Muggy the Mugrat - Little Eden Farm and Gardens Movie Clips

Good help is hard to find ... or is it? ... Muggy, a little "tail" of the ultimate Farmers' helper.

Forecasting a COOL June ☺☺ and Green Thumb Prospecting

This year's month of May has so far confirmed the blessings of a longer spring.  Just what we hoped and asked for.  So far we've been able to elongate our harvests a bit as the much warmer weather hasn't settled in quite yet.  Soon we'll install white shade cloth with extra hydration as we love to bring you kales, lettuces, radishes, greens, etc., for as long as we can and of course this will be of good use to help with the tomatoes, peppers, etc. 

Ron and I finished fencing in the front yard last week to keep the dogs from running and playing through the front yard gardens, knocking down plants as they go.  I promised photographs and have taken a lot to document and share, now I just need to take the time to go through them and post.  We're still having trouble with the neighbor's horses coming over and tearing up fences, gardens, etc., as the grass is always greener on the other side.  With us not having financial means to put up livestock panels, I think we're going to try putting up a pallet fence.  It'll be temporary as the wood isn't treated and I'll mount potted plants or something to spruce it up. 

We've received a request to sell our organic produce to a local restaurant.  Due to limited growing space (we'll begin our search for additional property(ies) this year - yes, we need that 50 or 500 acre farm :) ) We haven't promoted ourselves in the restaurant communities but look forward to adding this to our line of deliveries.  Soon you'll see us promoting more.  As we create this wonderful network of hobby gardeners that take pride in growing strict organic, we've picked up another local organic honey and produce farmer this week and will be getting more honey and potatoes from him soon. Yes, we grow potatoes and soon we'll have our own bees but as we network more, we're able to provide to a larger clientele, we need all that want to eat healthy, to have that opportunity.  On the other plus side, it promotes and provides a wider variety of items, if our broccoli isn't ready to harvest yet, one of our partners' a little further north of us may be....elongating the harvests to bring to you sooner for a longer period of time.  We love encouraging the stay-at-home parent, the retiree, evening gardener, etc., to get their green thumbs out and their hands dirty, and work with us to sell the remaining.  We are considering adding a subtitle to our Farm name.  We are almost but not exactly sure what the name will be yet, to develop and promote, large and small gardeners with the same mission. We want to encourage any and all that have a love of the outdoors and dirt on their hands to grow something they love and network with us.  If we can encourage this by giving them an avenue to help disperse their extra organic farm fresh to a stranger's table or restaurant kitchen, we are on our way to feeding the world a healthier, non genetically modified product and making a lot of friends along the way.

We thank you for your support of our Farm and our Mission.

Ron and Annette Layton
Little Eden Heirloom Farm
850/274-7690

Welcoming Spring with Cheeps, Chirps, Squash, Cucumbers and UNwelcomed Bugs

Spring has brought a lot of cheeps, chirps, quacks and meows around our Little Eden.

If the thousands of seeds that are now plants and those germinating soon could talk, wonder what they would sound like.  Hmmmm.

Aside from the biting bugs and we won't mention the fact that we have to share a great deal with the little monsters that try and at times succeed at eating our produce..I mean mint...good grief..  Of the seven varieties of mint we have, it's the chocolate mint....well let's just say we humans (for those humans that do, that is) are not the only ones that like chocolate. 

Cute tomatoes and little yellow squash are poking their heads outs and we welcome them back for another great year to be followed up by more beans, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, etc.  Yes, we are in full swing of spring.  We'll soon say goodbye to some of the cool weather crops although we'll extend our harvests of these with the use of shade cloths as far out as we can. 

We thank you for your support of our Farm and our Mission.

Ron and Annette Layton
Little Eden Heirloom Farm
850/274-7690

Good-bye front yard of green - Hello to more flowers, herbs, produce and art!

I tell you I love a plush beautiful green grassy yard...the next thing I'll tell you that my green grass is now under two feet of wood chips. We don't ... yet ... have our 50 acre farm and need more growing space. Although there are wood chips where my grass was, everyday I am planting pots so soon there will be beautiful pots and ground planted herbs, tomato plants, succulents, a lot of flowers for cut flower vases, special occasions, etc., trellises for various climbing squashes, beans, etc. The sky with vertical gardens ... and my front yard... will be utilized to the fullest to grow.

I'll post photographs soon. It'll be enjoyable to see how we utilize this area from green to brown to flowers, herbs, produce and art.

We'll soon sell our excess plants of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, flowers and herbs so stay tuned and if you want me to send you a list personally, just send me an email and I'll add you to the list.
Again, we thank you so much for supporting us as we endeavor to provide your family with a wide variety of fresh organic produce.

It's strawberry season so we are enjoying making low sugar strawberry preserves. This year will also offer canned beans, tomatoes, pickles, etc. It'll be an exciting year of more culinary surprises.

https://squareup.com/store/littleedenheirloomfarm is an online store I'm creating that will list various things we have to offer that you can purchase and we'll add it to your weekly bag or you can pick it up at our Farm Stand/Farmers' Market days. You can currently purchase breads, preserves, honey, special requests, extra produce, etc., but I thought this would be a great place to visually see things with the prices, etc., for budgeting with an easy way to pay.

Thank you!

Ron and Annette Layton
Little Eden Heirloom Farm
850/274-7690

Happy Goats = Goat Milk = Cheese = Happy Customers!

While living in Georgia I had a lot of rescued goats, a lot were so weak, in poor health, they would hand them over the fence to me so they wouldn't get stomped in the back pens at the local animal auction where I lived in Macon County. With a number of folks asking if we sell goat milk, cheese, etc., it won't be long and we'll have goats again.

I came across this on Facebook and couldn't resist sharing.... If you would like to help us by sponsoring our mission, please go to https://www.gofundme.com/HomelesstoFarmer.  Thanks!

Go Green in 2016 Gathering is Tonight

Go Green in 2016 is tonight from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. We've been asked to be a vendor at this first-time event and we're super excited! We'll have our homemade breads, organic certified natural eggs, preserves, Shiitake mushrooms, and a wide array of produce to offer so be sure to stop by and say HI!

The address is 2819 Mahan Dr. Suite 102, Tallahassee. We're also planting plants of flowers, herbs, peppers and tomatoes in pots to either bring tonight and/or tomorrow (or next week if we don't have time) at the Lake Ella Market.

Thanks so much, we'll see you there!


Ron and Annette Layton
Little Eden Heirloom Farm
850/274-7690

Gearing up for Spring!

Hi!

February is upon us and we're gearing up for spring!  We're getting ready for a wonderful spring of more cool weather crops of brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, etc.) along with tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. 

It's that time of year to cut limbs/trees for our Shiitake mushroom.  The more water oak logs we have the more Shiitakes we can grow and put in our Farm Share bags.  In saying this if you have or know of anyone that has oak trees and wouldn't mind us having one or more, depending on the size of the limbs we need, please let us know.  All in all, this 2016 year is going to be a year that we'll ask for help...which is a wonderful thing.  Soon we'll have enough money, we pray, to rent a tractor to move chips we've had decomposing over the last months and we'll reach out for help with the spreading and moving of them for walkways, plant bedding, etc.  We'll also need help with harvesting, planting, etc., a few hours each week.  We're not sure right now if we can pay or only offer an exchange for teaching/sharing.  Let us know if you know of anyone that may want to get their hands dirty.  :) 


Thanks so much for supporting our Little Eden and our Mission.

Ron and Annette Layton
Little Eden Heirloom Farm
850/274-7690