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Forgaging as I Mow Grass

One of the things that I enjoy on the farm is the ability to stop and pick fruit or berries while I am taking a break. This time if year, you might think there we don’t have a lot of berries and growing plants. But I stopped for a few minutes on Friday and snacked from berries I was able to pick right off the vines.

Goji Berries

The goji berries have really produced this year. If you want goji berries just let me know and we’ll set up a time for you to come pick them.

Figs

The last round of figs is about to hit. I’m not sure if they will ripen before the first frost, but it was nice enjoying the fruit off the vine as I took a break

Comfrey


The comfrey plants are enjoying a warm october and still growing. Comfrey isn’t edible off the vine, but it is still nice to see it growing.

Raspberries

The raspberry plants are still growing. Hopefully next year we will get to enjoy berries from them.

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Woolly Worms and Planting Garlic

One of the traditions on the farm is planting garlic in October. We actually started growing garlic on the farm before we owned the property. We grew garlic with the previous owner. We have continued the tradition every since.

We plant garlic in Oct and really don’t do much with it until spring. Once spring arrives, the weeds come with the warm weather and it is time to weed the garlic.

Garlic Available

We have almost sold out of this year’s garlic. We have maybe 2-3 lbs left. It is available in the store. We hope to have more garlic available in July 2025.

Back to the Planting

This year we planted garlic in a new location. We work hard to minimize how much we till the soil, as part of building better soil on the property. The soil in this area did require tilling the beds prior to planting the garlic. We planted over 800 garlic starts.

Rows of garlic ready to cover with soil
You can see the top of garlic (white) peeking out and ready to cover with soil

Once the garlic was planted and covered with soil, we covered the bed with hay. The hay was cut from the back field on our property. Using the hay is an example of function stacking. The hay helps in several areas. As the hay breaks down it adds nutrients and orgranic matter to the soil. The hay also supresses weeds. The garlic beds won’t need any significant weeding until March.

Putting down hay

Woolly Worms

We saw lots of woolly worms. Here are some pictures

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Damage from Hurricane Helene in WNC

We had the privilege of going to help with the recovery for a few days. The damage is hard to describe. One of the major problems is that the power and data infrastructure can’t be repair because major swathes of power lines and power poles are just gone. Power poles snaped in half. Cars wrapped around trees. We were working in an area where power may not be restored for 6-9 months. Thanks so much for everyone in our crew and the many people coming to help out and sending supplies. Here are some pictures from our trip

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Designing a Gift Basket

Simply Us Farm is a local farm that my wife and I run. One of the projects for this year is to develop gift boxes for Christmas. I wanted to share some of the thinking behind the process of designing the gift boxes. Usually my blog entries focus on the design sides of new product develpment, but this is a journey into product management.

Background

Local businesses often struggle to market and sell products. This is driven by several issues including

  • not having a fully developed sales channel – wholesale, retail and online
  • smaller number of items in their catalog
  • catalog items are often very hyper focused on what the small business is passionate about

This is especially true for small farms. Simply Us Farms is young farm in NC adding new production every year. The farm specializes in uncommon fruits and berries with high nutritional value and high anti-oxident content.

The challenge for this holiday season is to develop a gift basket. Simply Us Farms produces honey from the farm and from Troublesome Gap. One option is to team up with other local producers to create a specialty gift basket filled with local goods and the honey from the Simply Us Farm.

Sources of Inspiration

Dan the Sausage Man is a company that produces a well thought out line of gift baskets. They also have a great origin story that they effectively share. Here is the story from their website.

They provide a variety of gift baskets that vary with the seaon and a different price points.

The internet also provides lots of examples of gift baskets that feature or include honey.

Goal

Provide a great gift that will be appreciated by the person receiving it. We want to create an special experience for the person who puts the contents of the gift basket to use.

