Well, it has been a while since I’ve posted an update, February,
to be exact, and we have been B-U-S-Y! We did go through with the sale of our
property and have finalized the lease for space that is a little closer to home
and has more amenities. For one, we have leased a HUGE greenhouse that we have
started around 300 tomato plants in. As you can see in the picture, there was
some repair and cleanup to do, but I will be sure to post a picture on our Facebook and Instagram.
Greenhouse growing is something new to me. At least growing vegetables in a
greenhouse is. When I worked in Quincy, FL I worked with the environmental horticulturalists
to grow Crape Myrtles for a study on nematode-caused diseases. This will be an
adventure and a labor of love. Leasing a greenhouse isn’t cheap and this one
comes with running water, electricity, and lots of existing equipment.
The other great
thing we have at the new place is…. WATER! Previously, I was filling up a 165-gallon
tote at home on the back of my little utility trailer then trucking alllll the
way to Monticello and transferring the water to another tote.
Worse, the pump at the farm was solar-powered and was incredibly slow and
couldn’t run the sprinklers to support expanding our crops. It did have a
battery, but the maintenance of all that was daunting and took a lot of my
time. It’s so much easier having a dedicated water spigot right on the field. I
was able to hook up an inexpensive garden hose timer with an in-line fertilizer
injector, which I fill weekly, and turn on the hose. In this system, we use
drip irrigation to irrigate almost 3 acres!
So, what
have we planted, you ask? Well, we have a greenhouse full of tomatoes. There
are three varieties that I hope customers will like – Celebrity, Bella Rosa,
and the famous Roma. The first two are your typical sandwich and
restaurant-style salsa varieties and the last being the favorite for thicker
salsa, pasta sauces, and tomato soup. Any of these are great canning tomatoes
and will be a great base or garnish for any meal.
In the
field, we have an acre of bush beans that are my favorite I’ve ever eaten. Last
year I only got about 10 lbs. due to the irrigation issues (mentioned earlier)
and I ended up freezing them all for use by my own family. Maybe I will post my
method of preparation in one of the blogs, but you can also eat them raw. They
are that
sweet. Next to the beans are another acre of sunflowers and I am looking
forward to seeing if we can get them to go to seed this year for saving or
eating. I’d also like to find an oil press somewhere in town and sell some
sunflower oil. The variety I am growing are a high-oil plant that are favorites
of birds and deer.
And finally,
our signature crop: WATERMELONS! Unfortunately this year, we were not able to
secure our famous Troubadours, but we got the low-down from our friends at
the North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy that the Fascination
variety are just as good and maybe even better. They are also a seedless
variety and we have chosen to pollinate them with two other production
watermelons. Those varieties will be small-batch and they do have seeds. We have
Crimson Sweets which will be a great icebox melon and the North Florida native
Jubilee. I’m excited about the Jubilees as they apparently get HUGE.
I’m looking forward to being back in the market and I’m so, so pumped
about these ch… ch… ch… changes.
