Greetings Family, Friends, and Neighbors!

Three months have passed already? Wow, that was quick!

Continuing from my last post about new plant we are planning to add, I’d like to write a little about a new company that we hope to order from this year. I say “hope” because I really don’t know what to expect from the situation. We are ordering with a group of other growers from Hartmann’s Plant Company and have not exactly received confirmation that all of our items will be shipped. From Hartmann’s we are hoping to add:

Blueberries: Chandler, Columbus, Draper, Hannahs Choice, Nelson, Patriot, Pink Lemonade, Powder Blue and Sunrise

White Nanking Cherry: Gabe, Ian, and Jules

Cranberry: Pilgram and Stevens

Elderberry: Adams, Bob Gordan, Johns, Ranch, and Wyldwood

Gooseberry: Hinnomaki Red and Jeanne

Haskap: Beast, Beauty, Blizzard and Indigo Gem

Box Huckleberry: Blue Horizon

Hardy Kiwi: 74-32, Arctic Beauty, Beauty, Anna, Changbai Mountain, Clark, Fairchild, Geneva, Issac, Ken’s Red, Meader, MSU, Opitz, Prolific and Red Beauty

Lingonberry: Erntedank, Erntesegen, Red Pearl and Red Sunset

Arctic Raspberry: Anna, Beta, Sophia and Valentina

Raspberry: English Thorrnless, Fall Gold, Addison, and Ohio Treasure

Strawberry: Flamingo

I also plan to do some grafting. The varieties that I have scion wood for will have to be the subject for another post. For now, here are a few photos of what we are working with this spring:

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Greetings Family, Friends, and Neighbors!

Yes, after a full year and a half, I am finally updating this blog. As you can imagine, we have been pretty busy!

I’ll start off with my favorite tradition of listing what we are expecting to grow this coming season by revealing what we have recently ordered.

First up, Urban Farmer is a site that I have enjoyed visiting for many years simply for the information that they share. Strangely enough, we had never actually purchased anything from them until this past fall. I had been too busy to start fall onions sets to over-winter, but was intent on planting them. I searched high and low for sets and there were only a few places that had them in stock. Urban Farmer was one of them. I promptly put 5lbs each of Sweet Oversize, Snowball White, Stuttgarter Yellow, and Red Karmen in my cart.

Whenever I decide to order from a company, I typically like to look at everything they are offering to see if they have other items that I need or want. With shipping costs at an all time high, Urban Farmers’ “Free Shipping on Orders Over $100” was just the incentive that I needed to go on a seed shopping spree! In all the years that I had visited Urban Farmers’ website for information, it dawned on me that I didn’t actually know what products they sold. I was in for a pleasant surprise!

I had already decided that one of my growing themes for 2023 would be strawberries (again!). I wanted to add a lot of different ever-bearing or day neutral varieties, but I wanted to grow them from seed. Urban Farmer carries one of the largest varieties of strawberry seeds that I am aware of (take that with a grain of salt, since there are SO many seed/nursery companies out there and I haven’t explored many of them). Here’s what I put in my cart:

White Alpine, Red Wonder, Yellow Wonder, White Solemacher, Mignonette, Improved Rugen, Reine des Vallees, and last, but not least the variety that I was specifically looking for, Musk. Musk is said to taste like classic Hubba Bubba! I can hardly wait to taste it! After stratifying the seeds, I decided to start some right away (I like growing things in the house during the winter months).

Moving along, I decided to check out the flower selections. They had plenty to choose from, but I was particularly interested in their snapdragons, so I put about four of the prettiest varieties, in my opinion, in my cart. I also added some dahlias and a few other things.

Back to food. I put some melon in my cart: Golden Midget, Tendersweet Orange, Rich Sweetness, and Minnesota Midget. I tossed some leeks cabbage, edamame, cauliflower, broccoli, collards, etc in it as well. Then I noticed the nice sized assortment of tobacco seed that they sell. I read all of the descriptions and even looked some of them up on a separate site so that I could make an informed decision on which ones to choose. I settled on Sylvestris, Sacred Cornplanter, Aztec Rustica, Florida Sumatra, and Jasmine. I put a few other things and then it was finally time for me to check out! The order came in perfect condition and so far, we are happy with what we got.

To be continued…

While you wait, please enjoy photos from 2022. Shalom!

Greetings Family, Friends, and Neighbors! We were having such nice mild weather when all of a sudden, BAM…. it’s freezing outside! Oh well, that’s Ohio for you. I’m sure anyone who has lived here for any length of time is not surprised.

I have put off posting an update because we have been up in the air about our plans for the 2021 market season. At this point our plans are to have the stand open Sunday – Friday, 9am-7pm. We are still discussing the possibility of setting up a stand somewhere in the Trotwood area on Sundays. Due to some personal constraints we are not going to be available to attend Farmers Markets during the week at this point, perhaps that will change as we get closer to Farmers Market season.

