Hello Farm Family. How are you guys? Did you make it through those unseasonably cold nights a few weeks ago without issue? Typically weather patterns in October don’t lead to freezing or near freezing temperatures so you guys were probably just as surprised as we were.

After the big freeze we lost a lot of crops that we would normally have through mid or late November. Of course it was an unexpected circumstance, but after much prayer, watching the temps rise, and seeing how the plants reacted to those temps, we decided not to immediately pull everything.

Instead we tried pruning to see if these plants would bounce back and some of them have done just that! We know they won’t last for too much longer, but as long as they continue to grow……we will let them!

Fall

Fall is a favorite season for us and now that we have moved, it feels more Fall like in our neck of the woods. Maybe it’s the trees or perhaps the environment, but it’s really beautiful and it reminds me of growing up in New York where we truly had all four seasons.

November is usually when we begin to have a couple of cold days as the days get shorter. I am all for getting rid of that Summer heat, but the shorter days I could do without. Do you feel like that too?

Pest Management

Since we moved I have seen quite a few bugs that I could not immediately place. One that has really hit our produce hard is a beetle with a red top and a black bottom. It’s a variety of a flea beetle, but not one that I had ever seen before.

I shared with you guys before that we like to take an out of the box approach to pest management. This can be simply picking the pest off the crops or using items found in nature to control well….nature. This is sometimes an arduous task, but totally worth it!

Growing Now

Growing on the farm now are mostly cool weather crops. Those that laugh at freezing temps and can take the heat as well. Just a few of them are below.

We absolutely love being able to grow and cook with Asian vegetables. This is especially true with our son, Joshua. He affectionately refers to Brandon and I as “geriatrics” because most of his cooking is just too spicy for us to handle. Joshua and our older son are both the main reasons why we started growing the hotter varieties of peppers on our farm. Now that his older brother is out on his own, Joshua gets to have most of them all to himself.

If you’ve checked out our shop page, you will find that we recently created a category dedicated especially to our love of Asian vegetables. We’ve name it Asian Gardens.

Poultry News

We’ve received more than a few inquires for those of you looking for eggs and pastured raised meats. We wish we could accommodate everyone, but this year we will not have any more eggs, whole chickens, or turkeys due to our recent move.

We are literally rebuilding our farm from the ground up and that takes tons of time, hard work, and money to do so.

A few months ago we put out a call to action for anyone willing to add a helping hand and/or a donation to our farm. That offer still stands! You can reach out to us through our contact page to help locally. There is also a donation box located at the bottom of our home page.

A Look Ahead

This month we will finally be planting our trees. Over the Summer we purchased a good variety of fruit trees and have been fighting hard to keep them alive. Most have survived and we are planning to rent a machine to assist in breaking up some of this red clay. Once that’s done, it will be a planting party from there.

Additionally, garlic will go into the ground and we are building out more spaces to made permanent beds to house the many plants that were started from seed and are ready to get to their final home. Our biggest issue is that we NEED so much compost and since everything has gone up in price this year, it’s taking longer to get it.

All in all it will be a busy month for us as we build out better infrastructure for our chickens to make sure they are safe as well. We’ve found more than a few hawks out this way, raccoons, and we’ve seen an owl up close and personal. If that’s not enough, just the other night we heard howling that we could not place so we want to make sure our birds are protected.

We have so much planned and loads more to share as the months continue into the Spring, but for now we will stop there as we don’t want to spill all the beans!

Available Now

If you’re shopping for some Certified Naturally Grown produce, there is quite a bit over on our shop page. We even brought back our ever popular Seasonal Farm Boxes!

In closing we say thanks for being the best part of our farm. Thanks for supporting us and sharing our little family business with others. We appreciate each and every one of you and hope to see you again next month. Until then…….