First Farmers Market of the Year

Yesterday (Saturday June 6th) was our first farmers market of the year at Valley City.  It feels so good to finally start going to the markets again.  Summer goes by way to fast and winter lasts too long.

We had plants (vegetables, dahlias, herbs), kale, mustard greens, scallions, and lots of lettuce.

You can come see us at Valley City Farmers Market from now thru October on 

Saturdays from 9am to 12 pm. 

 The market is located at:

Liverpool Township Depot, 6615 Center Road, Valley City, Ohio

It is now strawberry season at the market, so if you have a taste for fresh local strawberries, you will have to swing by the market soon and check out our fellow vendors.  You may also see other goodies such as bakery, cut flowers, plants, bird boxes, honey, rhubarb and more.

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Also here are some more pictures from the farm:

The above is as picture of our bean area, only one row is coming up, but the rest will be up soon.  In this area I have planted, Dragon Tongue Beans (my personal favorite, yellow with purple stripes), purple beans, yellow beans, Rattlesnake Beans (green with purple stripes), yard long beans (green and red), half runner beans, and Tongue of Fire Beans (Green with red stripes).  Wow, that is a lot of beans!  I hope every one likes and is ready for some beans!

Farm Pictures

 

Kohlrabi, mustard greens (under row cover) and kale, with strawberries and and onions in the background. 

Onions and leeks under black fabric, with strawberries and greens in the background.

  

Beans and summer squash just planted.

Rows of greens, such as swiss chard (under row cover), kale, sprouting broccoli, collards, Purple Peacock (kale and broccoli mix), and parsley.

 

Plants at home most of which will be going into the ground soon.

 Lettuce and greens most of which are ready to be picked now.

Sticky Traps

I use the traps to catch flea beetles, but have seen some other bugs on them before.  Mostly just fruit flies though, that I can remember.

What you will need:
~ Tree Tanglefoot
~ Florescent yellow paper
~ Sticks or bamboo (I usually use bamboo but just regular sticks are fine too)
~ Popsicle stick (to spread the tanglefoot)

Sticky traps are very easy to make, I just hate doing it because I do not like the sticky tanglefoot.  It is kind of like sap but it does not dry up, luckily it will wash off your hands with soap and water.  It is surprising that it does not dry up.  I have had this same container of tanglefoot for at least 6 years now, with a crack in it so it does not seal up well, and yet it has not dried up.

Now, on to how to make the trap.  I suggest to use the florescent yellow paper, I have tried orange before but it did not seem to work as well as the yellow.  I buy 8 1/2 x 11 paper and tear it in half.  All you have to do is take your piece of florescent yellow paper and put it on the stick or bamboo.

Then with the popsicle stick spread the tanglefoot on to both sides of the paper.  I try to spread it as thin as I can so the color shows through.

Finished product, all you have to do is stick it in the ground.  I usually put these traps under my row covers or in a high tunnel, and throw a few outside also.  They may not get rid of 100% of the flea beetles but do work pretty well.  Lets just say that I put my first sticky trap in the ground and by the time I got done making five more I looked at that first trap and there were already at least 4 flea beetles on it.  Any less flea beetles out there to eat my veggies is fine with me.

Planting Pictures, and How to Control Flea Bettles

Just thought I would post some pictures from the other day when me and Frank got some planting done.  We planted all plants, some kale, mustard greens and kohlrabi.  These pictures are from last Thursday May 14th. 

Frank is getting the hoops into the ground so that we can lay down the row cover.  You can barely see Frank and you can not see the hoops in the ground, but oh, well.

 

  Here we had just finished getting the row cover down when it was starting to get dark.  Just in time.  The row cover is covering a row of mustard greens.  It is a thin row cover, the purpose of it is not to keep the plants warm like you would usually use row cover for, but instead to keep insects (mostly flea beetles) from completely destroying the greens.  Flea beetles can be a real pain to deal with.  If you do not do something to protect plants such as mustard greens and eggplant, they can almost completely eat the plant to nothing.  The funny thing is flea beetles are just very, very tiny black bugs, it is unbelievable how much damage such a small bug can do.  So if your mustard greens, eggplant, radishes, turnips, kale, collards, kohlrabi, or a few other veggies, are getting eaten, and you see very little black bugs that jump really quick as soon as you try to touch them, you probably have a flea beetle problem.  Next time I am out there (today or tomorrow) I am going to have to make some sticky traps to put under the row cover.  No matter how fast you put the row cover up, and how tight you seal it there will be some flea beetles under there, and the sticky traps can help to get rid of them.  I will have to take some pictures and do a post on how I make my own traps.  

More Plant Pictures

Here are a few pictures I took about a week ago of some of my plants.  I have been transplanting like crazy and I have plants everywhere.  I can not wait till I can get some more of these plants in the ground.

 

Some kale plants that should hopefully be going in the ground very soon now.

 

 

Rhubarb plants that I started from seed last year.

 

 

Strawberry plants which are now in the ground.

Pictures

Just thought I would post a few pictures. 

Some of my new strawberry plants that will be going into the ground this year, so hopefully I will have strawberries to sell next year.

  

A pallet full of potting soil, and my hoophouse behind it.

 

My hoophouse and my new shelf which I built a frame around and covered with plastic so I have more room for plants that need to stay warm. 

 

Inside my hoophouse.  Flats of greens above, and pots of rhubarb (that I started from seed last year) below.

Rhubarb plants I started from seed last year.

Up close of young rhubarb plants started from seed last year.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I have not done a post in a very long time, so since the other day I make a really good chicken noodle soup out of all our canned foods I figured I would do a post about my homemade chicken noodle soup.

All I had to do was throw everything together and heat it up.  First went in the two jars of turkey broth, which was made from the left over bones from our Thanksgiving turkey.  I also added vegetable broth, which was made from celery, potatoes, garlic and turkey broth, and about a pint of water.  Then I added the corn, and cut up about half the can of garlic scapes and added them too.  I then added the liquid from the canned chicken, cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and threw it in.  Last I added the beans since they are canned and already soft and I did not want to them to boil for too long.  I cooked up the pasta separately and added it to the bowl before eating.

That was it, and it was soooo good!

Left to Right

Pickled Garlic Scapes, Corn, Canned Chicken Breasts, Mixed Beans, Vegetable Stock, and Two Cans of Turkey Stock and in the front Garlic Rigatoni Pasta