Today is the final day to sign up for the CSA Program. We have just two spots remaining! For $80 you will be guaranteed to get one load of veggies per month for four months (July, August, September and October). Each load will contain at least $20 worth of our fresh vegetables. The orders will vary in what they contain. You will get whatever is in season at that time, including bell peppers, tomatoes, green beens, squash, cucumbers and more!
Find out more specifics at the CSA page. Contact us to register for the program. Payment needs to be received by the end of the weekend. You can pay in cash, or through PayPal or Zelle. Shipping is not available for the CSA as the process of shipping does not keep these veggies up to our quality standards. You can pick up you order each month from the farm directly, at the Roadside Stand on Friday afternoons, or we can deliver it to local addresses for a fee. Contact us with any questions you might have!
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Friday, June 29, 2018
Farm Update 6-29-18
We are now into the summer veggie season. Things are busy on the farm, but we wanted to stop a minute and update everyone on the farm's progress over the past few months.
The winter growing season didn't go quite as planned. The cold temperatures came in early and were brutal in December and January with some of the coldest temperatures we have ever seen in this area. We had the best crop of broccoli and cauliflower we have ever had about ready to be cut in mid-December when the temperature plunged into the teens for almost a month and killed all of our plants. Only the garlic survived and it has been really slow to grow compared to past years. The temperatures were also really hard on our Soldier Fly Worms and our numbers are minimal at this time.
On the positive side though, we sold every single bag of dried peppers that came from the final pepper harvest of the season! I cannot believe the response we got across the country. We sold 20+ bags through our Ebay store and have shipped everywhere from New York to California. We may even have a bigger following nationwide now than we do here locally in Pleasant View.
We also decided to list some of our homemade jellies and jams just to see what everyone thought about them and again the response has been overwhelming through our Ebay store. We are amazed that so many of you are willing to try our products and help support our growing farm! The feedback we have received on all of our sales has been very positive and very helpful in helping us maximize customer service and decide which products to focus on. We really want to thank our neighbor, Donna, who got us hooked on Violet Jelly. That is the jelly that got it all started and continues to be our top seller!
Spring was very wet and impacted our planting window. We planted a bit later this year as winter decided to hang on longer than usual. On April 15, which is typically the last frost date for Tennessee and when you can safely start planting, it was snowing. Frosts continued through April 20 before we got a break from the cold. But the rains kept us from cultivating the dirt. Even once we started planting, we only planted sections at a time as the rain kept forcing us to stop. We also planted some new fruit trees on the farm to go with our apple trees, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries that are already in place. Blueberry and raspberry production was up this Spring!
We invested a lot more into the farm this year, buying more seed starting supplies like germination domes, heating pads and grow lights to help with the difficult sprouting of hot peppers seeds. We also added fencing for our tomato rows which makes things a lot easier, but did set back our funds a bit. At least all those things can be used over and over in the future. We more than doubled our total number of hot peppers this year. We also got business cards and signs made for the Roadside Stand, as well as t-shirts for us to wear when we work. We have had several requests for shirts so we will likely get extras the next time we order and will offer them to our customers.
Pepper seed sprouting went well. The grow light made a huge difference and we had some good looking plants when the weather warmed. For the first time ever, we had issues with the plants getting sunburned with even the least amount of natural sunlight. This happened before we got the grow light and again after we had used the grow light. Growth was stunted for a while, but they survived and we set over 250 Devil's Tongue, Ghost, Scoprion and Carolina Reaper plants in the ground when the weather finally gave us a break the first week of June.
But nature wasn't done with us yet. Two days after we planted the peppers huge thunderstorms moved through our area, dumping three inches of rain in 30 minutes. The farm was flooded and most of our peppers were carried away. Some were picked up from the surrounding yard and replanted. Even the markers for our rows were gone so we are not even sure which peppers remain. We lost over 90% of our crop and all of our new Devil's Tongue peppers. It is disheartening, but we do still have 25+ Ghost Peppers and two rows of Carolina Reapers so all is not lost. Some of the other peppers are struggling after the event, but nearly all sweet peppers, Jalapenos, Cayennes and Habaneros survived.
Our corn and squash also took a beating during that first storm, which was followed up by two other storms that were nearly as bad, both dumping two inches of rain in an hour. The corn was flattened and the squash broken at the ground. The corn is still alive though so we hope to salvage that. Our tomatoes took a hit, but still look fair and have some huge green tomatoes that look like they could ripen any day. Our beans are doing great and are the biggest plants we have ever had! We picked three gallons of green beans two days ago and have several healthy rows of black beans growing pods hanging all over them.
We also started a CSA Program this year, which has been slow to get going, but we do have some people enrolled and we are excited to get them some vegetables starting in July. The Roadside Stand should also be open in the next few weeks. We will be open on Friday afternoons this year as that is when we had the most business last season. Be looking for info on that coming very soon. We will also be bringing jelly and jam, along with a few plants, to the stand this year. We also plan to host Veggie Sales near the farm every couple of weekends in July, August and September.
