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| Not much room for Deb! |
We sold lots of lettuce today at the market. We started the day with a 21 lb harvest of four varieties of lettuce. I think all but 5 lbs made its way to a new home. We also picked (and sold) 2 lbs of Miner's Lettuce. We harvested 1.5 lbs of regular spinach and 1 lb of New Zealand spinach. Add 2 more lbs of mixed dark greens to the tally, and lastly we picked and sold some Burnet, Parsley, Thyme, Dill, Fennel, and Oregano. I think that about covers it, unless we are forgetting anything. This morning was such a blur. We woke up at 5:00am to get our harvest in so that everything would be fresh. I haven't seen 5am in quite some time before this morning. I'm just now typing this blog while waking from a two hour nap, so pardon any grammar issues.
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| A truck full of greens |
The farmer's market at Festival Way shopping center in Waldorf was a pleasant treat today. The shoppers who showed up were very nice people often engaging in friendly conversation. Most of the farmers/producers seem to try to grow things in an organic fashion, which is refreshing. The market is organized by Mrs. Eaton of Eaton Farm. She was very nice to us, and helped us with anything we needed. She started out as a producer at the Laplata farmers market. She was tired of non-producers showing up (resellers who buy produce from any farm, far away), so she started her own market elsewhere. Mrs. Eaton later told us, we need a name for our "farm". A little quick thinking, and we came up with Emmett Farm, named after my late grandfather. After all, he is the reason why I enjoy and know how to turn dirt to food. Also, the big garden / greenhouse is his old garden bed, so it seemed appropriate.
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| Selling our surplus at the market |
After we left the market, the lettuce beds were vacant. We did leave a few random lettuce plants to grow flowers and seed for the fall crop. Deb & I went right to work, planting more tomatoes, peppers, and squash in their place. We tried something new while transplanting the seedlings; we added about 2 tablespoons of the Dr. Earth
organic veggie fertilizer to the hole right before we put each plant in. We were told this non burning "starter fertilizer" would help the plants grow fast and strong.
Total produce count for the year:
lots of parsley
lots of peppermint
lots of spearmint
lots of lemon balm
lots of burnet
lots of fennel
lots of thyme
lots of dill
11 strawberries
1/2 lb carrot roots
1 head of garlic
2/5 lb snap peas
8.5 lb assorted dark greens
7/8 lb baby radishes/greens
1/4 lb mature radish roots
34.25 lb assorted lettuce
2 2/3 lb spinach
1.5 lb turnip roots
2.63 lb miner's lettuce
3/16 lb mache/corn salad
5/8 lb young dark greens
1/3 lb arugula
3 asparagus spears
3 trays of wheat grass(inside)
3 trays micro greens(grown inside)
I bought 900 of these bamboo(rot resistant wood) kabob skewers at the low low price of 100 for $.99 at Shoppers Food Warehouse. I put them about 6" apart, in a two foot border around each raised bed at the little garden. So far we have found no signs of kitty digging. I think this is a permanent and cheap fix. And after two or three times getting poked, Deb and I both learned to watch where we reach. I'm just imagining one of the neighbors cats taking a squat and finding a sharp wooden stick.
Debbie and I purchased 2,000 ladybugs and 3 praying mantis egg cases from www.planetnatural.com. The ladybugs were to be released at night, because ladybugs only fly during the day. The goal is to get them to hang around, rather than fly away. Today, (two days later) I still saw lots of ladybugs on the plants. I even witnessed several pairs of ladybugs mating. Mating ladybugs = lots of ladybug larvae = lots of dead aphids. The mantis egg cases hatch in 4 to 6 weeks of warm weather. One of them is already up in our pink rose bush. The other two egg cases are going to the big garden on Sunday. I hope they don't hatch before then!
The big garden presented a bountiful harvest today. The snow peas are in full production. Only the first pods are of eating size, so the pea harvest was small today; only 1/16 lb. There were three more strawberries glowing red, begging to be picked. I found some beautiful medium sized turnips popping out of the ground, so they came home as well. I noted two or three spinach plants beginning to flower, so I decided to do a quick pick of spinach. Today's spinach harvest was 1/2 lb of adult leaves. The radishes are beginning to flower as well, so I pulled every radish remaining that was of decent size. I left some smaller rooted plants to flower and produce seed for the fall. I ended up with 1/4 lb of tasty red (and purple) roots. I pulled a carrot from the ground to test for size. It was about 3" long, 1/2" diameter. This one didn't make it to the scale to be weighed, it was a mighty tasty and sweet carrot. The store bought carrots just don't compare to home grown heirloom varieties.
