fairly flat farm land. Oh well beggars can't be "choosey." We only wish that all of our farm friends could have participated in it as well.


Summer CSA Registration To Begin in mid-June:  Yes, we were able to begin our 2011 Spring program early enough to have a summer program as well. We're planting lots of summertime favorites such as watermelon, cantaloupe, grape tomatoes, sweet corn, purple hull peas, as well as your normal staples such as cucumbers, squash, green beans, eggplant, and green garlic. Just like last summer, we're hoping to participate with other local farms so that we can add summer fruit, such as peaches, blue berries, figs etc., to your farm shares. More info soon, but you can contact me directly at csa@woodduckfarm.com if you'd like to go ahead and sign up.

Farm Open House    Looking at the calendar, we're thinking the weekend of Saturday, May 28th may be a possible date to welcome some of you that are interested in seeing the farm. More info later. We are going to try and find someone to demonstrate canning summer veggies like cucumbers for pickles etc. Let us know if you have someone in mind.


Website Facelift  We're working to make our website more user friendly. This should ultimately help us with some of our back-office "organizational/growing pains." We'll keep you posted as this develops.


Pick Up Location Punctuality:  We have ideas as to how improve our delivery "on time" scoring which has been dismal of late, especially for those of you that pick up in the west Houston area locations.Please hang in there as we fully understand your frustration. Hopefully you'll begin to see a difference this week.

Meat & Poultry Subscription Plan: Our next and second delivery for our Spring 2011 Meat/Poultry Share is scheduled to be next week, May 17th. FYI the meat subscription plan is for three deliveries over ten weeks.
  

Shown above is our commercial pea sheller, a "used" but new edition to our farm. Although  We're hopeful that this pea sheller will come in handy during our summer CSA program. This "gem" is supposed to shell 1 bushel of peas in 3 minutes; compare this to when I used shell about 1 pint in about 30 minutes.

Well summer is coming and we're growing purple hull peas. For those of you not familiar with PH peas, they're "cousins" to black-eyed peas, an "ol' time" summer southern favorite. I remember shelling PH peas as a child, usually watching either "Dark Shadows" or the Atlanta Braves. (I  was about 7 or 8 yrs old, growing up in Georgia, played Dixie Youth baseball, slept via an attic fan (no AC), and watched TV on a RCA Black & White model w/outdoor antenna being required.  If I was not at baseball practice, I was usually riding my bicycle, playing in my "tree house" or reading an army book. Lots of good memories, but I'm not wishing shell peas anymore.)

"Rocky Raccoon" an unwelcome neighbor

We have not had predator problems in a long time, but a few mornings ago we started seeing chicken parts laying outside the chicken coup. Not sure if this raccoon is the culprit, but it got caught in our "have-a-heart" trap. Overall we lost around 15 chickens. Not to worry "Rocky Raccoon", it'll be okay as we'll release you down near the river. Hopefully your short time in confinement will result in your being rehabilitated into a "kindlier gentler raccoon." Yea Right?

Some of our pastured poultry enjoying some fresh forage after their pen was just moved to a new location a few feet away.

Like a lot of commercial growers we use stakes and twine to support our field grown tomatoes. Above is an example of our tomatoes planted on plastic mulch to inhibit weeds and enhance moisture retention and supported with baling twine. Notice the green tomato. Just a few weeks away before CSA shares begin receiving tomatoes.

Lots of time needed to plant, stake and maintain our tomato plants

Normally we get rain here in SE Texas which requires adequate spacing between rows for good air circulation. This helps retard fungal development which is the primary "bad guy" for tomato plants in the south. So far our plants are looking pretty healthy. Perhaps a silver lining to the drought?

We picked a few tomatoes today. Real small, almost plum size. Bigger ones coming soon.

Our full share for the week of May 3rd included summer squash/zucchini, 3-4 sweet onions, green beans, Russian banana heirloom potatoes, 5-7 red beets, 5-7 Japanese turnips, radishes, kale, 2 bags salad greens.

Full share from the last week of April,  Micro Greens, 2 bags salad greens,  3 bunches kale, large bag of spinach, green beans, beets, turnips, potatoes, radish.

 

2011 has been a hot dry spring for growing spinach. Here we are washing some after harvest a few weeks back.

Baskets of fresh cut lettuce, arugula and assorted mixed greens ready for rinsing.






Until Next Time,


Van