Basket Themes

We want to help the basket user create a special culinary experience. This could be categorized several different ways. One way is to associate the experience with snack or meal. Here are some options

  • pre-breakfast (such as morning coffee)
  • breakfast
  • brunch
  • lunch
  • dinner
  • snack

Other opportunities is to associate the gift with an event include

  • picnic
  • thank you (professional or personal)
  • family or personal tradition
  • specific holiday (religious, cultural or social – examples: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween)
  • birthday or other personal milestone (maybe a 50th anniversary, college graduation, or baby shower)
  • wedding present
  • corporate / organizational gift, thank you or award

Packaging

Because these are limited runs, the packaging needs to be something that is easy to decorate and off the shelf. We can print labels to designate the package as a Simply Us Farm gift box. Decoration can also show which version of the gift box is in packaging after it is closed up. The filler material and the box should be easily recyclable. Possibly a crinkle paper. It would be nice to have a single box that held the 3 smallest configurations, just to keep down on the number of boxes to purchase.

What to Put in the Baskets

Simply Us Farm has two types of honey available (farm honey / Bennett, NC & mountain honey / Troublesome Gap, NC). We can pour that honey into different size jars. Currently we have

  • 1/2 lb
  • 1 lb
  • sample size

It would be great if the gift box / basket could be filled with items from local farms and vendors. Here are possible companion products from a brainstorming session

  • honey dipping utensils
  • coffee (maybe with a coffee stirrer)
  • sauces (maybe bbq or some other sauce for a process that can involve honey)
  • sourkraut or other fermented food
  • teas
  • table cloth or other items to set a scene
  • meat product (cured ham, sausage or sliced)
  • crackers
  • cheese
  • jelly or jam (including fig)
  • honey from another farm with a different taste
  • recipes or cookbook
  • food mix
  • juice (maybe grape, elderberry, or other)
  • mug with a relevant graphic
  • medicinals (locally sourced)
  • balloons for a birthday or other party
  • pumpkin something for fall
  • placemats for the table with a seasonal color scheme
  • locally made pottery or mugs
  • locally made candles (maybe with a seasonal scent)

Themes

We also wanted to think about how we could build gift box around a them. The theme helps build an emotional connection with the gift giver and receiver. Turning it from a box with food items into an experience.

  • Morning coffee and honey
  • Christmas coffee and honey – maybe adding a pine or other seasonal smell
  • Fall grilling season (mild)
  • Fall grilling season (hot)
  • Tailgaiting
  • Snowy Day
  • Fall set – maybeadd something pumpkin or wool placemats with a fall color scheme
  • Health theme (maybe with medicinals or a medicinal tea)

Pricing

After doing a survey on the internet, here are our initial cost targets for pricing.

  • Option 1 – $54.95
  • Option 2 – $59.95
  • Option 3 – $64.95
  • Option 4 – $149.95

Once we put sample baskets together then we can take pictures and test market the combinations on the website and with targeted emails. That will help determine if the gift basket is desirable and if they will sell.

Next Steps

We have started working with local farms to identify items that can go in the baskets. Then we’ll need to create specifc basket configurations. We’ll share the results as we go. The best wasy to follow along are to join the email list and check back on the blog.

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Farm and Forest – Digital Detox at Its Finest

Starting a farm has been quite an experience.

Jack Spirko often contends on his podcast that answers can be found in the forest. I’m thinking that most answers can be found in the forest and farm because we already know the answer most of the time. We just need to face to up the answer we already know and looking at the beauty around us help us to face those answers. Or sometimes we just need to something to help us focus so we can put the pieces together and arrive at an answer. Other times there is inspiration that we can find in the beauty and grand design of nature around us.

Crinum lily in bloom

Many times I find that while I’m working on something on the farm, I’m learning about how to be a better farmer but also gaining a deeper understanding of life and myself. Hard work is good way to push out the some of the mental clutter. Getting that mental clutter out of the way helps me to think through any challenges or questions. Often I find that I get to the end of the day and the work is done and I’ve figured out answers to challenges that have nothing to do with the farm.

During the day at work and home, there are a lot of things competing for our attention. Getting outside and working filters out that digital noise and info, giving a very important digital detox. The act of labor and the concentration on the task at hand helps deepen the effects of the digital detox. These moments of digital detox peel away the layers of mental clutter and leaves me prepared to enjoy life and remember what is truly important.

I hope you have a great week!

