Blue Ribbon

     Before you look at this first picture, I must admit that this is not our pumpkin. Although we did have high hopes of growing our own larger than life, blue ribbon State Fair pumpkin, the squash bugs got word of our plan and devoured our largest one.

     Since taking MB and EC to the NC State Fair last year it has been a goal of ours to enter something of our growing in one of the fields. With all the interest in our CSA and the work involved, we temporarily lost sight of this vision. That is until yesterday!  We were working on cleaning up one of our undisturbed compost piles that had been overflowing with the healthiest sweet potato vine all summer long. Oh, had the fair just been one month later, we certainly would have entered this............

    Look closely and you'll see that scale reads 6 lbs. 5.2 oz.  Our average sweet potato this year weighed about 5 oz.

WHOA!!!

And to top that off, we dug a sssssssnakey sweet potato:

   There is truly nothing that compares to waiting all summer to dig up a harvest you've worked all summer to grow.  I'll take the squeals of two happy children over winning a blue ribbon any day!

The Joy of Beekeeping

I have to admit, I would have never imagined there "bee"ing any joy in keeping bees. Was I ever so wrong! These busy little creatures are amazing to watch and are much more intelligent than I would have ever given them credit. 

Did you know that the one and only queen bee in the hive lays every egg, up to 1,500 a day, and is attended to and fed by other female bees while she works. Actually, the majority of the bees in a hive are female, worker bees, that work day and night to protect, defend, and build up their hive.  We think a lot of our girls (and the few boys) and will work just as hard to keep them from being harmed.

Having said this we have just discovered small hive beetles in our hive. These little black beetles made it to the US from South Africa in the late 90's and have made their way to NC quickly. We are lucky to have a very strong, healthy first-year hive that is doing great in fighting off an infestation of this pest. However, we don't want to take any chance that their winter honey storages could be ruined because of them.

There are lots of ways to control the small hive beetle population and MB and I got a great lesson in those at our local bee supply store this week. We opted for small traps that slip between the frames in the hive, which are filled with a mixture of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. The hope is that the beetles will be attracted to the liquid bait and when near enough, the honeybees will chase them down into the trap. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we'll observe its effectiveness when we go in the hive this week.

MB holding up the filled trap, ready to go in and aid our hard working honeybees.

FFA - Future Farmers of Archdale

The latest USDA farm census in 2007 reported some surprising statistics about NC farmers. The number of farmers under age 35 was about 5,000 compared to about 20,000 in the over age 65 category. Reading this made me even more thankful that we have had such great support with our first experimental summer in our beginnings of Community Supported Agriculture.  Thanks to all of you that have made the commitment to invest in a local farm, eat seasonally, and help grow a dream!

As the season is coming to an end, we are in the midst of modifying our growing plan for next year and hope to expand our number of shares.  This is where we would love your input. We would love to hear from you what types of crops you would like to see next year. What would make pickup easier for you? Do you have any interest in volunteering on the farm with planting/harvesting? Any suggestions/comments are welcome. Please email us (farlowcsa@aol.com) or comment below.

This future farmer is working diligently to strip the stalk of the sugar cane to chew on its sweet goodness.

Hens at play

Oh, the goings on this week! If you were to ask MB and EC the most exciting thing about their week it would be the addition of their new hen, Fuzzy.  This Polish girl is definitely the hit of the flock. She has been treated like a queen, pictured below being hand fed a bowl of tasty cantaloupe seeds!

And since we're on the topic of chickens, you must also know that our chickens do get a lesson in acrobatics on occasion (have no fear, no animals are harmed at any point during these lessons)! Pictured here is "Original Girl, " a New Hampshire hen.

Value of a Dollar

Wow! You'd think we were in the heat of harvest time with it being a month since I've posted! Things are growing surprisingly well considering the lack of rain we experienced there for a while. At least one thing continues to grow no matter what the rain conditions, and that's our flock of hens!  If you've not yet eaten fresh eggs, you'll certainly never go back to store bought once you see the difference in appearance and nutritional value.
MB takes prides in checking the egg box every day and packing the treasures in their cartons for each week's CSA pickup. He's is also getting weekly lessons in economics as well. As he earns $4 a dozen for the eggs, he is also responsible for purchasing the feed for the hens. Before we began our CSA venture we discussed the additional responsibilities he would gain if he chose to take on the egg duty and he gladly accepted. Just this week, he was talking to me about a toy he had his eye on and how he was "really going to have to manage (his) money if he has to buy chicken food and toys!" Whew, now that is a tough job :-)

MB paying for the feed.

Highlight of going to the feed store is getting to enjoy a soda and sit a spell in the new cedar rocking chairs!

Wheat & Whatnot

Fun happenings at the Farlow Farm. Our neighbor grew a small field of winter wheat and we've been trying our hand at threshing and winnowing it. Our chickens must have smelled the goodness as they were first to bolt to the trailer and hideout underneath while they munched on wheat berries

We're learning the terms as we go, so here goes. Threshing is what MB is doing against the sheet on our tobacco trailer. By beating the stalks of wheat, the stalk and husk will release the wheat berries.

 Now we were left with a large bowl of wheat berries with plenty of wheat husk and a pile of stalks (or a comfy dog bed as Ellie discovered)

How do we get from a bowl of debris filled wheat to clean berries we can process into flour? Lot of hands and several fans in a process called winnowing. EC gets most of the credit for this fun job. She found it quite fun to pick up handful after handful and as she'd drop it back into the same bowl slowly, the debris would blow out and the berries dropped down.

