Category: local food

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Showing the Blueberries Some Love

This is a busy time of year on the farm. One of the tasks is getting the blueberries ready for summer. We use pine straw as a mulch. Using pine straw as a mulch is a good example of function stacking. The pine straw helps to lower the soil ph (blueberries like low ph soil), regulate moisture in the soil, supresses the growth of weeds and amends the soil as it breaks down adding nutrients and organic matter. The pine straw settles during the next few months, so we pile it deep.

The iris, comfrey, clover and wildflowers are blooming. This year we created a natural area. This was a previously cultivated area that is now fallow. The wildflowers that came up are great.

The last couple of days have been spent mowing grass (grows amazingly quick this time of year), trimming under fences and around plants. We’ve also been watering new plantings and fertilizing. Sometimes new trees and plants don’t thrive but that is vastly offset by the wonderful growth on the farm right now.

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The Plan, So Far

Our plan with the trees and bushes we planted this fall and spring has 4 elements

  • co-plant with comfrey
  • use metal tag with a plant number, type and variety
  • protect the tender trunk with a plastic cage or tube
  • placing wood chips around the trees and bushes

Metal tags everywhere

We have used the metal tag system from the beginning of our farm. This has been a great way to track trees and bushes on the farm. We also have maps where the individual plant locations are noted.

Spreadsheet where we track planted trees and bushes

One of the tasks for today was installing metal tags on trees that were planted last fall and this spring. The plastic tag that came with the tree is removed and a metal tag is put in place. This gives us a permanent way to identify a plant and know its history.

Using lots of wood chips

We are still in the process of putting woodchips around all the new trees and bushes. The woodchips helps regulate the moisture of the soil, while keep summer temperatures down at the root ball. They also amend the soil with nutrients and organic matter as the wood chips break down. All of these items help to build healthy soil, which greatly improves the conditions for the tree as it grows. The goal is to put at least woods in a circular pattern around the tree to depth of 8-12 inches.

Metal tag with a number, tree type and variety plus a plastic guard against critters
Tree with tree protector, tag and comfrey
Metal tag with unique identifier and tree type and variety
Comfrey at the base of young tree, growing through the mulch

Here are some pictures from today on the farm

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Grow, Grow, Grow and Peace

It is really nice to spend the day surrounded by all of the springtime explosion of blooms and new growth. The weather this time of year is spectacular and it makes the hard work on the farm seem much easier. Being outside and having the privilege of managing this property is wonderful. Watching everything grow is nice. Sometimes things don’t grow and there is a lesson to be learned. Sometimes that lesson is a technical one. Other times, it becomes obvious, once again, that I can’t impose my will on the farm.

Working on the farm also gives me time to think. It is humbling to know that I’m just a caretaker of the farm. There are trees that we have planted that will still be growing and thriving long after our season has passed.

A great feeling comes as standing in the middle of a growing ecosystem. The goal is to build abundance. Part of that abundance goes back to the land as a way to build better soil and strong plants and trees for future abundance. The rest leaves the farm as food.

Standing there and looking at the trees and plants at the end of the day with sun getting lower, there is a peaceful feeling. What is happening in a crazy world, is still important but is in perspective. That is such a blessing. You can’t buy peace. Sure having a farm is a lot of work and expense but having peace in our lives is priceless.

Orchard with young pears, nectarines, peaches and plums
Hugelkultur mound with blueberries, raspberries and goji berries
Driving back across the field at the end of the day, tired but relaxed
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Fruit Trees Blooming Like Crazy

What a beautiful day to plant trees and work in the orchard! We installed medlar, quince and jujube trees. The trees came from Burnt Ridge Nursery as bare root plants.

We are experimenting with using goumi berry bushes as a nitrogen fixer that also produces a crop.

Trees and bushes that we planted

  • Jujube, Li- Ziziphus jujuba
  • Jujube, Qiyue Xian – Zizyphus jujuba
  • Quince Aronmatnaya – Cydonia oblonga
  • Quince Krimskaya – Cydonia oblonga
  • Medlar, Brenda Giant – Mespilus germanica
  • Medlar, Royal – Mespilus germanica
  • Goumi Berry, Carmine – Elaeagnus multiflora

The last plants we needed to prune for the season were the black berries and raspberries on the farm. Connie knocked those out, so they are ready for summer.

Update from the trees planted in November

We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of growth from trees that we planted last November. The picture below shows a tree that has more than doubled in diameter and grown nicely in height. The tree protectors we installed will help keep small critters and deer from damaging the young tree calipers. We already had one plum tree that had damage (maybe 6 inch above the ground) from a critter chewing on it, maybe a rabbit.

