tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58319346426961289432024-03-15T20:10:25.361-05:00Rattle's GardenRattle's Garden is a certified organic vegetable and flower farm located in Central Arkansas selling locally grown produce, flowers, and eggs through our CSA and the Hillcrest Farmer's Market in Little Rock, Arkansas.thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.comBlogger295125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-11145631838978401822021-12-29T08:59:00.001-06:002021-12-29T08:59:57.989-06:002022 Farmshare sign-up<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-V0Ss-K_89VkMFQUa3MaLP-BZOti2UJQfwelAU4IKRMxOH5ZYXZb47ZaVXl3BpzUxs5T4mk4zAQJ8bYd-x76qTqSQEJMdVK-AJcWrhX0Qfdqxf6HN0RZaengP6vEzxVs8jNvCzHHyyE6JWQ8uJAKjl-5TFg8zBdgFM_YoDUDrSk7Eylw3DSWbhOsPjg=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj-V0Ss-K_89VkMFQUa3MaLP-BZOti2UJQfwelAU4IKRMxOH5ZYXZb47ZaVXl3BpzUxs5T4mk4zAQJ8bYd-x76qTqSQEJMdVK-AJcWrhX0Qfdqxf6HN0RZaengP6vEzxVs8jNvCzHHyyE6JWQ8uJAKjl-5TFg8zBdgFM_YoDUDrSk7Eylw3DSWbhOsPjg=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>Sign-up for the 2022 Farmshare season will open January 1st. Sign up in the first week and swing by the farm or the Hillcrest farmers market for a free bag of sweet, candy carrots!</p>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-31172480997673556022020-04-13T08:39:00.002-05:002020-04-13T08:39:48.357-05:00First 2020 Farmshare Newsletter<h4 class="null" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(128, 128, 128) !important; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Hello Farmshare members!!</h4>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">I sit here wanting to tell y'all so much stuff that I don't even know where to start! We have SO many new members this year that I guess I should start this email with a warning that I can get a little wordy (it might be worse since y'all are the only adults outside our house that I've conversed with in weeks!) so I will always start the newsletter with the important information that people need to know. Everything else is just farm fluff. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Most important....despite the craziness happening throughout the world, we are still growing a LOT of food this summer. Other than y'all, my captive audience, I'm not sure who's going to buy it, but we are growing as if our markets are going to be open and our restaurant customers are going to survive. We are taking extreme social distancing precautions to ensure our health, our employees' health and the safety of handling your food. Because of this, our Farmshare pick-ups are going to look a little different than normal at least for the month of May. We love holding market style pickups at any location possible. Market style means we set out a lot of food and tell you how much to take of each item and you actually come through the line and pick out your produce, weighing and bagging it yourself. For the time being though, this year, we will be pre-bagging your Farmshare bags on the farm. All individual items will be bagged and your entire basket will be placed in a brown bag for you to pick up. This limits the exposure your food has to no more than two people (the person that picked it and the person that bagged it), in all likelihood, the same person will pick and bag your food. This also limits our exposure to who is handling scales, tongs and bags. Finally, this reduces any exposure for our partners that hold the Conway and Tarrytown pickups. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Please keep reading...as of today, there are no changes to the pickups that will be held at the farm, at Julie's house on Tarrytown or at Jazzercise in Conway. Hillcrest folks, though, we don't yet know what is going to happen with the market this year. The church is confident it will happen but they are not yet saying when it might open. If it does not open by the first week in May, my first attempt to distribute your food will be to ask the church if we can distribute from their parking lot. I am not confident that they will say yes. Because of this we have spoken to two of our restaurant partners about the possibility of distributing from their parking lots. To keep distribution as close to Hillcrest as possible, our first choice would be to work with Zaza's in the Heights. If that is not possible, we have been told we can park outside of the Root Cafe. Rest assured, we will get your food to Little Rock, we are just figuring out what our best option is. I will keep you updated as I know more. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Now to a report on how things are growing on the farm. After last year's May floods we have taken every precaution possible to play this year as safe as possible. This included saving our high tunnel space for early Farmshare crops. Typically, we are harvesting the crops we planted in December out of our high tunnels in March. This does not leave much time for turnaround to start new crops in the tunnels in time for the Farmshare so we rely on the outside fields for the Farmshare. This year we planted all of the high tunnels for early Farmshare crops. Over the years, y'all have repeatedly asked for MORE CARROTS. While we do a great job of growing carrots all winter, it much harder for us to grow them outside, the weed pressure is tremendous. This year I planted an entire high tunnel in carrots. 50,000 carrot seeds. If even a quarter of them produce carrots, that's a lot of carrots. My goal is to swamp y'all with carrots this year. ;) And so far, that high tunnel is looking fantastic. In another tunnel we have swiss chard and japanese salad turnips, both are looking beautiful. In the third tunnel, sweet candy onions, a small round of radicchio and lovely chioggia beets. The fourth tunnel currently has the first two rounds of our lettuce mix planted on both sides of heirloom tomatoes. Right now, I could not be more pleased with the way things look. As of today, outside the only crop planted is sugar snap peas which are about hip high and starting to bloom. On Friday though, Mike and I were able to get into the driest field and pull beds covered with plastic mulch. This is the field that will hold squash, cucumbers and winter squash and the great thing about us getting those beds pulled is that they are ready now. No matter what the rain does (okay, another 100 year flood would affect things), we have a place ready to plant those crops and they will go in the field on Thursday after we get through the low 30 degree nights we have coming up. On Saturday we were able to get into a second field with the tractors and while it wasn't ready to pull beds, we did get initial tractor work done and I'm hopeful that if we can string together several warm, dry days, we will get beds pulled in that field soon. In one more field, we pulled beds over the winter that have been covered with large silage tarps for two months. On Thursday we will pull those tarps off and plant green beans, more salad turnips and purple hull peas. Cross your fingers and say a prayer that we catch a little warm dry weather and we will be off to a good start for the season. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-31550568711202477762020-02-16T12:38:00.001-06:002020-02-16T12:38:11.756-06:002020 Conway Location & mid-February Newsletter<h4 class="yiv4620615293null" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(128, 128, 128) !important; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Good morning Farmshare community!</h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">I hope everyone enjoyed yesterday's sunshine as much as we did! I'm crossing my fingers that this morning's sunshine continues throughout the day! I wanted to send a quick email to tell you that while the farm is wet and soggy (expected in February), the start of the season is progressing as well as we can ever hope. We have broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, sprouting broccoli, kale, beets, radicchio and sugar snap peas started in the greenhouse. The heirloom tomatoes that we will plant in the high tunnels have been started in our germination room with the next round of tomato seeds to start today or tomorrow. We have four monster beds of carrots just sprouted in a high tunnel and plan to plant several more beds in one week in the hopes that we harvest enough carrots for most of the May Farmshare baskets. While I never know what March and April will bring, so far we are on track. