food security – Page 2

Posted on May 26, 2024May 26, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Farm Tours! – Our Annual Fun Day on the Farm

Thanks to everyone who came. We had 16 attendees from 8 families. What a great day. We shared about permaculture, design thinking, innovation and regenerative farming. Attendes learned about how we go about building good soil so the plants, trees and bushes thrive. We also talked about how we farm without insecticides or pesticides. Attendees also learned how we do function stacking so many plants on the farm have multiple jobs.

We also had a meal for people who have attended our classes. It was nice sharing a meal with familiar faces. Thanks to everyone who attended. Also, thanks to everyone that helps make the farm a success.

One of the new items we showed off on the farm tour is our growing cadre our medicinal plants. We now have

comfrey
witch hazel
white yarrow
motherwort

Here are some views from the farm this weekend

Our walnut trees in the backfield are growing nicely

2 of the walnut trees with room to put pawpaws in between

Black walnuts in a deer resistant cage and with fresh mulch

Steam coming off the mulch pile at sunrise

There are so many on some of the limbs that we had to remove them before they damaged the limb

Our camping site in the back field is coming along nicely

Posted on May 19, 2024May 19, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Berries are Blooming

We’ve been getting ready for the farm tours so this will be a shorter post. We are seeing lots of green growth all over the farm. The elderberries, blueberries and blackberries are starting to bloom so it won’t be long before we have berries. The potatoes are starting to bloom so its time to hill around them to encourage potato growth.

Posted on May 8, 2024May 8, 2024 by admin

So Much Growth

The warm rains have helped kick off so much green on the farm. It is nice to watch everything grow. The fall and winter test plantings of fig, elderberry and pawpaw in the back field are growing well. We’ve had a few figs that might not make it, but overall it is looking good.

I hope you enjoy the pictures from this week.

Fig in back field is coming up, one of our test plants

Fig trees are recovering from the warm spell in February in 2023

Posted on April 27, 2024April 27, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Spiders, Crazy Bugs and Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

What beautiful days to work on the farm! We enjoyed spectacular weather.

Day 3 of our Growing Potatoes class was today. Just in case you are wondering this is a day where we just weed potatoes and adjust any hay covering. The potatoes are growing nicely. Although we did discover that if you put too much hay down after you plant the potato slip, the plants won’t make it through the hay. So we had to uncover quite a few potato plants.

There are so many flowers blooming on the farm and in the field right now. We must have some happy bees.

Those aren't strawberries — Those aren’t strawberries

We also weeded garlic and onions. The garlic grows so well on our farm. However, I’m not sure that I’m much of an onion farmer.

It won’t be long before the garlic is ready to harvest, Connie did a great job weeding it

We also saw a lot of bugs from a very large spider with egg sac (maybe a wolf spider) to a very large unknow spider.

Posted on April 7, 2024April 10, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Potato Planting Class (Part 2) and Finding Meaning in Life for Men

What beautiful weather and a nice day to plant potatoes. We took time to plant potatoes (and a few onions) then cover with hay.

We also installed drip tape. Because potatoes are a early crop and generally finish before the summer temperature gets hot, we may not need to irrigation the potatoes. The need to irrigate is driven by how much rain we get in May and early June.

Why work hard on the farm when we can just to go the grocery store? What does that have to do with doing big things as a man?

Growing your own food has many benefits for the farmer and people who work on a farm.

Getting out on the farm and working with our hands leads to good conversation and a sense of accomplishment. Men do better in life when we can take on and accomplish big things. What are we responsible for in life? We have responsibilities at work. We have responsibilities at home. What big things are we doing?

Our jobs are tenuous. You could be severed from your employer in one conversation because someone 1000 miles away made a decision while looking at a spreadsheet. We trade hours of our lives for time spent at the office. I’m not anti-company, I just recognize the system that surrounds us. Most of us work for someone else to earn a living and that is the system that we currently live in. Working for someone else is how we pay the bills and there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that. The tenuous nature of the relationship with our employers means that we should not seek meaning in life because of our position at some company but instead in what we do that has lasting value.

Growing part of your own food means that you have taken on responsbilities for the following:

for the land and the soil
for the crops that you have to nurture and harvest
for yourself so that you are there to prepare, plant, nurture and harvest
for the time you spend
for getting to know the people you work with as you grow your own food
the neighbors that you give some of your excess food
leaving the land better off than when you found it
leaving behind a lasting legacy of abundance – abundance that you developed and nurtured

How are you serving others around you?

These are all questions and opportunities for us as men to answer as we seek to live meaninful lives.

The abundance of a single fig tree and doing big things

Even a single fig tree can provide a bountiful harvest for generations. If you plant and nurture that tree, you are providing figures for generations. Having a purpose in life and accepting responsibility for a man is one way to develop joy. Don’t “search” for joy in things or titles, instead develop joy and purpose by accepting responsibility. Men were made to do big things. What is your big thing? Accepting the responsibility to do those big things can bring joy to your life.

Pictures from this week on the farm

Putting down hay to suppress weeds in the potatoes that we just planted

Picnic table is a great spot for taking a break

Potatoes planted and covered with hay and drip lines in place

Buckwheat cover crop planted in tilled areas

The Paw Paw seedlings we planted last fall are coming to life

Posted on March 23, 2024March 23, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Let’s Plant Onions

There was a break in the weather and it gave us time to plant onions. We have almost 1,000 onions sets started this year. We planted the onions and then covered with hay. The hay helps suppress weeds and makes weeding so much easier. The hay also serves as a soil amendment as it composts.

