Update Monday 6/9/08
I've been really busy with the farm, my job at the gym and all recently. I have some technical difficulties with posting lately too. I was using my phone as a modem for my computer to post things while at the farm 'cause I'm not home most of the time these days, but the connection just isn't working anymore. I need to get the phone replaced, but haven't had a chance yet. I had also been using a free wi-fi connection at the mall as a backup, but that has become too unreliable to use now too. I keep getting cut off every minute or two and have to go through a clicking maze in order to get back online, very frustrating when you're working with limited time.
So my new plan is to update y'all as I can with general goings on rather than specifics by day until I get my Internet access more stable.
The vog has not been around for a while now, so that's been really nice. They finally finished painting at the gym too. Yay! I'd started to settle into a routine of working out at the gym three times a week - rowing and then weights. Then we started adding in more farmer's markets and deliveries which has sort of mixed that up a bit. I've been going there when I can - sometimes only 2 times a week - until I can figure out a new schedule that'll work. It's been a challenge to adjust to the new harvesting schedule while increasing the volume of what we harvest each time as the demand for our yummy organic produce spreads.
My hubby and I are harvesting in the middle of the night/early morning with LED headlamps a couple of times a week as a result. Those headlamps are amazing! Truly! That combined with getting up at 3am two days a week for my gym job has made finding time for sleep more challenging as well. Luckily our son is helping at most of the farmer's markets now so my hubby can replant, weed, water and such instead of going to market all the time. Somebody has to do it - or we won't have anything to harvest in short order, heh. It's been more difficult for him right now 'cause the irrigation supplies we ordered a couple of months ago to water the areas we've expanded to on the farm have not arrived yet. That means he has to move one of the lines around several times each time we water, in addition to hand watering our personal beds as well. When I'm there I do the personal beds and keiki (baby) plants in the flats, but I'm often not there when they need watering. It'll be a fine day when the irrigation supplies finally arrive, indeedy.
We've also been looking for additional land closer to home to farm on. We want to move our veggies to a different spot in the next couple of months, keeping the papayas where they are. We've got a verbal agreement with someone to farm on some land fairly near to home - hard to tell whether it's gonna' happen for sure though until it's all down on paper and signed, etc. So we're still looking for other spots as well. We'd like to have something long-term enough to grow fruit trees, and this spot won't be so even if this one works out we'll probably still want additional land for fruit trees. We'll keep looking for other land while trying to make enough funds to just buy something if we can't get a long-term lease. That's a challenging thing though, 'cause the land's expensive here... We'll figure it out somehow, one way or another though.
Many of you have asked what we're growing right now. So...
We're growing several kinds of lettuce, baby greens for salad mixes, arugula, kale, chard, tatsoi, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, basil, spinach, celerac, chives, sorrel, watermelon, zucchini, & papayas. The last ones (from celerac through zukes) are in the personal area and are experiments. We're kind-of in-between cucumbers for selling, but still have a few for personal use. The next batch should be coming on in the next couple of weeks. We weren't sure if we'd get any zukes at all 'cause of the fruit flies, but we've gotten 4 so far that are okay, so cool! :) There are little watermelons starting and we're hoping we'll be okay with them too. We love them so...
It's a challenge to grow some things here 'cause of the fruit flies, but we've come across some organic methods we didn't know about before and have additional ideas that might help us pull them off. *Crossing our fingers* ;)
Our yard has a few things going too that we might end up selling excess at markets too. My beloved mountain apple tree is literally loaded with baby fruits, so if they all ripen without falling off first I'll not be able to eat 'em all. Yay! Abundance is nice. Then we can share them with friends and sell 'em at market. Our avocado tree doesn't have much fruit on it this year. There were winds when it was flowering and the lilikoi (passion fruit) vines decided to grow all over it all of a sudden. We've left them there for now 'cause there are so many lilikoi on them that we want - and we don't eat many avocados anyway.
It's getting to be the time of year when we can get the Jamaican lilikoi out in the wild in bulk so we'll have to take some time to go hiking for it sometime. That'll be a nice change of pace. We love hiking. :)
Mango season is starting too. I'm starting to see some on the ground below mango trees so will start gathering that too. Nice.