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">My exciting news this weekend is that we have secured a spot for a Conway pickup location and I hope that it meets the needs of everyone that has asked for one. I have to say first, I am so thankful for the generosity of Brothers Honey Co in hosting last year's Conway pickup. My change in venue for this had nothing to do with them but entirely to do with me honing in on what it would take for me to continue dropping off in Conway. Last fall, after such a rough season, I really considered dropping a Conway pickup altogether in order to simply simplify the Farmshare. Over the last two months though I have had so many people reach out to me requesting a Conway pickup that I decided if I could get a number of very specific needs met we would be in Conway again this year. My first and most important need was not just a good location, but a person at that location that would really take ownership of the distribution to help make sure that it runs smoothly and that everyone gets the food they are supposed to. My second wish was to find a space that could comfortably hold not just the food but a number of members picking up at the same time while impacting the actual business as little as possible. Both of these requirements also resulted in finding a space where we could run the pickup "market style" like we do at the farm and at Hillcrest in order to reduce our use of plastic bags, a cause that is very important to me. Last Friday I finalized a commitment to a location that would meet all of these requirements. For the upcoming Farmshare season the Conway pickup will be held on Tuesday afternoons from 2:30 to 4:00 at Jazzercise in Conway, located at 2625 Donaghey Ave, Ste 102! I hope this works for the majority of you! Know that in choosing this location, we NEED you to pick up your food by 4:00 so that we don't interfere with their 4:30 class and we NEED you to bring your own reusable bags and containers! I'm really excited about being able to offer this. The women at Jazzercise have such great energy and are excited to help make this happen with us. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Now, housekeeping...some of you have already signed up for the farm pickup but have expressed interest in a Conway location when available. If you wish to change your pickup location from the farm to Conway, I need you to click on the 2020 Farmshare link above and follow the "Sign up" link to choose the option to transfer from the farm to Conway. There will be a $25 additional cost for the Conway pickup. This is no different than any of our other pickups. The cost to pick up at a location that is not the farm has always been $25 more. This helps us cover the cost of the Farmshare basket given to the hostess of the location as well as the cost of delivering the food. While I love hearing from y'all, there is no need to send me a message about changing as long as you go to the website and purchase the transfer. Finally, due to space limitations in my truck when hauling the food, we will limit this pickup to 20 members. Just like last year, I expect these 20 spots to fill up very quickly. Likely not today, but I won't be surprised if it is full in the next two weeks. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Please email me at rattlesgarden@yahoo.com with any questions! Have a great day, y'all!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-6028763732568163442019-12-15T14:05:00.000-06:002019-12-15T14:05:18.806-06:002020 Farmshare registration open in time for Christmas<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For all past and future Farmshare members...this post holds two "firsts" for us. This is the first time we are opening up registration for the summer Farmshare in time to give or receive as a Christmas gift! And as a bonus for signing up early, we'll give a jar of the farm's beekeeper's delicious "crystallized" honey to the first ten members that join this season. Simply click on the "2020 Farmshare" link above to check out details on pickup times and locations for the upcoming season and then if you would like to join us, follow the link to sign up. Merry Christmas, y'all!!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-92128065021531246342019-04-13T16:46:00.001-05:002019-04-13T16:46:18.599-05:00Conway pickup location is full for Summer 2019This is our first season to partner with Brother Honey Co in Conway as a pickup location for the summer Farmshare and I'm pleased to say we have filled all available slots for this pickup location! I'm so glad that the time and place will work for so many people! I'm so happy to be able to partner with a wonderful family in Conway to make it easier for our members to get their food!thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-32246013696660816082018-09-01T18:02:00.000-05:002018-09-01T18:02:08.276-05:00Fall Farmshare to start week of September 10th!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Fall Farmshare is coming up quickly! We will start the first baskets the week of September 10th. Check out the Farmshare link above to see available pickup locations and times or to sign up online. Please email me with any questions (rattlesgarden@yahoo.com) Here's a sneak peak at what the first week's baskets will look like!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSJOv6n73_rIxFC9LhQf3cTFidyZSCz-ngzKH-y3Bo7J2jiprqIQBL-AmfIvfyCCZvO29bhmSzSOUGIGaZBTunw3HYupyP6YHr5SUAeuvNqt-ye7p15fvtWLelh5aBfGEACUn4rwgOvp6v/s1600/IMG_7697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSJOv6n73_rIxFC9LhQf3cTFidyZSCz-ngzKH-y3Bo7J2jiprqIQBL-AmfIvfyCCZvO29bhmSzSOUGIGaZBTunw3HYupyP6YHr5SUAeuvNqt-ye7p15fvtWLelh5aBfGEACUn4rwgOvp6v/s320/IMG_7697.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-19683513221352900412018-05-06T21:40:00.001-05:002018-05-06T21:40:05.597-05:00Farmshare Newsletter - May 6<h4 class="yiv1224544024null" style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Hello Farmshare members!</h4>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Tonight's email will be short. I just want to remind all of you that we will skip baskets this week to give our field crops another week to grow and will resume baskets next week. This skipped week will not count as part of your 10 weeks of food, we will just add another week in July. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">For a quick update from the field, we've had a ton of plant growth in the last week. Warmer daytime and nighttime temps have helped the ground warm up considerably and in looking at the 10 day forecast, it won't be long before farmers switch to complaining about the heat rather than the cold! I told a few of you yesterday that I've started to see the squash plants blooming with baby squashes attached to the flowers. It is such a strange year for us...I never would have imagined y'all might get squash (a summer crop) before you got broccoli, cauliflower and green beans (spring crops), yet, it appears that might happen! Overall, everything in the field is looking really good and we are really close to winding up the bulk of our spring planting by the end of this week. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Our farm excitement for the week included the delivery of a new tractor for the farm as well as one for Gus. We added a small 25 hp tractor to our lineup to narrow the space between our beds in certain fields allowing us to get a third again more beds into a field. If you've ever heard me talk about the farm, I often tell people I've definitely learned farming the hard way, through trial and error. Nowhere has this been more apparent over the years than in purchasing the right equipment to get the job done on a farm our size. This tractor is one more piece I'm putting in place to help make this farm more sustainable on a slightly larger scale for my farmhand Mike and I to be able to do the bulk of the farm labor ourselves. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Until next week, y'all....please don't hesitate to email or text me with any questions! See you soon!</span><br />
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thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-18719553536114375372018-04-29T21:24:00.001-05:002018-04-29T21:24:26.803-05:00Farmshare Week 1Farmshare members, we will begin this week! Your weekly newsletter just left my inbox. While I would love to post it here on the website, it does have information in it that is for your eyes only so if for any reason you did not receive this week's newsletter, drop me an email at rattlesgarden@yahoo.com and I will forward it to you. In the meantime, I'll share a few pictures of the beautiful dianthus I have in bloom right now. Enjoy!<br />