Word of warning with using hay, or any compost, in your garden: it is important to make sure that you aren’t introducing herbicides into your garden through the hay or compost. The vast majority of hay is sprayed with a herbicide. Compost from your local municipality usually contains grass that was treated herbicides. That free compost from the city or county can kill the plants in your garden. Here is a good resource on the topic – click here

How to buy produce and cuttings from Simply Us Farm

When we have produce available, we’ll announce it here and through our email list. Many of the the items from our farm are only available for a short season and often just once per year.

Onions planted, next is covering with hay

The daffodils are blooming. Nice to see the beautiful colors

Posted on March 16, 2024March 16, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Small But Mighty Growing Potatoes Classes

We had a great day on the farm teaching how to plant potatoes.

Yesterday (Friday, the day before class) I was out on the farm getting the rows ready to plant. It was all going well until it started raining. One of the challenge with planting potatoes is rain and wet ground, which also seems to happen when we go to plant potatoes. I’m not sure if I would know how to plant potatoes without standing in mud between the rows.

Today we accomplished the following:

– demonstrated and did hands-on cutting of seed potatoes in pieces to plant
– planted approximately 200 linear feet of three different varieties of potatoes
– installed and tested drip tap for the potatoes
– planted approximately 320 onions

This is the first day in a multipart class where we plan to prepare, plant, maintain and hopefully harvest some awesome potatoes grown without synthetic fertilizer, no herbicides and no pesticides using a low till approach. We work hard to practice regenertive farming.

I realize that if there aren’t pictures of video then did it really happen? So, lets take a look at the pics. Check out the purple potatoes! Scroll to the end for some bonus pictures.

Drip line installed and potatoes planted

Surveying the work – agricultural therapy at its finest

P.S. Planting one more tree

About this time of year, I declare I’m done planting new trees or perennials until fall. But there is also the temptation to plant just one more fruit bearing tree or bush. Friday, it was just me on the farm and I had brought with me a fig that somehow didn’t get planted this fall or winter. So, I decided to plant one more tree. Thanks to Connie for getting the fig cutting and turning it into a figlet that was ready to plant. One day, if all goes well, we’ll be trying to figure out what to do with a lot of figs.

My dad always says “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago and the next best time to plant a tree is this afternoon”.
Jean montie roland, quoting someone else, but still great advice

Getting ready to plant the “last” fig until fall

Wire cage to keep the deer away from the figlet so it can grow

P.P.S. Parting Throught

I haven’t run this meme by my wife yet, but I’m confident she will agree. I’ll ask her after I water the chickens.

Posted on March 13, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Nice Day in March and New Bees

Walking through the farm reveals a plethora of bushes and trees that are budding out. A few weeks ago, many of these bushes and plants were dormant. Now buds are forming and you can see the first signs of growth of the year.

Last year we sold out of honey from the farm. This year we are adding more bees. The first new hives arrived this week.

The first of the new bee hives have arrived!

The mighty goji berries seem upstoppable already

Elderberries are off and running, they do so well here

Hazel bush buds arriving. Looking forward to having hazel nuts in 2-3 years

Posted on March 2, 2024April 30, 2024 by admin — Leave a comment

Join us for Farm Tour Day!

Every year we do a farm tour. This is a great chance to meet the farmers and see the farm. We’ll show you our work in progress and talk about how we do regenerative farming.

Farm tour includes

– detailed tour (family friendly)
– 1/2 lb of honey from our remote mountain location of Troublesome Gap, NC

What to Bring

Just bring yourself and your family and comfortable shoes. We plan to walk on grassy fields and uneven ground.

We are Dirt Farmers and Pesticide / Insecticide Free

If we grow good dirt, then plants will grow and produce abundantly. We use a minimum of organic fertlizers. We avoid the use of synthetic fertilizers. We also don’t use any pesticides or insecticides. We do use natural amendments like woodchips, hay (pesticide / herbicide free) and feather meal.

Diversity of Plants and Trees on the Farm

Let us introduce you to some of the variety of plants, bushes and trees on the farm including

Row Crops
– garlic and onions
– potatoes
– moringa

Fruit Bearing Trees
– mulberry
– hazel
– black walnut
– figs
– olive
– persimmon
– paw paw
– yaupon holley
– pecan

Fruit Bearing Bushes
– blueberry
– goji berry
– elderberry
– blackberry

Specialty
– native cactus (edible / nopales)
– comfrey
– honey bees

Posted on February 11, 2024February 11, 2024 by admin

Pruning Blueberries and Blackberries

February is shaping to be a month of blueberries. We took a class in pruning blueberry bushes last weekend. Seems like there is a always something new to learn. This weekend, on a gloriously nice Saturday (mid 70s), we are pruned our blueberries at the farm. Next up is blueberries at my bonus child’s house (he has a bunch), then doing the grapevines and blueberry bushes at my parents house. Finally doing the blueberries at our home.

Blueberry bushes need to be pruned in the winter. February is the last opportunity until next Fall. Blueberries are a native plant but do much better (from a production standpoint) when they are properly pruned. A properly pruned blueberry bush will produce bigger and tastier berries than one that isn’t well maintained. The blueberry bushes at the farm were planted last spring, so it will be a year or two before we have a crop of blueberries from them.

We’ve pruned the blackberries at the farm. Next step with the blackberries is to prune them at the house.

If you want your own domesticated blackberry plants, we will have thrornless blackberrry plants in mid March. These will be ready to plant. Contact us if you want plants or want to learn how to prune your blackberries.

Another bit of good news is that at least one of our olive trees looks like it made it through the winter.

The elderberries have started to bud out. The diakon cover crop went through a winter kill with the cold weather. The clover cover crop is growing very slowly but should really take off as the weather warms up in March. It won’t be long before it is time to plant onions, potatoes and rotate cover crops.

The bees were very active today. Spring will be here soon.