I have also decided to start trying to post what we order each year and from where. I regret that I haven’t done it in the past, but better late than never.

I start placing my orders on “Black Friday” so that I can take advantage of any possible sales. I try to have all of my orders placed by the end of the first week of December. This is the best way, in my opinion, to get what you want before things sell out.

This year I ordered seeds from Dollar Seed (squash, herbs and flowers), Parkseed (flowers) and E&R seed (vegetable and herbs). E&R does not have a personal website. I have linked a page where you can get information on how to get their catalogs which will explain how to order. They publish three +150 page catalogs every year. These catalogs each carry specific types of items and rarely overlap, so I would suggest that you request all three catalogs if you are interested in knowing what they offer. I am not going to list what I ordered because it’s too much to list. 🙂

The companies that we ordered new varieties of fruit trees, shrubs, or canes follows. I will list what we ordered from each company since they are much shorter lists. 🙂

Indiana Berry: Raspberry: Anne Yellow Red Current: Jonker Van Tets and Rovada Gooseberry: Black Velvet, Hinnomaki Poorman and Jahns Prairie Aronia: Nero Bush Cherry: Jan, Joel and Joy Elderberry: Marge and Nova Honeyberry: Blue Hokkaido, Blue Mist, Blue Pagoda and Blue Sea Lingonberry: Ruby, Megenta Paw Paw: KSU Atwood Asparagus: Guelph Millennium and Purple

Burnt Ridge Nursery (new to us, we can not recommend them at this time): Blue Elderberry, Golden Current, Berry Blue Honeyberry, Buried Treasure Box Hackleberry, Cornelian Cherry Dogwood, Paw Paw: Campbells NC and Pennsylvania

Edible Landscaping (new to us, we can not recommend them at this time): White Nanking Cherry: Ian, Gabe and Jules Juneberry: Success, Jennybelle

Ison’s Nursery and Vineyards: Jujube: Lang and Li Black Current: Crandall

Gurney’s (not particularly recommended): Jujube: Honey Jar and Shanxi Li Additional: Saskatoon Blueberry, Nanking cherry

England’s Orchard and Nursery: American Persimmon: Prok, Early Jewell and Celebrity Asian Persimmon: Kassandra and Rosseyanka Jujube: Sugar Cane and SO Asian Pear: Shin Li and Raja Paw Paw: Benny’s Favorite Pecan: Kanza, Mandan and Pawnee

Scion wood that I have on order by way of trade: Asian Pear: Yoinash, Hosui, Korean Giant, Daisui Li, Shinsui and Niikake Peach: Golddust, Rich May, Victoria, White Lady, Blushing Star, Spring Snow, Indian Free and Red Haven Nectarine: Mericrest Plum: Toka

Note: Scion wood is basically a stick from a tree that produces a certain variety. You can graft the scion wood to an existing tree or rootstock. I currently have some peach, pear, paw paw and persimmon rootstock that I plan to graft some of the scion wood to. I also plan to graft some of the scion wood to existing mature trees. The benefit to grafting scion wood to existing mature trees is early fruit. In general, it can take seven years for a standard fruit tree to begin to produce fruit. When you graft scion wood to a mature fruit tree, as long as there are fruit buds on your newly grafted scion wood, you can expect to get fruit in as little as two years!

Greenhouse update: Both ends have been framed. We are waiting for warmer weather to continue to work on this project.

Early seed starting: a few tomatoes, peppers, celery, and onions in the indoor grow room.

Chickens: 50 new layers bought in December. They should start laying some time after June.

I am currently have issues posting pictures. I will update with photos as soon as possible (don’t hold your breath, lol). Subscribe to receive updates! Until next time, Shalom! 🙂

Greetings Family, Friends, and Neighbors! Me and my good intentions, sigh. I did not update here as planned and I will forgo the long drawn out excuses. If you know me, you know that I’m usually pulled in 15 different directions daily, lol.

Anyway, here are a few updates by way of photos:

First, I wanted to back up to Spring 2020. I just realized that I forgot to post a picture of the new addition to the stand. We built this structure to protect the plants that we sell from the wind.

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Next, here’s an updated photo of the greenhouse project. It’s coming along, slower than we would like, but it’s coming along.

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Last, I wanted to share a beautiful photo that my 14 year old daughter took.

We have other things in the works that I will have to share at a later date. Until till then we hope that everyone is doing well, striving and thriving! Shalom!

Hello family, friends and neighbors!  I know it’s been quite some time since this site was updated.  We had big plans for this season, that is until the virus came along and basically changed everyone’s way of life.

The main market that we had planned to attend, the Trotwood Community Market, canceled for the season.  We felt honored to be invited back to the 2nd Street Market, however, unfortunately we were not able to accept the invitation due to several issues that we could not overcome.  Other markets that we considered were also closed for the season.