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<br />thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-2973411669625062882018-04-22T19:22:00.003-05:002018-04-22T19:22:52.909-05:00Farmshare Newsletter 4/22/18<h4 class="yiv4075421071null" style="background-color: white; color: grey; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Happy rainy day, y'all!</h4>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">I'm taking a break this morning from pruning tomato plants to get this much needed newsletter out of my head and into your inbox. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Y'all. This has been the craziest, most difficult spring I've run into over the last ten years we have been farming. Our farm is not alone in losing more crops than ever before due to extreme colds over the last two months. I heard more stories of lost crops yesterday at market than ever before. But farmers are nothing if not persistent. Just like us, most continue to replant and hope for the best. So far, I'm thankful that the only crops we lost to the cold were the first round of green, yellow and purple beans and sweet corn. Both of these were easily replanted and the investment lost was simply seed and my time sowing it, rather than weeks of care in the greenhouse like some other crops. Otherwise, our tunnel tomatoes pulled through with flying colors and the other cold tender crops stayed warm in the greenhouse. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Now I'm faced with the ever difficult decision of when to start the Farmshare. We always shoot for starting the first week in May. This is easy in a warm spring where we have tunnel crops just finishing up and making it into the first baskets followed closely by the first field crops. This year though, has not been warm and the field crops are two to three weeks behind where they typically are. My initial thoughts were that we would push the start of the Farmshare back a week or two to give the field crops time to catch up. However, if I do that we run the risk of the late spring tunnel crops being done before the Farmshare starts. I have gone back and forth about this decision for the last few days and I think I've come up with a compromise that gives y'all the best of the food but I worry might make things confusing. I'm going to do my best to make it clear though.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">We are going to go ahead and start the Farmshare next week as planned, so Tuesday, May 1 will be the first LR pickup, Thursday, May 3rd the first farm pickup and Saturday, May 5th will be the first Hillcrest pickup. I want to do this so y'all catch the swiss chard, kale and carrots coming out of the tunnels as well as lettuce mix, microgreens and green garlic. The first basket will be heavy on both salad and cooking greens. And while I hope to have salad greens available to y'all most of the summer, the quantity will definitely lessen as the heat comes on and we'll lose the cooking greens as soon as it gets hot. Now, here is where the potentially confusing part comes in. It is possible that, for the first time ever, we may skip a week of baskets the following week in May while we wait on field crops to get ready. I could be wrong about this, we'll see what the weather brings over the next two weeks, but it won't surprise me if we need to do this. I will do my absolute best to communicate this clearly to y'all everywhere I possibly can, by newsletter, on the website, on FB. If you ever question whether you have a pickup, you simply need to drop me a text at 501-941-0331. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">For those of you getting this newsletter, that are not signed up yet, it will be the last newsletter that you get until I open fall registration in August. If you are still interested in joining this year, we do still have a few spots open at every pickup location but we are sold out of Eggshares for the season. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">As for crop progress, as usual, the sugar snap peas LOVE cool, rainy springs. They are looking fantastic and we have about 400 feet more of them than ever before. My boys are checking on them every day...waiting. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards and swiss chard are looking beautiful in the field and will be some of the first veg you get in mid-May. The zephyr squash, zucchini, butternut and spaghetti squash all went into the field last week and look pretty great so far. The cherry tomatoes will start going in the ground this week as well as our field tomatoes and basil. Mike, my farmhand, the boys and I are hanging on until reinforcements get to the farm next week in the form of a young couple experienced in farm work, moving to Vilonia from Washington state as well as a couple of former interns that will be working on the farm for the summer starting in mid-May. If I'm looking for a bright side to a tough spring it's that had all of the spring crops done what they were supposed to, Mike and I would be drowning in work rather than just barely staying afloat until our help shows up. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Speaking of work, I need to get back to it. Please, don't hesitate to holler at me if you have any questions. Or if you need to use your skip week....did I mention skip weeks? For those of you that are new to the Farmshare, you get one skip week each season. As long as you let me know in advance that you will be skipping your basket for a given week, we will tack that basket on to the end of the season so you still get 10 baskets. You can let me know the week before, or by 6 am the morning before, or right now. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Have a great week, y'all! I'll be in touch next Sunday for last minute details regarding next week's baskets. Thanks!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Tara</span><br />
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Gus showing off swiss chard bundles for market.</div>
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Squash beds tucked under blankets during the most recent cold night.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXKYPtJ3E9_CzQjwkcF5wMo-bBFqdjihyphenhyphenUSYwWeFW6s1t2oSfuxOGSIZ7i6EWC3RwbkSwkI2Hr0prOuW_hTfYrgGFhGs3CE2xeIX3V418vXSOkXztD_Gnzraj71BSHCwyf_mr2cdq3TWh/s1600/IMG_6400.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheXKYPtJ3E9_CzQjwkcF5wMo-bBFqdjihyphenhyphenUSYwWeFW6s1t2oSfuxOGSIZ7i6EWC3RwbkSwkI2Hr0prOuW_hTfYrgGFhGs3CE2xeIX3V418vXSOkXztD_Gnzraj71BSHCwyf_mr2cdq3TWh/s320/IMG_6400.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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1000 cherry tomato seedlings ready to go in the field this week.</div>
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Spring mix ready to harvest.</div>
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-12830128619812373562018-01-25T11:07:00.002-06:002018-01-25T11:11:06.542-06:00Farmshare Sign-up available Online <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://squareup.com/store/rattles-garden">Purchase Farmshare Online Now! </a></span><br />
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or<br />
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<a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Read our FAQ or print our Membership Agreement</span></a>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-79006288005007480062018-01-04T12:59:00.000-06:002018-01-04T12:59:08.751-06:002018 Farmshare Info Updated<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKimuEQ71wTTJa-r-2oLtB-VpWysifuAVGmSD9SbyQHdkFMCcEY_yNRqLg2RbqoemTWDbGMhVBNV1ZxgGH2pZx1wfyVGSPLOdtHqphFkAIBjsZtlnjoIw6adgx1QhOnHLLokYKoby7fynb/s1600/032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKimuEQ71wTTJa-r-2oLtB-VpWysifuAVGmSD9SbyQHdkFMCcEY_yNRqLg2RbqoemTWDbGMhVBNV1ZxgGH2pZx1wfyVGSPLOdtHqphFkAIBjsZtlnjoIw6adgx1QhOnHLLokYKoby7fynb/s400/032.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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As I sit here updating the Farmshare information and wading through seed catalogs this picture of Gus planting seeds back in September keeps floating across my computer as if my computer knows I'm thinking warm thoughts on this cold day!</div>
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I like this part of the process every year. Looking through colorful seed catalogs, going just a little stir-crazy inside and excited to start working in the greenhouse over the next few weeks. </div>
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I have finally update the Farmshare information after repeated inquiries over the last few days. I hope you take the time to check it out by clicking on the Farmshare tab at the top of the page and consider joining us for the season. Happy New Year! </div>
<br />thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-20274351239225637492017-04-30T21:46:00.001-05:002017-04-30T21:46:54.473-05:00Week 2 Newsletter - Bring your bags!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello y'all!</h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">Woohoo! We made it through last week! The first week is always the hardest between last minute sign-ups and making sure everyone figures out where they need to be. To top it off, I had to be in a board meeting last Thursday, so Robert, Mike and the boys took care of the farm pickup. I hope it all went smoothly! If it didn't, holler at me and we'll get everything straight. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">Now that you all know the drill, I'm going to add a layer of complication for you. Returning members know that last year we attempted to produce a little less waste by asking customers to bring their own bags to pickup to put their produce in. For the farm pickup and the Hillcrest pickup, this worked really smoothly. I set out crates of food and y'all filled your bags. The most successful way to do this was when people brought a few small things to put individual items in (old walmart bags or big tupperware containers) and then something a little bigger to carry the individual items (a cooler, picnic basket, cardboard box). In the event that you forget, I'll have a roll of bags on hand, but I challenge you to make an attempt at zero waste. If you are going to be in a hurry to pick up, or if you happen to be the one person that picks up 5 baskets, just send me a text and I can have your food ready for you when you get here. For those of you that pick up from</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;"> Julie's house on Tuesdays,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;"> we are making an attempt to cut back on plastic for you this year, so start bringing your bags! You will need them this week to take home lettuce and bundles of greens out of the coolers.