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.
We purchased the land for the farm in 2021. Since then it has been forward plunge into the turbulent waters of agriculture.
I’m proud of the fact that we have planted and tagged over 200 fruit and nut bearing trees and bushes . We have also grown several seasons of row crops.
Trees (Fruit bearing)
Apricot
Mulberry
Nectarine
PawPaw
Peach
Asian Pear
Kieffer Pear
Pecan
Plum
Plumcot
American Persimmon
Figs
Yaupon Holly
Trees (Nut bearing)
Black Walnut
Chestnut
Hazel nut
Bushes (Fruit bearing)
Blueberry
Elderberry
Goji Berry
Blackberry
Aronia / Black Choke Berry
Gold Raspberry
Prickly Pear Cactus
Medicinal
Comfrey
Motherwort
Witch Hazel
St. Johns Wort
Burdock
Row Crops
Garlic
Plan to plant in the spring
Jujube trees
Quince trees
Pomegranate tree
Goumi berry bushes
Thanks to everyone that has helped in many different ways. Friendships have formed and deepened. We have so enjoyed teaching hands on classes and giving tours. Thanks so much!
We had a good time as a family on the farm planting fruit and nut bearing trees. We planted fruit and nut bearing trees and bushes.
We were able to plant 41 trees and 15 bushes including
| Trees (Fruit) Apricot Mulberry Nectarine PawPaw Peach Asian Pear Kieffer Pear Pecan Plum Plumcot Trees (Nut) Black Walnut Chestnut Bushes (Fruit) Blueberry Elderberry Goji Berry Medicinal Comfrey |
The comfrey is planted with trees and bushes as a living mulch and as a medicinal.
It was so nice that it was a family effort with Connie and JonnyLee.
Rob K for the walnut trees and the use of his autocross car a few weeks ago (that was fun and we didn’t die)
Rabbit Ridge in Coats, NC for the fruit trees.
Permapastures Farm in WNC for the comfrey
This week we have been working to get everything ready to plant trees next week. First step was a trip to Rabbit Ridge Berry Farm in Coats, NC to pick up trees and bushes.
Fred and Amily are great to do business with. We have been buying trees and bushes from them for more than 2 years and it is a wonderful experience.
We filled up the truck and trailer and headed to the farm. One of the trees we purchased was a pecan that was more then 8 feet tall. It was longer than the 8 foot trailer!
The next step was to take measurements and put flags showing the future location of the trees. The fields are starting to get wet so we transferred the trees to a smaller trailer and towed the trailer (with the tractor) to areas close to the intended locations. You can see me with the lines that we used to measure out the 20 foot grid.
Weather permitting, the plan is to plant 47 trees and bushes next week including:
Next week should be a busy week.
The garlic is coming up. We had tried something new with the garlic this year. We planted the garlic then rolled out hay from a round bale (instead of manually spreading it). Once we started unrolling the hay we were concerned that the hay would be too thick. However the garlic is growing through the hay so hopefully this approach will work.
We are still seeing wolly worms. We saw a really big one yesterday
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.
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!
We tried something new this year. We planted pumpkins in withour sorghum / sudan grass and buckwheat cover crop. The plan:
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!
Our figs are starting to ripen. The picture below shows a fig that got a little over ripe, but the insects definitely don’t mind.
Pumpkins are always fun to grow. Pumpkin is such a unique flavor.
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
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”
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:
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.
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.
The fig trees are recovering nicely from the warm snap in February. We even have a few trees that are producing figs. Can’t wait to try them.
The goji berry plants are climbing the trellis and reaching for the sun. No signs of berries yet but we are optimistic
The comfrey we planted this year is loving the hot weather. We hope to use it around many of the trees and bushes as a living mulch and suppress weeds.
The mulberry trees are growing nicely.
My wife and I love spending time outdoors. Having a farm and garden is a great way to do that. It also means we have more nutritious foods. Many of the people we have met on this journey like similar things and that makes it even better. I’m a mechanical engineer turned weekend farmer, so I’m just smart enough to know that there is a lot that I don’t know especially when it comes to farming, permaculture and food forests. Come on the learning journey with us!
We would love to share what we are learning so that you can grow at least part of your own food. It is within your grasp to grow part of the food that you eat. You can improve your food security and enjoy higher quality food in the process.
We also have limited opportunities for you to camp out on our farm, enjoying the serious peace and quiet. Sometimes we hold classes, usually on Food Preservation. Join us for those too.
Meet the Farmers
I’m a mechanical engineer turned weekend farmer, so I’m just smart enough to know that there is a lot that I don’t know especially when it comes to farming, permaculture and food forests. I’ve been heavily influenced in my love of farming and permaculture by my Mom and Dad and also by people like Jack Spirko (TSP) and Dan (Plant Abundance)
Connie has her certificate in Sustainable Agriculture from CCCC. She really enjoyed the classes at the community college and learned a lot. The program was a mixture of classes and work on the school farm. What she learned has really added to our technical proficiency on the farm.