What now?  Well, we have a limit amount of produce and herbs (potted and fresh cut) available.  You may call us to find out availability and place an order.  You can also drop by.  Our farm sign is not up and there is no produce on the stand, but we can pull things fresh from the fields if you want to wait for your order.

We are still accepting EBT/SNAP, Produce Perks and PRx coupons.  Produce Perks (for customers who use their EBT/SNAP card) matches up to 20.00 at this time.  We are not handing out Produce Perks coins due to the virus, but we will accept them.  You will get 1/2 off of your order in lieu of receiving Produce Perks coins this year.  We are also accepting WIC Farmers Market coupons and may be accepting Senior Farmers Market coupons.  Cash, credit, and debit also accepted.  Sorry, we do not accept checks.

I plan to update this site again sometime this weekend with more information related to what we are physically doing on the farm and some fun photos.  Until then, Shalom!

 

Hello Family, Friends, and Neighbors!  We hope all is well with everyone.

We are still in the midst of launching the online farm stand.  We are having a few technical glitches, but once that is all ironed out we should be able to go live with that.

The physical farm stand is now open and ready to serve you.   We have several garden plant starts, potted herbs, and a few potted flowers.  We also have fresh spearmint, oregano, sage, winter savory, and french tarragon.  More to come soon!

Our farm will not be participating in the Farm to Families Food Box program.

My apologies for such a short post,  we have been very busy and I am also having a lot of  computer related technical difficulties (which is also why there are no photos in this post).  Hopefully the next update will be better!

Shalom!

 

 

Greetings Family, Friends and Neighbors!  Well, as you all know it’s been a rather interesting and unprecedented season.  Hopefully we are at the beginning of the end of it.

Whether or not we are at the beginning of the end, the situation will change how farmers markets operate for this season (and perhaps beyond).  At this point our plan is to operate our stand Sunday through Friday, 10am – 7pm starting no later than June 1st.  We are also conversing with Ms. Ciara Lewis, Trotwoods’ Parks and Recreation Program Specialist about providing produce for their Community Market.

Additionally, we are considering helping a certain number of people who live in the cities of Brookville or Trotwood set up a “Victory Garden 2.0” at their residence between the dates of May 15th and May 31st.  The program would provide FREE tilling and installation of your plants/seeds (or you would be able to buy plants/seeds from us).  If you live in the city of Brookville or Trotwood and are interested in garden help please email us at the8stus@yahoo.com with RE: Victory Garden 2.0 in the subject box to get information and updates about that potential program.

On to farm updates.  We have been busy with a lot of perennial plantings.  From herbs to shrubs and trees, we are putting them in the ground.

Medicinal and Culinary herbs

 

Over 30 pear and apple trees have been grafted and planted!

New varieties of pears and apples grafted onto rookstock.

The building that used to be red is now gray since the siding job has been completed.

The parking lot has been extended.

Base posts for the greenhouse have been set.

Some seeds have been planted and some seedlings are ready to be planted.

Those are all the major/minor updates that I will be sharing for now.  Hopefully I will be able to update again in a few weeks.  Until then, stay as healthy as possible and if you haven’t already, we urge you to seek the Most High and if you are already His, continue to seek His ways.  Shalom!

Greetings Family, friends, and neighbors!  This post is not actually about our farm at all.  It is about an important (in our opinion) Kickstarter for a film that highlights (urban) Rid-All Farm in Cleveland, Ohio. 

We do not know the producer of the film or farm owners/staff personally at all.  We were made aware of this project by “divine appointment” just because we were looking for other black owned farms in Ohio today.  Please consider visiting the Kickstarter page and supporting this effort by donation and urging others to donate (use word of mouth, email, and social media posts).  They only have 17 more days left to get funding. 

People spend a lot of $$$$$ each year supporting big budget Hollywood films (by attending movies) renting Redboxes, joining streaming services such as Netflix, and buying cable.  That will do nothing for them or their community.  We are in a sad state when we spend BIG BUCKS on all of that buy will hesitate to give 10.00 to support a positive documentary about black people trying to make a difference in their community.  We have to change this mindset, wouldn’t you agree?  Just 10.00 will enable the supporter of this Kickstarter to download a digital copy of the documentary once completed.  I will mention again, we have no affiliation at all with this farm (they probably have never even heard of our little farm).  We just want to support this positive effort to encourage communities around the globe.

Shalom family, friends, and neighbors!  It’s official!  We have finished the Heartland Farm Beginnings course! 

Next up OEFFA!

We don’t have a lot of updates right now.  We have been busy finishing the Farm Beginnings course and getting ready for OEFFA.  We have started a few seed, but next week we will really plan to start seeding.  Check back soon for more updates!  Shalom!