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">To take this one step further, my compost challenge from last year still stands if you pickup from the farm. If you think you'd be interested in trying to compost your food scraps from the week but don't have a compost pile in your backyard, you are welcome to dump your compost in our pile. Last year I made this offer but didn't give a lot of guidance with it. The result was that many people tried to bag their compost every day in individual walmart sacks and then brought these sacks to the farm in a garbage bag. Unfortunately for me, that meant that at the end of a long pickup day I spent an hour emptying everyone's individual garbage scraps into the compost pile. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I made the offer! So, if you think you want to take me up on this, here is what I would suggest to make your lives, and mine, a little easier. I would pick some type of plastic container with a lid, size appropriate to how much food scrap you have through the week, and dump all of your leftover food in it. Then bring it with you on Thursdays, park at the curve in the driveway, next to the high tunnels and walk behind the tunnels to dump this container into the compost pile. I'll even show you to a hydrant to rinse out your container. Regarding what to put in it, send all of your food scrap. I don't mind meat, dairy, vegetables, cooked or uncooked, eggshells, coffee ground and filters, just no plastic or twist ties or anything else that won't decompose. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">Ok, to this week's food. As I walked around the farm this evening I realized this might be the first basket we've ever put together that contains entirely leafy greens, no solid vegetables. We are catching the tail end of the early vegetables we grew for market and are a week or two out from the start of our early summer crops. I thought we might see snap peas this week, but the rain and cooler temps have kept them slow. Looking at the forecast, we have several days of sunshine coming up so I have no doubt y'all will see the sugar snap peas in the baskets for week 3. Around the same time we have carrots, beets, cabbage, broccoli, cucumbers and green beans coming soon, but not quite this week. So this basket will have a different variety of lettuce than last week, y'all will each get two (they aren't huge) nice heads of buttercrunch lettuce. This week you will see a different variety of kale, it will either be a dark green, thick leafed dino kale or a curly, thick leafed Siberian kale. Both are nice to make kale chips out of or to chop and saute for any meal. Some of you may see collard greens, some may see broccoli greens (which I cook the same way as collards and actually prefer over all the other braising greens). I expect all of you to see Swiss chard this week-it'll be the bunch with the rainbow colored stems. It's possible that we may see a few strawberries still this week but after all the rain this weekend I'm not expecting much. If greens aren't a staple in your diet and your feeling a little lost, hang in there. The greens aren't around for long and I hope all of you enjoy them while they are here. The internet is a wonderful place to find easy recipes for the more challenging vegetables this week.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 15px;">I think that's all I have tonight. Bring your bags y'all! Remember to let me know if you need to use your skip week. See y'all soon!</span>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-55883507492442998272017-04-24T08:08:00.001-05:002017-04-24T08:08:21.593-05:00Pickup Instructions for this Week's Farmshare<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;"> We have three pickup options this year. You signed up for one when you sent in your membership agreement. That will remain your pickup location through the entire Farmshare. If you don't know which one you signed up for, you need to contact me! I'm going to give three sets of instructions specific to each location. If I have information specific to one group each week, I will always preface it by highlighting that group's name. So don't panic if something I've written doesn't make any sense to you, check to see if the info is meant for a different pickup location! Cool? Ok.</span><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">So first up this week, on April 25 will be the</span><span style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;"> Tuesday, Little Rock</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;">pickup</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;"> at the home of Julie Majors, 1600 Tarrytown. Her address works in GPS but if you have trouble finding it, holler. My husband, Robert, will be dropping this food off before he goes to work. He comes straight to LR after dropping off at school in Conway in the morning. Barring no traffic accidents on I40 coming into LR, he should always have the food dropped off shortly before 9. If you show up at 9 and he's not there, check iDrive. He will be there rain or shine as long as he's not stuck in a wreck. Your food will be arriving in large coolers that he will set under the tree in Julie's yard. I will send a clipboard with a list of your names on it as well as instructions regarding what you are supposed to take. Please mark next to your name that you have picked up your food. If it is raining, this clipboard will be in one of the coolers so open them up. If you signed up for an Eggshare, your eggs will be there in a cooler, don't forget them! This pickup will be from 9-11 every Tuesday. Robert will come back and pickup these coolers around lunch, so if you don't make it in the 9-11 window the coolers will be gone.</span><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Next will be the</span><span style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;"> Thursday Farm pickup. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;"> Y'all get to come see me! Your first pick up will be April 27. There are two windows of time that we need you to try to hit for pickup. The morning window is from 9-12 and the afternoon window is from 4-6. I will actually have to leave the farm on Thursdays at 11 to pickup from school, however, our farmhand Mike will be here to cover until I get back. If you need to pick up in between these times, it's not a big deal, just message me and we will make arrangements. If you and I have talked about bringing your food to Conway with me, now's the time to remind me and we'll work it out. </span><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;">Directions to the farm:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;"> Our address is 1780 Hwy 64 East, Vilonia. However, it does NOT work well in GPS, please go by my directions!</span><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;">From Conway: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Head east on Oak St/Hwy 64. Stay on 64! Don't get off of 64 to go through Vilonia! We live on 64! When you hit the light at the intersection of 64/107 you will be about 5 miles from the farm. When you see Gunter's RV on your left, you are super close and our driveway is just around the next curve in the road and will be on your right. You will pass our first driveway which has a green gate across it and our second driveway will have our mailbox that says 1780. You will see a few large hoophouses and a green metal building. Come to the green building!</span><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;">From Beebe, Cabot, Jax:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;"> Make your way to El Paso and head west on Hwy 64. Our driveway is 2 miles from the stop sign in El Paso and will be on your left. You will see the hoophouses and a green metal building. The mailbox says 1780.</span><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Finally, the </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1493038423920_7361" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 700;">Saturday pickup at the Hillcrest Farmers Market:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;"> Your first pick will be April 29 and your pickup will run in conjunction with market hours. For the next two weeks those hours are from 8-noon. After the first week in May the market opens an hour earlier and everything starts at 7. You will come to our market booth and directly behind our market booth I will have a second tent set up specifically for you. I will be there to answer questions but I will have signs on crates of food telling you how much you need to take of each item. While we will be there until noon, I would encourage you to come as early as possible since we have no way to keep your food cold all morning, especially as summer hits. