Onion news...

Yesterday and the day before with the help of wonderful members we got all of our onions in the ground. Each onion bed is about 110 feet long and has 4 rows, with onions spaced about 4" to 6" apart. So that means each bed has somewhere around 1000 onions in it.

We have 2 beds of a Spanish onion (Big Daddy), 2 beds of a sweet red (Mars), 4 beds of a yellow storage onion (First Edition), and 3 beds of a white sweet (these last we planted from sets as an experiment!) In addition, we have in two beds of leeks (about 1500 total) and a bed of high density leeks and onions, for baby leeks, spring onions, and torpedo style onions (the only ones we started from seed ourselves.)

All of that (about 14,000 onions by our math if things are perfect (which they never all) joins the 4-1/2 rows of garlic and 1/2 row of shallots we put in that field last fall to give us a full quarter acre of Alluims.

A quarter acre may not seem like a lot, but we are already trying to figure out how we will cure all of these onions, I don't think 11,000 onions will fit easily into our hoophouse. If each onion is only 4 ounces (which is small) that is about 86 bushels of onions (2,750 pounds.)

The scary thing is that next year, we will probably be doubling our onions!

Planting is just the beginning of the work, onions need a lot of TLC, especially weeding to keep them happy and healthy. They also need regular fertilizer application (folair feeding with fish powder and side dressing with corn gluten.) Thrips are the major pest of onions, and midlews (powdery and downy) are a huge issue.

Wish us luck as our onion season starts!

Thanksgiving next week!

Can you believe it! It is next week already!

Please visit us at the Peninsula Holiday Market next week...

If you mention this blog post I will give you a special deal if you buy 10 or more onions. Remember you'll need enough to last you until the next market the week before Christmas!

If you need more onions than that let us know, and we can make a special deal for you. Our yellow onions should store well into Janurary or Feburary... How many onions do you use in that time?

Holiday Market - One

Just home from market. It was a pretty good day, although we did not sell nearly as many onions or leeks as we expected. That being said, we sold A TON of parsnips. We didn't have honey, which was our savior last year at the fall market, there was very little honey this year, a testament to the problem with bees.

Maybe next week people will be more likely to buy squash and onions for storage, and people want butternut squashes for the holidays. This week it was kind of dreary and rainy which might of have kept some people away. Hopefully those people will come next week.

We only sold a bushel of onions, we brought 4... But we'll see, I still have hopes next week will see us selling bushels of onions.

We only had 20 bunches of carrots, they sold out (except for 1 bunch) within the first 40 minutes - that last bunch sat on the table until 11ish... One of anything always looks sad... I am sorry we did not plant a couple hundred more feet this fall, but it is on our list for next year.

All and all an OK day at market in sales, and it is always fun to be at market and talk with people... I am looking forward to next week, hopefully it will be even MORE successful, and who knows I may even find time to make honey caramels.

Holiday Farmers Market

Next weekend (WOW is it next weekend already!?!) we will be participiting in the first Holiday Market of the year, held by the countryside conservancy at the Happy Days Vistors Center in Peninsula.

See details here.

Map here.

We will have honey carmels, kale, onions, leeks, butternut squash, and a few other treats all of which will keep for weeks!

We plan on also being at the market on November 22nd.

We hope to see you there!

First week of July...

The garden is finally growing well! Things are getting bigger and I figured now was a good time to do a little photo survey of our farm and how things are growing.

We have always had a hard time growing carrots, because we had pretty heavy clay soil before. Not so anymore. Our carrot rows have really taken off since we started to foliar feed them. Yesterday I was weeding and noticed two large tops right next to each other, so I thinned one out and got this! A real to honest little baby carrot!

A couple weeks ago our squash were just little baby things, now the leaves are as big as dinner plates and they are getting blossoms! Won't be long until we have summer squash! (Come over here little bees!)

This is photo of our beet row we have 3 succession plantings going. One after another 2 weeks apart. So members should expect lots more beets in their baskets! Yummy!

Lettuce is another one of those things which has been a little hit or miss for us in the past. So dependent on weather, it can be difficult to field grow. A little luck this year and we finally have gorgeous little heads. Sunday members, got only a tiny bit this week, Wednesday members got a lot more. Sunday members should expect a bigger share of lettuce this coming week.

It will be so strange to be able to offer onions! They are coming along nicely! Next year we are planning a 1/4 acre onion plot, hopefully everyone likes onions!

Time to stake the tomatoes! They are starting to spread out a bit. These are Matt's Wild Cherry a nice heirloom cherry tomato. AND they have little baby green tomatoes on them! These plants will bear all summer, so get ready for cherry tomatoes! Obviously these plants are benefiting from the foliar feeding, they have gone from being a light kellyish green to this dark green beautiful color.