Here's a quick look at what's going on at Boardtown........

We have just about reached that dreaded time of the summer when our early plantings are about to finish-up and the second plantings are not mature enough for production.   I guess this will give us a little time to do some much needed housekeeping around the farm!!!  We are waiting on the five varieties of eggplant to start production, along with the cantaloupes and watermelons.

Rain, rain and more rain!  Too much of a good thing, can turn into a bad thing!  With it raining every two or three days, some of our plants are showing signs of "root rot", which is caused by the soil being too wet.  This adversely affects the plants by damaging the root system which causes reduced production and in extreme cases, actually killing the plant. 

Last week, our tomatoes first started showing signs of root rot after we received 8 inches of rain in a 10 day period.  To say the least, this caused me a little stress.......... but they soon rebounded after a few days of dry weather.  All of our tomatoes were planted through a plastic mulch.  This is great for conserving moisture and surpressing weeds, but one of the drawbacks to the plastic is that the soil does not dry out very quickly during wet conditions!  The tomatoes are doing fine right now, but the weather forecast is calling for rain, rain, and more rain next week!  (I'm sure glad the Forecasters are wrong most of the time!).

We started picking Crookneck Squash, Yellow Scallopini Squash, Bennings Green Tint Squash and Zucchini this week.  The cucumbers are blooming and have small cukes on them and the tomatoes are about the size of golf balls.  All the peppers are blooming and have a few small fruits of them.  The green beans are growing fast but haven't started blooming yet.  The only crop I'm having trouble with this year is Purple Hull Peas!  Our first plants was eaten by crows and the second planting was damaged by  deer and suffering from all the rain!  I put up an electric fence around the field but the damage has already occurred.  I plan to replant again, as soon as we can get a week of dry weather!

Thanks everyone and God bless!

Since our last update, the Spring CSA has filled up and membership is full.  We still have room in the Summer and Fall CSA seasons.  So far, the rain has really hampered our efforts getting things planted and rain is predicted tomorrow night! 

Another order has been placed for some more meat birds.  The chicks should arrive the week of 4/26 and they should be ready to start processing them around the end of June.  Apparently, we weren't the only folks that liked these birds.....this was the earliest date I could get an order.

I would like to thank everyone that's spreading the word about our locally grown organic produce and chickens.  We are getting a lot of inquires and several new customers due to ya'll!  Thanks again.....Greg

March is here.....normally meaning warmer weather!  The 24 degree temp this morning sure reminded me of the frigid temps of February!   One thing did get accomplished in spite of the weather.......the greenhouse is up and ready!!!!

The sunshine we had this past weekend did allow us to get a few things planted and a few plug trays started in the greenhouse.  We got half of the bed dry enough to plant turnips, chard, spinach, and beets.  As for the greenhouse, we started Moskvich tomatoes (an old heirloom variety that produces very early), romaine lettuce, black seeded simpson lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, collards, arugula, mizuna, cabbage, sweet basil, and pak choy.  We still have many more seeds to start so the greenhouse will fill up in no time!

I'm glad to hear everyone loved the chickens and we only have a few left.  We will be ordering another batch of chicks in a week or so and they should be ready in about 8 weeks.  Thanks.....Greg

                       Farm Happenings

                 Here's a brief summary of what's going on at Boardtown Organics!

• Opened the sign up for the Spring, Summer, and Fall CSA's!
• Erected the frame for the greenhouse (waiting for the cover to get here).
• Processed our first batch of meat birds.
• Preparing our application for USDA Organic Certification.
• Placed additional seed orders due to customer requests

We are just waiting for the rain to quit long enough to allow us to plant our spring veggies!  We're looking forward to seeing you soon!  Greg

 

     I would like to thank everyone for their interest in the CSA!  Due to all the inquiries, we have decided to start it in the Spring......all the details for the program have not been worked out but they will be posted on the website very soon.

     The hens are slowly starting to lay and the customer list has already started growing.  I just hope the hens will be able to keep up with the demand....a good problem to solve!

     We have already ordered a lot of the seeds for this coming planting season.  A list of the seeds were posted in November's E-Letter.  I will make a seed catalog listing each variety with a description as well. 

     With so much to do, I'm glad planting season is still 4 months away..........Greg

     Well, to say the least......it's been a soggy fall so far.  In one -  two week period, the farm received over 20 inches of rain causing our lower fields to flood several times.  As you can guess, all the wet weather prevented us from planting the normal fall crops.......but on the bright side, the wet soil is allowing us to get a jump on preparations for the spring planting season. 

Rain, Rain, Rain

This has been the wettest growing season I have ever experienced!  The crops drowned in April/May, the ground didn't dry out until mid June, and now the last squash, zucchini, and pumpkins are yellow from too much rain!!!  Guess what it's doing outside now?????  RAINING!!!!

The only thing growing good are the purple hull peas!  They should be ready to pick by this weekend.  It appears that they are going to produce pretty good so there should be plenty.

The chickens are growing like weeds and seem to like being able to forage outside. 

Thanks everyone for all your support!  Greg