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 15px;">Please text or email me with any questions or if you need to use your skip week!</span>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-31730253933876263902017-04-09T12:43:00.003-05:002017-04-09T12:43:54.640-05:00First April Newsletter to Farmshare Members<h4 class="null" style="background-color: white; color: rgb(128, 128, 128) !important; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Hello Farmshare members!!</h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">I can't believe it is already time to start writing newsletters! We've had our heads so buried in planting that I haven't thought about much else. I need to start by saying thanks to all of you for taking this ride with us this summer! It's exciting to see so many returning names that have signed up season after season as well as many new names on the list this year as we continue to grow the Farmshare program. This spring has been relatively mild for us and we are leaps and bounds ahead of past years in our planting schedule. I'm excited for the season and ever hopeful for what the spring is going to bring us. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Since I tend to get a little bit wordy in these newsletters, I'm going to hit the most important point first. The start date. Returning members are aware that we always target the start of the Farmshare for the first week in May, plus or minus a week. Last year we started a week later while we waited for the sugar snaps to ripen. This year it looks like we will start a week early. Our start date this year will entirely depend on strawberries. We started picking ripe strawberries at the end of last week. So far, not enough of a bowl that any of them make it back to the house before the boys hit them. I expect the bulk of them to hit though in about two weeks. Strawberries are such a rare occurrence on our farm that I absolutely want the Farmshare members to get as many of them as possible. Now if we get nothing but rain the next two weeks, it may push us back to the first week in May, but right now, I'm planning on starting the week of April 24th. I will totally keep y'all posted over the next two weeks though.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Beyond strawberries, we have a few other new crops being added to the Farmshare baskets this year that we've never grown before. Based on the survey I gave Farmshare members at the end of last season, we decided to try our hands at potatoes, sweet corn and cauliflower. Cross your fingers! Another change this year is actually due to our sales to the co-op we belong to, New South Produce. Instead of just having head lettuce this summer, we are going to alternate with a bagged lettuce mix. I'm pretty sure most of you would like the convenience of a pre-washed bagged lettuce, so this year we are going to pilot this process and see if it can make sense financially for the farm to offer this. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB2zAM_X0asSbzWoc4ZIjFvyPNSx2abBET3X5onVK6_F_io5N1L88ycTXEESEkfzurT2XxLik5ccitS-T5PjIRX9WpCmzW44D4h2vJLaqimzFeHi8WJkbyqiGXc9jBbbDz3sHkvyWebMLV/s1600/IMG_0943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB2zAM_X0asSbzWoc4ZIjFvyPNSx2abBET3X5onVK6_F_io5N1L88ycTXEESEkfzurT2XxLik5ccitS-T5PjIRX9WpCmzW44D4h2vJLaqimzFeHi8WJkbyqiGXc9jBbbDz3sHkvyWebMLV/s320/IMG_0943.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">To give a quick overview of how crops are looking around here, we have multiple plantings of broccoli, cabbage, carrots and lettuce that are growing well and right on schedule. Our heirloom tomatoes went into the new high tunnel almost a month ago and are knee high and looking beautiful. With the mild weather we've had, we've actually only had to close the tunnel up two nights since they've been planted. Pretty unbelievable. In our middle tunnel this year I planted Japanese cucumbers that I think y'all are going to love. We planted these at the request of the group of restaurants that we work closely with so y'all will reap what is hopefully an abundance as well as see these on your salads at Zaza's in Conway and Little Rock. Our cherry tomatoes are behind this year. Most of you know we've made our name on our orange cherry tomatoes the last eight years. This year when we saw we were going to outgrow our greenhouse space we actually decided to work with an organic nursery in Van Buren to grow our broccoli, cabbage and cherry tomato seedlings. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the greenhouse manager chose not to plant our 1000 cherry tomato seedlings. And I found this out four days before we were expecting the seedlings to arrive ready to plant. Gulp. Nonetheless, I expedited seeds, cleared out greenhouse space and started our own seedlings. Y'all will still see these cherry tomatoes, just not in May as you have past years. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEA-NL7DL-aXqXjY1ZaDBogibXvUpSmBKxgGYajJUxmhfkNxkbxkNZIv6fYNjEVnFaI75auixzmszxKWR9BaoXYNy5Wmq5XPARcs0Krcxs2zuVX72K19Sl4K13r-Rgr6mK-_mx18uHvRcZ/s1600/FullSizeRender.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEA-NL7DL-aXqXjY1ZaDBogibXvUpSmBKxgGYajJUxmhfkNxkbxkNZIv6fYNjEVnFaI75auixzmszxKWR9BaoXYNy5Wmq5XPARcs0Krcxs2zuVX72K19Sl4K13r-Rgr6mK-_mx18uHvRcZ/s320/FullSizeRender.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Finally, a little update on farm operations. Many of you will remember Mike, that worked for us last summer. Thanks in no small part to the commitment of our Farmshare members, we were able to keep Mike employed all winter long and he is just as excited about this season as I am. Y'all will see him around all summer. So far we've committed one intern and one more farmhand to start in May and are looking to fill a crew of six for the year. We found out a week ago that the NRCS is offering us another high tunnel this year so construction on that will begin mid-summer. This is really great news for those of you that loved the heirloom tomatoes we produced in last summer in our old tunnel. Having three large high tunnels will allow us to have a three year rotation on tomatoes and keep those heirlooms protected every year from now on. The first construction y'all will see though will be up near the high tunnels and will be a building that doubles as a pumphouse for our irrigation system and a wash station to help increase efficiency in our cleaning process. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #606060; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Allright. I think y'all are almost up to speed! You'll hear from me weekly from now on, typically, late on Sunday evenings. If you know someone that is thinking about signing up, please forward this newsletter to them, it's not too late and we have about 20 spots to fill to hit our goal of 85 members this year. Please feel free to email me (rattlesgarden@yahoo.com) or text me (501-941-0331) with any questions! Thanks y'all!</span><br />
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<br />thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-37112220961070098672017-03-12T09:20:00.000-05:002017-03-12T09:20:25.629-05:00Planning and Planting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Despite last night's cold and sleet, the planning and planting continues. With sun and 60 degrees on Thursday I planted our third round of beautiful Napoli carrots. Carrots have been a huge hit in the Farmshare baskets for the last two years so this year we doubled down with large succession plantings hoping to see carrots in Farmshare baskets for the first half of the season. We are excited about this growing season! Join us!</div>
<br />thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com218tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-48000338429278902052017-01-03T08:26:00.001-06:002017-01-03T08:26:42.317-06:002017 Farmshare<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbySO_XLpftVmYGLPny9auZO_T-oG5nL8y2TTBaEcWlXZTba2VuEHYBLEGNquiI_P0YHdpf5ncEmdSV6ZIijqmW7BDbi0kLkAM2AP1jicixJ4_cCbMTg7xpY6X10VeZ_zFOrAsQIl1dzId/s1600/257.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbySO_XLpftVmYGLPny9auZO_T-oG5nL8y2TTBaEcWlXZTba2VuEHYBLEGNquiI_P0YHdpf5ncEmdSV6ZIijqmW7BDbi0kLkAM2AP1jicixJ4_cCbMTg7xpY6X10VeZ_zFOrAsQIl1dzId/s320/257.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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photo by Kevin Shalin</div>
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Even though May is 5 months away, even though Christmas is barely behind us, it's time again to make plans for the summer Farmshare. I've spent the last couple days finalizing decisions regarding the logistics of this summer's Farmshare and updating paperwork and the website. The summer Farmshare is now officially open for membership!<br />