Our camping site in the back field is coming along nicely
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Pumpkins Are Coming, Maybe

We tried something new this year. We planted pumpkins in withour sorghum / sudan grass and buckwheat cover crop. The plan:

  • plant the pumpkins and cover crop in the area where we had just dug potatoes. The row was already covered with straw that we used around the potato plants
  • let the cover crop and pumpkins grow – the buckwheat grew first and was succeeded by the pumpkins and sorghum / sudan grass
  • weed around the pumpkins
  • let the pumpkins grown out into the grassy rows beyond the cover crop area
  • [future] hopefully harvest pumpkins

Doing this allows us to add organic matter to the soil when we terminate the sorghum / sudan grass and it composts over the winter. The sorghum / sudan grass also acts a a mulch for the winter cover crop. Hopefully we get a good harvest of pumpkins. Innovating in small ways means trying new things.

I’m looking foward to pumpkins!

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Expanding Our Orchard

“The plan” is to install the next phase of orchard just after Thanksgiving. We’ll offer a class in planting fruit trees for anyone that wants to learn and join in as we plant the next phase of our orchard. I’ll post the class invite on the website once it is scheduled. It would be great if you could join us for a day of planting trees and wonderful fellowship.

2 of the walnut trees with room to put pawpaws in between
Test planting of figs and persimmon in the back field

Back Field Plans

This fall we plan to add the next wave of fruit trees to the back field. These include

  • Peaches – Contender, Redhaven, and Belle of Georgia varieties
  • Asian Pear – Korean Giant and Chojuro varieities
  • Plum – Byron Gold, Methley, Ozark Premier and Blue Damson varieties
  • Plumcot – Spring Satin variety
  • Nectarines – Carla Rose variety
  • Black Walnut – native
  • Asian Chestnut – Dunstan variety
  • Mulberry – Dwarf Everbearing

We also have a pecan tree that didn’t survive. So we’ll replace that pecan tree. The variety is Occonee. Pecans have very specific pollination periods so it is important to choose the correct varieties so they can cross pollinate and produce pecans.

Our camping site in the back field is coming along nicely

Campsite Plans

We want to keep plenty of room for tents in the back field campsite as we add more fruiting plants to the mini-food forest there. We hopee to add blueberries this fall. The selected rabbit eye blueberry varieties are Premier, Columbus, and Tifblue.

Food Forest Plans

One of the plants that has struggled in the food forest is the blackberries. We plan to take out part of the blackberries and their trellis. Then we can come black and plant fruit trees. We’ve already replaced part of the blackberries with black chokeberrie (you may recognize them as aronia berries). I’m hoping to add additional chokeberries to the food food forest along with plum trees (Methley and Ozark Premier varieties).

Goji berries climbing the trellis

Field #2 Plan

We have an area of field #2 that stays fairly dry, which is ironic compared to how wet the rest of field #2 generally is. This is most likely caused by the depth of the water in that one area. We plan to add goji berries to the dry area. The goji berries have in the food forest in the hugelkultur mound and we hope to continue the success in field #2.

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Mowing Grass and Enjoying the Crinum Lillies

Motherwort is Growing

Motherwort is a medicinal plant with studies that show it has benefits for the ciculatory system. There are also anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Extracts from this plant may also help stimulate the uterus and fight bacteria. This is our first time growing motherwort and it is doing well.

The black walnut trees are doing better as we remove brush from around them and cut back grapevines that are growing in the trees

Where to Find Me? Find Me Under this Old Hat!

Somtimes it is good to take a few minutes and just sit at the picnic table and enjoy being outside, especially after working hard on the farm.

As Sawyer Brown says, “you never need to wonder where I’m at, you can find me hanging out under this old hat”

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Fresh from the Farm this Week

One of our goals has been to send out emails as we have items available from the farm. This is the first edition of that notice. Currently we have available:

  • elderberries
  • garlic (very limited supply)
  • raw honey from the farm in Bennett (yes, it is back – we sold out last year’s supply)
  • raw honey from Troublesome Gap
  • comfrey

You can place your order our store. You can go to the store directly at https://www.simplyusfarm.com/shop/ or click on the store icon (circled in red below). Any of the produce will need to be picked up locally. We do porch pickups in Sanford.

Freeze Drying Comfrey

We freeze dried our first batch of comfrey and stored the test batch in a vacuum sealed canning jar with an oxygen absorber. The freeze dried comfrey was easy to turn into a sorta powdery consistency after the freeze drying completed. The comfrey freeze dried fairly quickly. The entire run fit in a single wide mouth mason jar after we crunched up the leaves and stem. I’ll call it a success.

Next step is to make a salve.