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
Pumpkins are always fun to grow. Pumpkin is such a unique flavor.
Figs and Pumpkins!
Category: this week
Mowing Grass and Enjoying the Crinum Lillies
Crinum lily in bloom
Crinum lily in bloom
Crinum lily in bloom
Crinum lily in bloom
Crinum lily in bloom
Crinum lily in bloom
Crinum lily in bloom
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.
Motherwort is doing well
Motherwort flowers up close
Motherwort 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”
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.
Growing, growing, growing
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.
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 
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.