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To find out details, go to <a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html">2017 Farmshare</a>. To sign up, download the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8J6Kvz6eLO0UG5NTUR4djZZRzA/view?usp=sharing">Membership Agreement</a>.<br />
<br />thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-90544351535041884582016-09-03T16:51:00.001-05:002016-09-03T16:51:09.586-05:00Building a new high tunnel (part 1)Last week our new high tunnel arrived on a truck. <div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBI_JXcmOUoMxFjY4QnDv8jutGughU70uyU766g_azW8hfMRkdDEhvanDXViI-cdpLE1t5jQiD4h2dye3HVbHuKTpY5wejDITxCletTZXwWUC8HC8a9oID5KBXGqd9VMMjM69f_dldS-Ra/s640/blogger-image--720941121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBI_JXcmOUoMxFjY4QnDv8jutGughU70uyU766g_azW8hfMRkdDEhvanDXViI-cdpLE1t5jQiD4h2dye3HVbHuKTpY5wejDITxCletTZXwWUC8HC8a9oID5KBXGqd9VMMjM69f_dldS-Ra/s640/blogger-image--720941121.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This week we started putting it together. Luckily for us, Robert has access to survey equipment through his job. Over the years he has surveyed all over our farm. Our project began with him using this equipment to drop pin flags I the ground where each of the posts for the tunnel would go. Then we used the tractor and a level to push each post in the ground and make sure they were straight.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1dtRYklwg6R-7tM4v99jwt0nPMJ4MTLBMrP0VPlowHLLl_kPPUJu-l8K7UOUw5io_NtxsBtIwnZgnc8a4nCGdhe3Z08S_fHuykvwWfhXIv8HYx00J3iLSO8BUsjOP99PhJktXOFJ_jPW/s640/blogger-image--1865879506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb1dtRYklwg6R-7tM4v99jwt0nPMJ4MTLBMrP0VPlowHLLl_kPPUJu-l8K7UOUw5io_NtxsBtIwnZgnc8a4nCGdhe3Z08S_fHuykvwWfhXIv8HYx00J3iLSO8BUsjOP99PhJktXOFJ_jPW/s640/blogger-image--1865879506.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This morning we strung a string across the posts of our existing tunnel and used it to determine the depth we needed to push the new posts in. Then we finished the first driving the first row of posts in to the correct depth. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFOnShfz-bT4I443CdRg7tGhMwHCbnDU4EjF9g1oH8equkLMzEEyT152RhG1AACyshhwI1hEf_gq_WxTh0E2I0iQ9PMPf2UVmnsNv3C9fEiehFOuY8iziGLP4LKXfRqxc1QLb3gu-ZlGa/s640/blogger-image-1297793667.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLFOnShfz-bT4I443CdRg7tGhMwHCbnDU4EjF9g1oH8equkLMzEEyT152RhG1AACyshhwI1hEf_gq_WxTh0E2I0iQ9PMPf2UVmnsNv3C9fEiehFOuY8iziGLP4LKXfRqxc1QLb3gu-ZlGa/s640/blogger-image-1297793667.jpg"></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">This evening we ought to get the second row of posts leveled off as well. More to come...</span></div><br></div><br></div>thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-52426460513359375702016-02-07T12:15:00.002-06:002016-02-07T12:16:19.464-06:00Tied to a Chicken CoopFor the first six years that we kept a flock of laying hens they roosted at night in a permanent coop and roamed during the day on about half an acre of ground fenced in around that coop. For six years, morning and night the chicken coop had to be opened and closed. When we went out of town it meant that whoever took care of the animals for us had to make a separate trip to the farm in the morning just to open the coop. Not being tied to a chicken coop door was one of the more appealing aspects of putting our birds in a mobile coop and rotating their pasture. Now our birds have been on pasture for two and a half years. They roost inside a trailer with a coop built on top. Their pasture is surrounded by electric fence which does a really fantastic job of keeping out predators. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJg81sLaW0EVTHgDewgFyMfgAqKF_3Owu1A6UXS35fWG8QefV6WkvoYoJgONxj8-Ys6dHr8GqA39qXvWrPMAYqhr5J9VSgqot1bHCTfgtC0ApMuNRVIO9gydo2G39pLce0-SF3rT8oLAGQ/s1600/IMG_3515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJg81sLaW0EVTHgDewgFyMfgAqKF_3Owu1A6UXS35fWG8QefV6WkvoYoJgONxj8-Ys6dHr8GqA39qXvWrPMAYqhr5J9VSgqot1bHCTfgtC0ApMuNRVIO9gydo2G39pLce0-SF3rT8oLAGQ/s400/IMG_3515.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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A year ago in January the battery went out on our fence charger and it took almost two weeks to get it replaced. During those two weeks we lost almost one hen a night to any number of predators. I believe it was multiple predators because we've found over the years that different predators have different patterns of behavior in what they do with the birds. For instance, a hawk will eat almost every part of a chicken. They leave only a backbone attached to wings. Raccoons and possums tend to eat a large part of the bird and almost always try to drag the bird back through the fence to a treeline. Owls on the other hand eat a chicken's head. And that is it. To me they are the worst kind of predator because of the waste they create. They are also the worst kind of predator because they mean we have to be tied to the door of a chicken coop again. <br />
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Last year after we replaced the battery in the fence charger we continued to lose a bird every couple of nights. The difference this time was that on all of these birds, only the head was eaten. At the time we had little experience with owls and were still guessing at the predator. Until one night we got a few inches of snow. I had closed the coop door that night and went out early in the morning to open it. In the middle of the fenced in chicken yard started one set of large bird tracks. It walked to the front of the coop and then all the way around the trailer. After a little more research we were pretty sure we were dealing with an owl. <br />
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Eventually as spring came around we started taking chances again leaving the coop door open in the evenings. We didn't have a problem again until about a month ago. Always in the evening, always just the head pulled off. So once again we are tied to the door of the chicken coop. Hopefully just until spring rolls around and other prey become easier to find. Until then, I'm greeted with relief every morning as I open the door to the trailer and chickens begin to roll out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5chb2-qvZSt-op2YcJ45xQ4HT_LrG-WeEdJUl6O0qmTU2x3-qTmEaYiT8wBNMQB9U5gDjzy2tfXo519kxsHbxNrY2YreRkXBz4hqSIO-F95jfy9JY8ftKI1vykM_LsjrWh2ImOH_huPcp/s1600/DSC_1729.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5chb2-qvZSt-op2YcJ45xQ4HT_LrG-WeEdJUl6O0qmTU2x3-qTmEaYiT8wBNMQB9U5gDjzy2tfXo519kxsHbxNrY2YreRkXBz4hqSIO-F95jfy9JY8ftKI1vykM_LsjrWh2ImOH_huPcp/s400/DSC_1729.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8sPB7MTxb871Qw-CsMEgMp-1XFCtalQ6vlWlY77f5Owo85Xh2Tc5RwrUs3D-1KPYdQN-7ph94k57rz4abyNQeadt9Hj2Qt_SAfhLETSsGx1LpcSlnckWIKiEpopQXngOE20LUylJ6a2U/s1600/DSC_1735.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8sPB7MTxb871Qw-CsMEgMp-1XFCtalQ6vlWlY77f5Owo85Xh2Tc5RwrUs3D-1KPYdQN-7ph94k57rz4abyNQeadt9Hj2Qt_SAfhLETSsGx1LpcSlnckWIKiEpopQXngOE20LUylJ6a2U/s400/DSC_1735.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-72072200669173084962016-01-27T13:03:00.002-06:002016-01-27T13:04:26.534-06:00CompostLast week I had a load of compost delivered from American Composting. This load will be used to top off the beds in the existing high tunnels and to build beds for the new tunnel we will be putting up over the next few months. It serves a dual purpose of being entertainment for two little boys while I'm getting work done on nice January days.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDHTz_0ZtnbYgoZpxN9zaD6D258Ta-JL0WPsikQqc9rWoU0mI-7dg-wT91Dine-p3NGgehv891J68Nn21dwZdMAXZsVr12vDSmxbbucEkm7v0iTuzeq8fSb4kUfBhTleDbqXOcEG5ar_D/s1600/IMG_3427.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDHTz_0ZtnbYgoZpxN9zaD6D258Ta-JL0WPsikQqc9rWoU0mI-7dg-wT91Dine-p3NGgehv891J68Nn21dwZdMAXZsVr12vDSmxbbucEkm7v0iTuzeq8fSb4kUfBhTleDbqXOcEG5ar_D/s400/IMG_3427.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The upside to this arrangement is it literally entertains them for several hours at a time. </div>
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The downside is that it feels like I spend several hours afterwards getting the compost off of every single part of their little bodies. Seriously. I found compost in Gus' diaper for two days after this, despite several showers. </div>
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And despite the 65 degree day we had on Monday when these pictures were taken, remnants of the weekend's snow still remained in the shade of the tunnels.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxje3ZBqKZxC6dZ51e-4I3GN4jX2JvPWM3_gBD3E4F8UFB8hXgMNXx7QXm1GesDAboIxmHYK7DoKs2OUvyxeEm-JUQU3W2QiS5gobVyqFtO7NSrksqzK6XHX_x4tls-UrokiWVq4PnMp9G/s1600/IMG_3419.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxje3ZBqKZxC6dZ51e-4I3GN4jX2JvPWM3_gBD3E4F8UFB8hXgMNXx7QXm1GesDAboIxmHYK7DoKs2OUvyxeEm-JUQU3W2QiS5gobVyqFtO7NSrksqzK6XHX_x4tls-UrokiWVq4PnMp9G/s400/IMG_3419.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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While I was working I heard Milan repeating to Gus, "only eat clean snow". </div>