Tree protectors help keep the caliper of the tree safe from critters and me with the weed eater
Tree protector in place
Raspberries growing
Raspberries growing
Bare root plants ready to install
Bare root plants ready to install
Blackberries after pruning
Blackberries after pruning
Blackberries after pruning
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Pause Before Spring? No Way, No Pause

Everything is warming up. We have been busy. We have also been using the nice weather to work on cleaning up fallen trees. The bees are loving their new home.

Our garlic is doing well. Garlic is one of the easier crops to grow because it requires so little maintenance until the last few weeks. We sold out of garlic last year, so when it is available in early summer, make sure to get your orders in. We don’t use pesticides or insecticides on the farm.

Sometimes details are important, a toad hopped on my chainsaw box while we were cutting up a tree that fell down in the storm. Connie noticed the small toad and snapped the pic

Tiny toad on chainsaw case
Tiny toad up close
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Pruning on the Farm and More Bees

What beautiful weather this weekend. We’ve had several Saturdays in a row where the weather was just gorgeous. This weather definitely makes for a relaxing day.

Successful Elderberry Pruning Class

Thanks to everyone that came to our elderberry pruning and planting class. We had a wonderful time. We sent many of the elderberry cuttings to WNC to help with stream bank retention for areas damaged by the hurricane.

Expanded Apiary

New home for the bees

Moving the bees to the back field gives us room to expand the number of hives. We hope to have 10 hives in place for this year. I’ve been surprised by the number for people that want local honey. The bees are a great example of function stacking. The bees pollinate the trees and bushes while producing honey

Blueberries Needed Pruning

These blueberry plants are two years old. We have 22 blueberry plants on the farm. 20 on the HugelKultur mound and 2 in the back field (as a test planting). They were not pruned when they were originally planted 2 years ago. This was their very first pruning, we did leave a few cross branches but they weren’t rubbing on other branches so we chose to leave them for this year. Next year they will be pruned away. We did have a small bowl of blueberries last year but this year we are expecting bigger and better harvest. Here are the before and after photos

Blueberry plant needing to be pruned

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Bee News | Pruning Moms Grape Vines and Orchard

Bees Have a New Home Soon

The bees are moving to the back field and more bees should arrive in a few weeks. The plan is to have 10 hives total. We currently have 4 hives. We keep selling out of honey from the farm so additional honey capacity will be good as the farm grows.

Good Family Times

One of our yearly traditions has been to prune the grape vines, blueberries and fruit trees at my mom’s house. We did that this week and had a good time. What a beautiful day. We had a good time as a family and accomplished a lot.

It is wonderful that the orchard, berries and vines produce an abundance that my mom can share with the community.

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Taking a Break for a Few Weeks

We hope you have enjoyed the news and pictures from the farm in 2024. We’re going to take a break from the blog for few weeks.

Expect to see more pictures when it is time to prune the elderberries, mulberry trees, fig trees and goji berries. If you want to learn to prune your berries and fruit trees, let me know and we’ll set up a class for late February or early March.

Goji berries
Starting to put mulch around the mulberry trees
Fig tree
Elderberries
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Making Elderberry Syrup

Link to image file↗

It is that time of year. Time to make elderberry syrup! FoxNews just did a story talking about the benfits of elderberries (click on the image below to read the story)


How we make the syrup

The first step is to put the elderberries in a steam juicer. The steam juicer creates a juice extract from the elderberrries. The extract from the steam juicer is reduced (over heat) to approximately half the volume that came from the steam juicer. Once the juice has cooled to less than 120 degrees, it is ready for the honey. The reduced juice is mixed with an equal part of honey from our place in the mountains. The goal is to keep the majority of the honey below a temperature of 105 degrees. The honey and juice mixes best at warmer temperatures but we don’t want to get the honey too warm and lose the natural properties of the raw honey. We measure the temperature of the juice as it is cooling and then mix the honey and liquid together once the reduced liquid reach a temperature of 120 degrees.

Frozen elderberries going in the steam juicer
Elderberry syrup in a squeeze bottle
First time we have put elderberry syrup in a squeeze bottle
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Planting Pomegranate Trees and More Wood Chips

This time of year is fairly busy on the farm. Activities for this week included:

  • planting pomegranate trees, prickly pear cactus and the last of the goji berries
  • putting out more woodchips (semi composted mulch) around the fruit trees we planted in November
  • clearing a dead tree off the bridge so I could get to the back field
  • moving brush and wood that had been cut a few years ago
  • cutting down more the invasive trifoliate citrus bushes

The weather was spectacular. It was nice to be outside.

Natural Fertilizers for Trees and Bushes

One of the things we have on the farm this time of year is diakon radish (also called field radish). We use it as a cover crop. One of the methods I used when planting trees and bushes was to harvest some of the daikon tuber and put it in the bottom of the hole where the trees and bushes went. The daikon tuber breaks down over time and adds nutrients to the soil near the tree and bush roots. It is especially easy to do when the daikon radish is just a few feet away.

Daikon radish in bottom of hole for tree or bush, a natural fertilizer