We now have a new appreciation for the work that goes into wheat processing. That one trailer load of wheat condensed down into one bowl of clean workable wheat! Coming soon, the flour and bread.


Interesting description of the parts of wheat and the difference between white and wheat flour:
http://www.conejobread.com/wheat_kernel.htm

And after all that hard work, there's nothing like a fresh pulled carrot to snack on..........

Apples and Peaches and Plums, Oh My!

 About 3 years ago we planted our first fruit trees: apple, peach, plum, cherry, and persimmon. For the benefit of the tree, we painfully pulled every fruit off each tree for the first 2 years. Now that the trees are well rooted and substantially larger, this is the first year we've allowed them to produce fruit! This is the second time Russell has pulled peaches off of our largest peach tree shown here.  We were afraid limbs would start breaking if we let all the fruit ripen. Needless to say, not much is wasted here on our little farm as an entertaining game of peach baseball and peach golf quickly ensued. Both kiddos tried several times to hit homeruns but ended up making peach salsa instead!  Ellie, the Great Dane, enjoyed some edible peach chew toys as well!

Digging for purple gold

If you live within 20 miles of us you could probably hear my squeals of excitement as we took a peak and ended up digging several hills of these purple beauties:

They are an early season variety of potato with purple skin and purple flesh called Adirondack Blue! As these are a new variety to us, we've yet to taste them, but they are supposed to be excellent cooked in any way you can imagine! What will we have for dinner tonight, hmmmm?

Long awaited arrival of the sweet potato slips

What's so exciting about this box of green leafy plants that look nothing like sweet potatoes as printed on the box? These are the 1,000 (yes, that's 3 zero's) sweet potato slips (plants) that we've been waiting weeks for. Why 1,000? Because when Papa Farmer sees that there is a $10 difference between 500 slips and 1,000 slips, then there is no question that sweet potatoes will soon be a staple in our house (and yours too!)  Mmmm, I can just taste the sweet potato burger recipe I found last week!

The Farlow Farm CSA

It's official, we've sent out our first newsletter about our CSA, Community Supported Agriculture. We've been working for about the last month getting our fields planned, prepped, and planted. Now the fun part begins! It's amazing how much growth can happen in just a day or two. There is so much we all learn in the whole process of growing (and eating)! Want to join out mailing list, just send us an email at farlowcsa@aol.com

The company car

Using an Earthway seeder to plant

Blackberries in early May

Trial spring raised bed of lettuce, onions, carrots, and cabbage

First harvested carrot

Checking on the bees

Levering Orchard in Ararat, VA

How have I never heard of this incredible place until today? It will now be a family tradition with my crew for as long as there are cherries to be picked. Incredible views, acres and acres of cherries of 40+ varieties, endless Kodak moments, the list is endless!

Just a wee bit sour!

Oh yeah! That was a good one!

Ever so delicate with each handful.

Just a little bit further.......

Organic pest control

I'm pretty sure on the list of practices approved for organic pest control for potatoes, you will not find anything more effective than the use of a 3 and 6 year old for mashing Colorado potato beetles.

What mom would not be proud to be awaken at 6:30 in the morning to their 3 year old daughter begging to go outside and hunt for "tayda bugs"?

No spray required here, these plants are checked a minimum of 3 times a day!

The best garden planting guide I have found

If we all followed this planting guide .........

FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:
          Peace of mind
          Peace of heart
          Peace of soul
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:
         Squash gossip
         Squash indifference
         Squash grumbling
         Squash selfishness
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:
           Lettuce be faithful
           Lettuce be kind
           Lettuce be patient
           Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:
           Turnip for meetings
           Turnip for service
           Turnip to help one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:
           Thyme for each other
           Thyme for family
           Thyme for friends
WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE. THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.
Note: Author unknown

Birth of a peanut

There is absolutely nothing that compares to the anticipation of growing anything edible. The work that goes into planning, cultivating and preparing the soil, planting day, and then........the sit and wait!!! The first peek of life is visible with a crack.

And even with loamy, sandy soil as we have, those first leaves have to work so hard to push their way through. Longing for their first beams of sunlight, they slowly unfurl.

 

 What seems like hard work is just the beginning. These peanut plants now have to survive through about 130 days worth of a NC summer. One my favorites to grow, peanuts are one of those plants you work so hard to take care of all summer long and get to celebrate with one fun day of harvest! You have never tasted anything so delicious as a fresh roasted peanut dug right from your own garden!

Happy Mother's Day

A tribute to all women who either are moms, have moms, or someday will be mom. Who ever knew that most difficult job in the entire world can be the single most rewarding one. Happy Mother's Day!

Checking the Bees

Beekeeping is new to our entire family so we are all excited to get into our hive and check out the hard work that is being done.  Today MB and I went in to check on our queen and see what kind of work has been going on in the past 2 weeks since we've installed our first package. 

This is the second time we've used our smoker before going into our hive and I must say we were much more successful this go round. Suffice it to say that several of our precious honeybees were toasted our first time .

MB and I checked about 3 frames before we found her, our beautifully marked queen bee. She has been working hard as there were nearly 5 frames full of capped brood (baby bees "to be"). I think we are lifelong beekeepers from this point on.