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As I look out and see this.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAoneM9NA4fgIFTho2sKtcbfkZ4POw-o0EkUl5rtzEicMMtnWdJ2YIADbmZhyuRLkqcQLZxJVi93MRUse4FrCSnPjT8t6eh3YGI_oHtq599k9eRyuUR9pPYkK6fiQs8f80Y97J6V9sT09v/s1600/IMG_3423.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAoneM9NA4fgIFTho2sKtcbfkZ4POw-o0EkUl5rtzEicMMtnWdJ2YIADbmZhyuRLkqcQLZxJVi93MRUse4FrCSnPjT8t6eh3YGI_oHtq599k9eRyuUR9pPYkK6fiQs8f80Y97J6V9sT09v/s400/IMG_3423.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-64950950200235825412016-01-01T15:26:00.003-06:002016-01-22T18:45:27.329-06:00December AfternoonsI've fallen off the social media radar completely during the month of December. With beautiful December days, here is why...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLSvPzuqYDV8xEwX87gyvI0A_It-4OdiynfI-pEQd7hu4YEM8HCSatKbmHTmctUIRt20WGAjSOxxpVIeEg-LoqBX77BvASDlKu32kHQpRLQFScUK4IiFWXi8cKyg9duLMVOcTjWyhhdcc/s1600/DSC_0666.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNLSvPzuqYDV8xEwX87gyvI0A_It-4OdiynfI-pEQd7hu4YEM8HCSatKbmHTmctUIRt20WGAjSOxxpVIeEg-LoqBX77BvASDlKu32kHQpRLQFScUK4IiFWXi8cKyg9duLMVOcTjWyhhdcc/s400/DSC_0666.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-23481708070486323042015-08-28T13:21:00.003-05:002016-01-22T18:15:10.078-06:00Tunnel WorkshopThis spring I was excited to accept a position on the advisory board for a multi-farm cooperative CSA called Foodshed Farms. Due to the timing of when we became involved in this program, and the size that our own Farmshare had grown this summer, we did not start producing vegetables for Foodshed Farms until late in the season, after our summer Farmshare was complete. I am really excited though that we will be involved in growing vegetables for the Foodshed Farms CSA this fall. <br />
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Currently Foodshed Farms is transitioning to using growers that are certified organic or certified naturally grown. To assist in this transition and to ensure that the farmers involved in the program have as many tools in their toolbox as possible, Foodshed Farms is putting on monthly training sessions to provide hands-on experience that many of us would not otherwise have easy access to. <br />
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This month our farm hosted the training workshop and the hands on project was how to build a low cost hoophouse. Yesterday was the day and I want to post a few pictures from the workshop. It was so much fun spending the day with a group of like-minded, hard-working individuals. We tend to get so wrapped up in what needs to be done on the farm, we seldom make time to stop and visit. I so enjoyed yesterday and am thankful for all of these individuals taking time out of their week to spend the day with us. I'm excited about being part of this cooperative!<br />
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thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-18513012195147878862015-01-12T15:27:00.003-06:002016-01-22T18:01:31.561-06:00Carrots, carrots, carrots!Milan and I harvested these carrots last week. Last year was our first year growing carrots and I love them! Not only are they fun to harvest and beautiful to look at, they are so incredibly sweet! My carrot seed for this spring arrived in today's mail. I can't wait! Sign up for our <a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html">Farmshare</a> program to get your share of these sweet beauties!<br />
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thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-14048676871285597122015-01-04T15:30:00.000-06:002016-01-22T18:01:46.483-06:00Why I'm an Egg-Snob (and think you should be too)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I decided recently that over the last ten years I (unknowingly) became an egg snob. Shortly after getting married I acquired my first laying hens. At first I simply no longer needed to buy eggs from the store. Before long though I made a conscious decision that I WOULD not buy eggs from the store. Not because I thought mine were better but because of the feeling of independence that came with the knowledge that I no longer needed to rely on the grocery store. (It wasn't long before this feeling transferred to veggies as well). About the time my eyes opened to organic methods of farming I became aware of the ethical issues surrounding store bought eggs. Sweat-shop chickens, factory farmed, whether in cages or loose, housed with 20,000 other birds was no way to ethically produce eggs in my mind. The longer I kept chickens, learning their ways of life, the more convinced I became that we would in no way support conventional laying methods. <br />
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I first sold our eggs several years before we started growing vegetables. Several years before I ever thought I would farm for a living. I had about 20 laying hens and Robert would take my eggs with him to work at the Corps of Engineers weekly and dole them out to his faithful co-workers for $1 a dozen. That makes me laugh now. And I'm reminded of this every time we are driving out in the country and see a sign at the end of a driveway offering "Fresh Eggs $2/doz". I wasn't in the business to make money off my eggs. I thought I was paying for my chicken feed. Years later, after meticulous spreadsheets have become the norm, I have to laugh. But I wasn't keeping chickens to make money. I was keeping chickens because I love having a laying flock. I love the cooing and the cackling and watching them scratch the dirt. I love that every day is like an Easter egg hunt around here. Although, fortunately, due to their current living conditions, I don't have to hunt any further than a laying box these days.<br />
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I'm proud that over the years there has become such a high demand for our eggs. I hear people at market tell me how much better our eggs are than store bought eggs. I just smile and nod my head because I know that our eggs have stiff orange yolks and they are ridiculously fresh compared to store bought eggs but in the back of my mind I kind of shrugged my shoulders at the notion that they really tasted much different. Fast forward to the last two weeks where while we were traveling for the holidays I ate store bought eggs on three different occasions. Having been so far removed from sweat-shop eggs, I now understand what my customers have been telling me for years. There is a difference between our eggs and store bought eggs. Our eggs are AWESOME. Not only is there an ethical difference in the way they are produced, there is a difference in how fresh they are, there is a difference in the way they look and there is a difference in the way they taste. And if you've never seen our eggs before, oh my gosh. They.Are.Beautiful. <br />
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If you are in our area, I urge you to sign up for our <a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html">Eggshare</a> program. This is a 10-week program we are running in conjunction with our <a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html">Farmshare</a>. I realize though that this is only 10 weeks out of the year. We are working on the logistics of running the <a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html">Eggshare </a> even when the <a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html">Farmshare</a> is out of season. If you aren't near us, find a farmer or a backyard chicken keeper near you. Whether you realize it or not, they are all over the place, it just takes a little work to find one. And if this topic interests you, stick around...soon to post a bit about egg economics on a small farm. <br />
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<br />thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-67638441463764327852014-12-16T16:59:00.004-06:002016-01-22T18:02:46.682-06:00My Jody dogI'm counting on the fact that so many of my friends are dog lovers and will understand this. Please share.<br />
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My husband and I are dog people. That might have been the first thing we ever had in common. While my husband is a dog person though, he has merely put up with my need to drag home every stray I've come across in the last 10 years. A testament to his patience in this aspect of my life is Jody. Robert is a lab person. I am what we call a "laboid" person. The majority of my strays are all something, something and lab. For a lab person, learning to live with a Border Collie is like culture shock. <br />
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Six years ago I spent the summer driving a tractor in the hayfield for my friend Bruce. During that time Bruce acquired Jody, a pedigreed but untrained two year old Border Collie from a breeder. I'm not exactly sure what Bruce was thinking. I think he expected her instinct alone to be enough for her to work his cows. She definitely had the instinct and the motor that comes with a Border Collie. Unfortunately, when he let her loose, she nipped the back of his legs, not his cows'. So he chained her to a doghouse where every single day that I went to work I had to watch her lunging against the end of that chain. I took her treats and promised to find her a better home. It took me two months but I finally convinced Bruce to let me take her home.<br />
