Other Things I Grow Around Here

Yes, this is my youngest Meghan who is the subject of my logo. I just thought I would put her on here after all her hard work and patience being part of this family. I will focus on the other two later...but being true teenagers there not quite as understanding. This one stands by my side through all my failures and says "Don't worry Mom; it will be okay, you always make it work". She harvests with me, weeds with me, takes care of the chickens faithfully each day and even helps stuff homemade sausage happily. She is just one fantastic kid, and just took 22nd out of 104 at Mt. Sac for Cross Country, has a brown belt in karate and now is playing volleyball for Heritage; yes as you can tell she is like her mother and has a hard time sitting still....and we love to see what we can try next. This week my dear husband unloaded a 20 x 100 greenhouse and is looking at digging 42 holes to set the hoops! Danny Bashaw helped me dig out reeds, yes tropical reeds out of the irrigation area where there has been a slow leak for a while and the roots were an inch in diameter and helped crack an irrigation line, which the Bashaw Family then came out and helped me repair since Mike was at work. Danny then helped me clear a few more rows and planted a few more rows. Meanwhile Meghan was inside starting the sausage. We used the Bashaws fresh pork roasts and created some of the greatest sausage including Bratwurst, Italian and Linguica!! The Bratwurst we had for dinner with fresh red potatoes from the garden!! Dropped Danny off after a long day and talked "turkey" with the Bashaws as I will soon learn how crazy Thanksgiving can get. They are processing the smoked turkeys this Friday and if you want a smaller turkey that you don't mind freezing you need to get it done Friday, otherwise they will be 25 pounds plus for Thanksgiving week most likely. I am going to get a good cup of tea and call it a night... a long day, but a good day knowing you are surrounded by such great family and friends.

Moonstruck Signing Off :)

Brandywines!

These beautiful pinkish tomatoes are Brandywine heirloom tomatoes. As a lot of you know they are not very productive and are hard to grow, but I always have some out there because they are delicious and have a wonderful texture, but almost always seem to crack. I shaded them and put them next to some snapdragons growing to shade them and they still cracked, but then I discovered a branch that had grown into the snapdragons and here were these perfect beauties. Not really large, but the picture does not do a good job of relaying their color and their flavor is even better. Hmmmm...more shade cloth next year!!!

New field started!!!

Okay thanks to Joyce and Danny and my family the new field is started!! You have no idea what a boost it gives me when I see the beginnings of another phase of growth!! The fence is moved and it seems huge out there now!! The new rows are beginning to be built and the space for the new greenhouse is really apparent!! There is an even a space in the back for a storage shed my husband said!! What will I do when my tools are near at hand and how happy my husband will be to have my growing supplies out of his garage!! Working the soil showed the benefits of the last 4 plus months of amending! The end of the field needs to come up about 2 feet so guess where all the grass clippings and manure are going from the Bashaws!! It is still really rough-looking out there, but I can see things coming together. Even the Texas Umbrella trees I started from seed are 2 feet tall and ready to go in. I am going to tuck some blueberries in barrels under them and see if we can grow some real blueberries this year!! In this case beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder...but I really can see it and Joyce saw beauty that I did not even see. She collected dried wildflowers, Yarrow, sunflower heads and Holly Hock branches from the farm to make wreaths! So between the customers, the compost pile, the chickens and Joyce's wreaths literally everything is being used on the farm!! Nothing to waste...now we are talking sustainable agriculture at its best!! Moonstruck Signing off...I have to go plant!!