This Week
This are changing quickly around the farm! In the next to last shares of the season, we have a stellar line-up of leafy greens! As the season closes, it’s one of the last opportunities to enjoy your favorites like chard, kale, collards, mustards, and arugula.
PLUS, there are some fun and special fruit options like watermelon, peaches, plums, and apples! A note on the apples and plums: I’m going to add 2 lb servings and only 15 of each today. I will add more on Saturday if we have a good harvest. Make sure to check Harvie before Monday morning if you customize your share before Saturday. I’ll also add mayhaw jelly, blackberry/peach jam, eggs, and honey into the shares these last two weeks as well. Y'all, the peaches this week from Thompson's are incredible! To any of you folks on every other week, and this is your last share of the season--thank you so much for your farm share membership! You have helped us grow our farm into a sustainable business, and I am so grateful for your support. Please be on the lookout for our end of the season survey, so that we can know how to improve in the next season. Keep in mind that your auto-renew is turned on, so if you want to take a break from farm shares, you can access that feature through the settings tab on your Harvie profile.
Next Week
We will have all the same vegetables as the previous week. Hopefully, the orchard has enough for us to pick again! Fingers crossed our lettuce will be back in production for some salad mix to finish the season. I apologize for being low on some inventory. We added a lot of farm share members in the middle of the season. If there is something you really want, but find is sold out, send me an email and we can see if there might be a little extra. I think it has been a great season! I'm looking forward to sharing some insights from the season with y'all next week.
Farm Update
Our farmer friend, Michael, gave us the contact information for a pick your own orchard in Mer Rouge. We called the farmer, set up an appointment, and will head across the Ouachita on Saturday. I’m really excited to pick apples for the first time! I’m just having all kinds of dreams about apple butter, apple roll ups, and of course some good pie! I absolutely love juicy a plum, and we plan on harvesting some extra for some plum jam.
I developed a passion for growing fruit when I was in 8th grade. That summer for 4-H University, my contest was Horticulture Demonstration. My ag agent thought that the mayhaw demonstration would be a great opportunity for me to increase my knowledge, as I was on the heels of winning both the parish garden contest, and the "Good Provider Award", a state contest for community service record books. Mrs. Remy knew that I had a passion for growing. I'm really thankful for her encouragement, because it really changed my life. I spent about 4 weeks of my Spring, every Saturday as Rafus Brew's sidekick. We traveled to mayhaw operations all around north Louisiana. Dad dropped me off in Farmerville, and Rafus and I would load up an ice chest filled with mayhaw cuttings. When we got to the orchards, we found a shady spot and set to grafting one year old trees these farmers had in pots.
Over that Spring I grafted thousands of mayhaws. It really brought everything full circle. I grew up with my folks making mayhaw jelly, and picking mayhaws. Marion is home to the Mayhaw Festival. I loved going every year. My mom designed the t-shirts, and my aunt entered the jelly contest, even winning a few blue ribbons.
When I reconnected with growing food in 2015, I gravitated towards permaculture. Food forests are an essential part of that style of farming. I researched all kinds of edible plants that will grow in our climate. It really made me appreciate the abundance of our warm, deciduous part of the world. For several years we leased an established orchard, but unfortunately those days are gone. We have a number of fruit trees and vines planted on our farm. Each year, I am propagating and planting more trees. I think in about five years we will start to get some amazing harvests, and increase the bio-diversity of our farm.
Big shout-out to my fiance, Miss Emi, for taking some beautiful product photos!