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When we arrived home I promised Robert she was temporary. I was going to find her a home. To prove this I didn't even let her in the barn with our crew of mutts, but housed her in the large pen that our goats live in. I was not going to become attached to her. Despite my inexperience with herding dogs, it didn't take me long to realize that finding her a home wasn't going to be easy. To say that she was high strung is an understatement. To say she is intense is an understatement. To say that I became attached to her is an understatement. It wasn't long before she moved into the barn.<br />
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If you've never been loved by a Border Collie, I don't think you can fully understand what I'm about to say. If you have, I think you will nod your head in agreement. Jody is neurotic. about. me. If my path around this farm on a daily basis were mapped from above I would look like the dot you see on the map on your phone. I would be the dot and Jody would be the circle around me. Wherever I go she is moving in a circle around me. If I stand still longer than 2 minutes, she is laying on my feet. If I'm bent over transplanting, she is in my face. She has zero concept of space other than to know that my space is her space. If she is inadvertantly left in our large dog pen while I'm in the field, she paces the fence line barking a reminder that she was left behind. For the last six years she has been my co-worker and companion.<br />
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When our little boy Milan came along four and a half years ago I worried about his impact on our dogs. None of our dogs were young and none of our dogs had any experience with children. The dogs definitely felt his presence, When he was an infant they stayed outside more than upstairs because who wants to wake a sleeping baby? When he was a toddler crawling over everything in his path, they stayed outside more than upstairs because he couldn't understand they weren't something to crawl on and I couldn't keep up with four dogs and a toddler in the house. Outside was a different story. They could get away from him rather than get caught in a corner in the house. <br />
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Our large lab, River, has never seemed to notice Milan. River goes on about his business running over or around Milan as he sees fit. Our little dog Lina is rarely loose unsupervised because the beagle in her has her following her nose to places she shouldn't be. My old dog and constant companion, Chacey soon proved that I was going to have to be ever vigilant of her to keep her and Milan separate. Having lost most of her hearing and her sight in one eye, Chacey has a hard time with Milan. He easily sneaks up on her, sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident and scares her. Having gotten a reaction from her the first time on accident, we went through several months in which his entire goal while outside was to terrorize her. We finally came out of that phase a couple of months ago. That left Jody. My neurotic companion with all of her quirks had one really redeeming quality. She loved Milan. The child crawled on her, stepped on her, kissed her, whatever, and she would lay there and take all of it. <br />
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I thought, finally, I have one dog that is good with children. Three years ago when we started our <a href="http://www.rattlesgarden.com/p/what-is-farmshare-we-used-to-refer-to.html">Farmshare program</a> though, this proved not to be the case. Jody quickly showed she could not handle being around other children. Her instinct kicked in with them and she wanted to move them. After ALMOST nipping several children, I knew we had to keep her in the dog pen when other kids were around. I didn't understand why she was this way with other children and not with Milan. My best guess is that she saw him as an extension of me and never once offered to herd him. </div>
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Until last week. We have young chickens living in the backyard waiting to be moved out to pasture and they like to come up to the barn. Milan was chasing them back to their coop and Jody was in the dogpen next to them frantically running the fenceline trying to get after all of them. I let her out to be with me without thinking twice. A few minutes later Milan ran across the yard to pick up a golf ball when she started circling him and then nipped him on the butt. When he fell down, crying, she nipped him on the cheek. I had stepped around the barn and didn't see any of this happen, just heard him start screaming. My hope was that most of this was in his head although I could see immediately that she was looking at him differently. With the situation diffused and everyone split up, I hoped that with time to calm down things would go back to normal, determined to be hyper-vigilante and not let this happen again. Two days later we were all headed outside to do chores, Milan ahead of me while I was putting on my boots when Jody started circling him and chased him back in the barn. I don't know what switch has flipped inside her head but she's decided it's her job to move him. </div>
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While I was sure Robert was going to say she had to go, he surprised me by saying she simply needs to be kept up when Milan is outside. So that is what we've done for the last week. I take turns having Jody or Milan with me as I walk the farm. When Jody has to be in the pen while I am outside though she frantically runs the fenceline barking continuously. Watching her from across the field takes me back to the dog she was chained up at Bruce's house. Throwing herself against the end of a chain, barking. She may not be chained here but she's no happier like this than she was there. And as much as I hate the idea of letting her go, I can't stand to watch her be like this. </div>
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So now my hope is that this post can reach someone who can give her a better home. And I know that's going to be a tall order. She's scared of most men, unless they're soft-spoken. I know when to expect bad weather because she disappears. One of the only times she is out of my sight, if a storm is coming she can only be found behind our recycle bins. While she's had a good stint as an inside/outside dog with us, she only makes a good inside dog when we are in with her. If left alone in the house, uncrated, she will pee on things, poop if she feels the need and destroy any plastic toys within her reach. She is very comfortable crated at night. Jody has no training as a herding dog. She does respond well to her name unless it's being called by a man that scares her. She leaves chickens alone, our horses too. Our goats being behind a fence drive her crazy. I have no idea what she would do around cattle. She's never offered to chase a car up or down our driveway, but would chase a car driving fast along the highway if given the chance. She could not live on a busy road with no supervision. She does not enjoy car rides, she hovers in the passenger floor board, motionless. That would probably change if given the opportunity. The only time I take her off the farm is to go to the vet. She is up to date on her shots and 6 month heartworm as of last week. She is spayed. In the past she had a tickborn disease called Ehrlichia but it was treated. With the antibodies still in her system, she tests positive for this every year at her annual. She really likes raw eggs on her food. </div>
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With all of that said, it's breaking my heart to write this. To make this decision. </div>
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This is my dog. </div>
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I don't take this lightly. Six years ago I promised this dog a good life. I will not set her up to fail. If you can help me, or know someone that can, please email me at rattlesgarden@yahoo.com. Thanks for sharing, y'all. </div>
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thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08963830138093172414noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5831934642696128943.post-61865720306995863222014-12-09T07:52:00.000-06:002016-01-22T18:02:03.777-06:00Summer VeggiesWe have finally used the last of the tomatoes we grew this fall in the high tunnel so last night I pulled the first bag of tomatoes out of the freezer to make tomato sauce. Heaven. As I work on my end of the year photo book at night, I'm bombarded with reminders of a great tomato year. I love my husband, my children, my family, my critters and tomatoes. <br />
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