Snippets, snapshots and tales from our north Florida farm.
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| Shiitake Mushrooms September 2016 |
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| Seminole Squash |
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| Donated Windows for Greenhouse |
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| Muggy the Mugrat - Making sure we stacked them correctly. |
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| Zucchini Bread Orders |
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| Our Happy Hen organic eggs, basil and roses. |
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| Bean pest control - aka Anole Lizard |
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| Yellow Four O'clock flowers. Beautiful |
September arrived like a lion, literally, a Hurricane Hermine
lion. We were blessed with no damage to property or plants, just a few
days of no electricity which meant a great loss to a lot of our
frozen/refrigeratables. With five refrigerators we still have no
complaints. Unfortunately now we do not have an air conditioner. We've
been helping it limp along for a long time now, it has finally given
up. As sole proprietors of the land, we don't even have a start to have
the money to replace it. On the bright side, it's nearly fall. If you
are an early riser you may have noticed and want to proclaim that
fall has arrived....a bit early. If you are, you are certainly not
alone. Yeah, the heat isn't over, I mean, this is Florida after all
but we are praying for a long fall. This year beans have beaten the
heat and so far the vines are over 12' long and producing ... even if we have to share with some outlaw deer.
As
we continue our quest of creating a plethora of year-around organic goodness known as an edible food forest, I want to know just how
much permaculture can be incorporated with fruit trees on one acre of
land. As we look forward to be able to afford 50 or so acres one
day, right now we also live and share with the driveway,
chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas, rabbit, etc. I have seen this is
California, etc., and although we share more with insects, have
soil issues, etc., we are currently "successful" at having an
ecosystem of predator insects and lizards to help control most of
our garden pests. At least it looks like we are on the right
tract.
It's always planting season, this week we'll plant
hundreds of cool weather crop seeds of beets, carrots, kale, Swiss
chard, onions, cabbages, as we move to the end of September. We are consistently planting, a term I call "tucking". Tuck a
seed or seedling in a little spot here and over there to elongate harvests. The more we plant, the less that space will be taken over
by weeds which are basically plants of the unwanted varieties.
According to our
Shiitake Mushroom Logs, fall arrived a couple weeks ago as we had our first
harvest, about three weeks earlier than last year. We have a lot of
things going on, currently growing in our gardens are tomatoes,
eggplant, arugula, asparagus, beans, okra, kale, cucumbers, Seminole squash,
long island squash, peppers, butternut squash, spaghetti squash,
onions, yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, sweet
potatoes, birdhouse gourds, garlic, mint, basil, lemon grass,
oregano, water chestnuts, scallions, garlic chives, and I'm sure I
have forgotten to list some; Fruit - apple, fig, peach, blueberry.
We also have flowers for cut flowers we'll sell next year and other
flowers/bulbs as pollinator attractants.
Thank you so much, have a wonderful September!
Ron and Annette Layton
Little Eden Heirloom FarmCrawfordville, Florida
850/274-7690