Thanks again to all who have supported our little farm! We are so grateful that you would consider us for veggies, canned goods and other services. We may have taken a beating with this weather, but we will keep going and have plenty of things to offer in the coming months and we hope you will give it a try! Thanks!!
The winter growing season didn't go quite as planned. The cold temperatures came in early and were brutal in December and January with some of the coldest temperatures we have ever seen in this area. We had the best crop of broccoli and cauliflower we have ever had about ready to be cut in mid-December when the temperature plunged into the teens for almost a month and killed all of our plants. Only the garlic survived and it has been really slow to grow compared to past years. The temperatures were also really hard on our Soldier Fly Worms and our numbers are minimal at this time.
Fall carrot harvest
Fried pickles we made using the last jar of our pickles from the 2017 year
On the positive side though, we sold every single bag of dried peppers that came from the final pepper harvest of the season! I cannot believe the response we got across the country. We sold 20+ bags through our Ebay store and have shipped everywhere from New York to California. We may even have a bigger following nationwide now than we do here locally in Pleasant View.
Dried Habanero peppers
Vacuum-sealing the dried peppers prior to shipping
We also decided to list some of our homemade jellies and jams just to see what everyone thought about them and again the response has been overwhelming through our Ebay store. We are amazed that so many of you are willing to try our products and help support our growing farm! The feedback we have received on all of our sales has been very positive and very helpful in helping us maximize customer service and decide which products to focus on. We really want to thank our neighbor, Donna, who got us hooked on Violet Jelly. That is the jelly that got it all started and continues to be our top seller!
Violet flowers soaking in a measuring bowl create the violet-infused water needed for Violet Jelly
Flower jellies
Fruit jams and flower jellies we now sell as a combo pack
Spring was very wet and impacted our planting window. We planted a bit later this year as winter decided to hang on longer than usual. On April 15, which is typically the last frost date for Tennessee and when you can safely start planting, it was snowing. Frosts continued through April 20 before we got a break from the cold. But the rains kept us from cultivating the dirt. Even once we started planting, we only planted sections at a time as the rain kept forcing us to stop. We also planted some new fruit trees on the farm to go with our apple trees, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries that are already in place. Blueberry and raspberry production was up this Spring!
We invested a lot more into the farm this year, buying more seed starting supplies like germination domes, heating pads and grow lights to help with the difficult sprouting of hot peppers seeds. We also added fencing for our tomato rows which makes things a lot easier, but did set back our funds a bit. At least all those things can be used over and over in the future. We more than doubled our total number of hot peppers this year. We also got business cards and signs made for the Roadside Stand, as well as t-shirts for us to wear when we work. We have had several requests for shirts so we will likely get extras the next time we order and will offer them to our customers.
Sweetwater Farms business cards
Sweetwater Farms T-shirt
Pepper seed sprouting went well. The grow light made a huge difference and we had some good looking plants when the weather warmed. For the first time ever, we had issues with the plants getting sunburned with even the least amount of natural sunlight. This happened before we got the grow light and again after we had used the grow light. Growth was stunted for a while, but they survived and we set over 250 Devil's Tongue, Ghost, Scoprion and Carolina Reaper plants in the ground when the weather finally gave us a break the first week of June.
But nature wasn't done with us yet. Two days after we planted the peppers huge thunderstorms moved through our area, dumping three inches of rain in 30 minutes. The farm was flooded and most of our peppers were carried away. Some were picked up from the surrounding yard and replanted. Even the markers for our rows were gone so we are not even sure which peppers remain. We lost over 90% of our crop and all of our new Devil's Tongue peppers. It is disheartening, but we do still have 25+ Ghost Peppers and two rows of Carolina Reapers so all is not lost. Some of the other peppers are struggling after the event, but nearly all sweet peppers, Jalapenos, Cayennes and Habaneros survived.
Our corn and squash also took a beating during that first storm, which was followed up by two other storms that were nearly as bad, both dumping two inches of rain in an hour. The corn was flattened and the squash broken at the ground. The corn is still alive though so we hope to salvage that. Our tomatoes took a hit, but still look fair and have some huge green tomatoes that look like they could ripen any day. Our beans are doing great and are the biggest plants we have ever had! We picked three gallons of green beans two days ago and have several healthy rows of black beans growing pods hanging all over them.
We also started a CSA Program this year, which has been slow to get going, but we do have some people enrolled and we are excited to get them some vegetables starting in July. The Roadside Stand should also be open in the next few weeks. We will be open on Friday afternoons this year as that is when we had the most business last season. Be looking for info on that coming very soon. We will also be bringing jelly and jam, along with a few plants, to the stand this year. We also plan to host Veggie Sales near the farm every couple of weekends in July, August and September.
Thanks again to all who have supported our little farm! We are so grateful that you would consider us for veggies, canned goods and other services. We may have taken a beating with this weather, but we will keep going and have plenty of things to offer in the coming months and we hope you will give it a try! Thanks!!
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