Tag: north carolina

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Goji Berries and Moringa

The goji berries are here! It is amazing that we have a small crop of goji berries this year. The goji berries we planted this spring. Our test plantings of moringa are also doing well. We have been busy putting in cover crops and working hard to improve the soil. We work hard to have great soil to make the farming easier.

The clover we planted last week is really coming up strong. All that rain helped. We were worried the storm would wash away the clover seeds but the hay seemed to help hold the seeds in place.

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Planting Clover and Native Pollinators

It was almost 100 degrees! We were very much appreciating the shade in places.

The areas disturbed by the skid steer were also areas that we wanted to improve the soil. We planted clover and native pollinators in those areas. The clover also has the benefit of improving the soil, prevent erosion and help control the water flow in those areas. The pollinators are good for the bees and other insects. The deer is a win with the deer. The pollinators and the clover add beautiful flowers. This was also a way that we could add vegetative matter (i.e. clover) under the oak trees control water flow and erosion, with minimum soil disruption under the oak trees. From a permaculture perspective, this is function stacking at work.

We placed hay on the disturbed ground to help hold the seeds in place and hide them from birds looking for an easy meal. We are supposed to get several days of rain this week so that should help give the plants a good start.

We hope to stay busy over the next few weeks preparing beds and planting cover crops.

Goji Berries – Elderberries

We harvested what should be the last of the elderberries. We had a first goji berries. We only picked a handful of goji berries, but it was nice to finally taste goji berries from our farm.

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Changes to the Farm

A farm can be beautiful and functional. We have put a lot of emphasis on getting the orchard and food forest planted and growing crops for the past 2 years. This week we put the emphasis on improving the property and doing some cleanup.

Hargrove Lawn Care in Bear Creek, NC did a wonderful job helping to move brush and clear out areas so we can come back and plant pollinators. They also took out trees and bushes to make maintaining the property easier. They also opened up a spot for a fire circle and chairs. Its amazing what a trained operator with a skid steer can do in a day. Now we need to get planting clover and pollinators in these areas.

It will be nice to have a spot for a fire circle with room for a big group. The trees are out of the way so we can start bringing the rocks over and build the fire circle.

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Pictures from the Farm – 2023-07-29

It is definitely warm out. We started the day out with a sprinkle or two and a nice breeze so it wasn’t too bad of a day to work on the farm. We picked tan cheese pumpkins and cushaw squash after weeding sweet potato beds. The first fig fruits are developing, but it is still going to be long time until they are ready to harvest. Most of the fig fruit is still at the small bud size right now. We are continuing to pick elderberries.

The moringa that we planted as a test is doing great! Getting the moringa plants to make it through the winter may be a challenge, but one step at a time.

Honey

We have honey from the farm available at https://www.montiegear.com/simply-us-farm/honey. We have 1/2 lb and 1 lb jars.

16 ounce jar of honey
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Comfrey in the Food Forest

We have been planting comfrey in the food forest area for the last few weeks. We planted comfrey root pieces and comfrey seeds around the fig and olive trees, between the blackberries and around some of the elderberries.

The cool weather has allowed the potatoes to keep growing so we are going to leave them in the ground as long as we can and let them grow. The sweet potatoes are growing as well.

Potatoes are growing, will be time to harvest soon
Sweet potatoes are growing

The rain almost every day has keep us from mowing so the grass is starting to look like a jungle. Hopefully next Friday, the weather will be better so we can mow.

We have a few peaches, looking forward to future peach harvests

Peaches
Almost ready to pick
Nice to have a few peaches

The fruit and nut trees are growing quickly while we are starting to pick blackberries. The blueberries will come later. The plants went in the ground this winter, so we will only get a few this year.

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Onions! Lots of Onions!

The onion harvest was wonderful. The sweet potatoes are not planted and the drip irrigation for the potatoes. The irish potatoes are growing. It will be time to harvest them soon.

The black berries are blooming and growing. We’re looking forward to picking and eating black berries. The warm spell in February followed by a deep freeze really did a lot of damage to the fig trees, but those are coming back nicely.

The elderberries are growing and blooming. We are hoping for a nice elderberry crop this year. We had to replant some of the winter squash and pumpkins, but they ones that came up are finally starting to take off.

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State of the Farm and Pictures from This Week

This has been a busy week on the farm. We try to give a semi-annual update that talks about what is going on at the farm in detail. We’ve also been working this week on our potatoes, developing the back field and planting a few ornamental plants.

I had a few days on the farm this week to ponder the future plans for the farm. I’m taking a class with IDEO on Insights for Innovation. The class project revolves around the farm so it was good having time to ponder the future plans for the farm while working in the field.

Here are some pictures from this week

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Interview with Niti Bali – Food Church founder

I’m taking a class called “Insights for Innovation” with IDEO. Part of that class is doing interviews for developing empathy and better understanding customers. Niti was the perfect person to interview to better understand the farm-to-fork community. I learned a lot in the interview and hope you do too.

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Mulch, Mulch, Mulch and Soggy Potatoes

The last few weeks have brought us rain every week. We had hoped to start planting this week, but it was just to wet to prep the beds for the winter squash, pollinators and summer cover crops. Instead we worked on planting olive trees and a Yaupon holly tree. We also trimmed the grass in the blackberry beds and put down mulch in part of the blackberry beds. We also started putting mulch around the mulberry trees and a few of the elderberry bushes in the food forest area.

We planted comfrey around the trees and bushes in the food forest area as we put the woodchip mulch down. It will take several work days to put all the mulch down and plant comfrey, but we are off to good start.

The garlic is putting out scapes. Those are great for cooking. The taste is similar to a green onion.

The bees are staying busy. We hope to have our first harvest of honey in June.

The blackberries in this area are ready for summer
Potatoes are coming up in some areas, but not in others. Having a wet spring can be difficult with potatoes
The blueberries are growing nicely
Bees are staying busy
The garlic is putting out scapes. The scapes were cut and will end up in dinner
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Planting Hazel Trees and Moving Pine Logs

We planted our first hazel trees. This is a test planting to see how they do. We should have our first nuts from the hazel trees in 2-3 years, if all goes well.

We also pulled up drip feed lines so we can trim and to make it easier to cut the grass. Drip irrigation is great, but having lines everywhere does make for some management challenges when it comes to cutting grass and keeping everything looking nice and well managed.

We also had a few logs to move from a dead pine tree that we cut. Its been too wet to move the logs until now. It is nice to get them out of the way so I can mow that area.

The spring flowers are blooming and the bees are busy.

We’ve learned that young seedlings are often enough reason for a deer to want inside the anti-deer fence area, so we put cages around them.

It was a nice way to spend a Friday afternoon.