It's getting late, gotta' get up early for the gym, so I'll continue my update another time and post this for now. I wanna' tell you about my fitness consultation with one of the personal trainers at the gym when I come back too. It was fun! :)
Nightie night all & aloha! :)
So my new plan is to update y'all as I can with general goings on rather than specifics by day until I get my Internet access more stable.
The vog has not been around for a while now, so that's been really nice. They finally finished painting at the gym too. Yay! I'd started to settle into a routine of working out at the gym three times a week - rowing and then weights. Then we started adding in more farmer's markets and deliveries which has sort of mixed that up a bit. I've been going there when I can - sometimes only 2 times a week - until I can figure out a new schedule that'll work. It's been a challenge to adjust to the new harvesting schedule while increasing the volume of what we harvest each time as the demand for our yummy organic produce spreads.
My hubby and I are harvesting in the middle of the night/early morning with LED headlamps a couple of times a week as a result. Those headlamps are amazing! Truly! That combined with getting up at 3am two days a week for my gym job has made finding time for sleep more challenging as well. Luckily our son is helping at most of the farmer's markets now so my hubby can replant, weed, water and such instead of going to market all the time. Somebody has to do it - or we won't have anything to harvest in short order, heh. It's been more difficult for him right now 'cause the irrigation supplies we ordered a couple of months ago to water the areas we've expanded to on the farm have not arrived yet. That means he has to move one of the lines around several times each time we water, in addition to hand watering our personal beds as well. When I'm there I do the personal beds and keiki (baby) plants in the flats, but I'm often not there when they need watering. It'll be a fine day when the irrigation supplies finally arrive, indeedy.
We've also been looking for additional land closer to home to farm on. We want to move our veggies to a different spot in the next couple of months, keeping the papayas where they are. We've got a verbal agreement with someone to farm on some land fairly near to home - hard to tell whether it's gonna' happen for sure though until it's all down on paper and signed, etc. So we're still looking for other spots as well. We'd like to have something long-term enough to grow fruit trees, and this spot won't be so even if this one works out we'll probably still want additional land for fruit trees. We'll keep looking for other land while trying to make enough funds to just buy something if we can't get a long-term lease. That's a challenging thing though, 'cause the land's expensive here... We'll figure it out somehow, one way or another though.
Many of you have asked what we're growing right now. So...
We're growing several kinds of lettuce, baby greens for salad mixes, arugula, kale, chard, tatsoi, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, basil, spinach, celerac, chives, sorrel, watermelon, zucchini, & papayas. The last ones (from celerac through zukes) are in the personal area and are experiments. We're kind-of in-between cucumbers for selling, but still have a few for personal use. The next batch should be coming on in the next couple of weeks. We weren't sure if we'd get any zukes at all 'cause of the fruit flies, but we've gotten 4 so far that are okay, so cool! :) There are little watermelons starting and we're hoping we'll be okay with them too. We love them so...
It's a challenge to grow some things here 'cause of the fruit flies, but we've come across some organic methods we didn't know about before and have additional ideas that might help us pull them off. *Crossing our fingers* ;)
Our yard has a few things going too that we might end up selling excess at markets too. My beloved mountain apple tree is literally loaded with baby fruits, so if they all ripen without falling off first I'll not be able to eat 'em all. Yay! Abundance is nice. Then we can share them with friends and sell 'em at market. Our avocado tree doesn't have much fruit on it this year. There were winds when it was flowering and the lilikoi (passion fruit) vines decided to grow all over it all of a sudden. We've left them there for now 'cause there are so many lilikoi on them that we want - and we don't eat many avocados anyway.
It's getting to be the time of year when we can get the Jamaican lilikoi out in the wild in bulk so we'll have to take some time to go hiking for it sometime. That'll be a nice change of pace. We love hiking. :)
Mango season is starting too. I'm starting to see some on the ground below mango trees so will start gathering that too. Nice.
It's getting late, gotta' get up early for the gym, so I'll continue my update another time and post this for now. I wanna' tell you about my fitness consultation with one of the personal trainers at the gym when I come back too. It was fun! :)
Nightie night all & aloha! :)
Glad to hear the vog is away from you now. It sounds like you have lots of variety that you're growing for market and also for your personal use. Hope you're able to find the land closer to home that you're looking for real soon.
ReplyDeleteTerry in the Keys