Bloom Where You're Planted Farm

Its just twenty-three days until we open for our fifth pumpkin patch season!  Things have been moving along surprisingly quickly this week, thanks in no small part to my father-in-law, Richard.  A full-time farmer, Richard used to and still does work occasionally as a carpenter.  Both these skills/occupations have been a God-send to us since Terry's accident, as Richard has been putting up our hay and helping Terry build our new hay racks.  Now we have big, round hay bales ready for the kids to play on (and later for the horses to eat), the first hayrack is nearing completion, and as I write this the contractor just pulled in to trench a water line over to the Schoolhouse Cafe!

We're really excited to finally offer hay rides to our customers and think it will be a lot of fun for us as well.  A hay ride ticket will be included with our base admission fee.  The ride will take customers out to our southern pumpkin fields which will now be "U-Pick".  I'm especially looking forward to this, because it will mean less pumpkin picking for me!  :-) 

Here's a glimpse at how the pumpkins are coming along.  They're starting to ripen and are looking forward to going home with our happy customers!

Things have started looking up and picking up around here since my last entry.  Terry is beginning to feel more like himself and enjoyed time outdoors this weekend working with his dad building our new hayracks.  It has now been two full weeks since his accident.  All signs point to a successful recovery, although it will be a few months before we'll know how much vision he'll have in his injured eye.

The weather has been wonderful, and its been really enjoyable to be outdoors, even in the heat of the day.  Unusual for August in Nebraska, for sure.  Maybe its the fall-like weather, but we've started hearing from quite a few folks interested in booking field trips and parties for the fall.  We have a few different party options available - if you're interested, visit our website:  http://www.bloompumpkinpatch.com/parties.html.

I love the anticipation of this time of year, as we await ripe pumpkins and a farm full of visitors!  See you soon! 

Our latest project, the renovation of the former entry room of the schoolhouse into a concession kitchen, is zipping along.  The walls, ceiling, lighting, outlets and ceiling fan are all in.  The walls are painted the same pale yellow as the rest of the building's interior, and my much-anticipated dark red and pale yellow checkered linoleum floor is in.  I just love it, and hope to have photos up soon.  As I write this Terry is in the shop building the cabinets.  They'll be painted a vintage-inspired green color called "Guacamole".  I wouldn't be brave enough to do these bright colors in my house, but feel like I can have my fun with this kitchen and not have to live with it all day, every day!

The pumpkins are "setting fruit" and the vines are really spreading.  We have had the usual issues with bugs -- we fight a bug called the Cucumber Beetle and they can wreak havoc in the patch.  They nibble on the leaves and blossoms, but the amount they eat isn't the issue.  The problems come because some of them carry a harmful bacteria that gets into the plant's system and makes the vines wilt and eventually die.  Part of the reason we plant SO many plants is to compensate for the loss that is bound to happen.  Still, we value every plant and it is very frustrating to watch!  We try to look past the losses and focus on the healthy plants and all the exciting growth that is happening to keep our spirits up!

Our county fair is about 10 days away (Already??? WHERE has the summer gone??) and I've been printing brochures and handouts and getting everything ready for our booth.  We really enjoy getting to see our customers and friends again, and many stop by the booth just to say "hi!"  Here's a link to the schedule.

Tomorrow we'll be taking the day off to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary.  We've been having pleasant (not so hot and humid) temps so it should be a nice day to play hooky!  :-)  Have a great weekend!

It has been almost seven weeks since we first started planting this year's pumpkin crop.  The average pumpkin takes 90-100 days to grow, so this means we are approaching the half-way point for many of the varieties. 

The plants are looking pretty good, thanks to our regular rains and minimal amount of hot, windy days.  Pumpkins can handle a lot of heat, but hot wind is very tough on them.  We've had our usual bug problems, and plenty of weeds to deal with (they've enjoyed the rain, too!) but it could be much worse.  Overall, we're pleased and grateful for the growth we can see every time we visit the fields.

We're also very grateful to see lots and lots of bees, as we rely on them to pollinate the flowers.  Many of the flowers I looked at this morning had two or more bees apiece!  Did you know there is a type of bee called the "Squash Bee"?  These make up the majority of our pollinators.  Here is some information about squash bees from Auburn University's website:  "Unlike honey bees, squash bees do not live in social colonies.  Each female digs her own vertical tunnel in the ground, usually near the host plants, and spends the morning gathering nectar and pollen to feed her offspring. A squash bee's foraging activity is highly synchronized with the host plants' bloom: the bee emerges from her burrow near dawn as the flowers open, quickly gathers pollen and nectar, and ceases foraging by late morning when the flowers close. Males, in contrast, patrol host flowers all morning looking for unmated females, then crawl into a wilting flower to pass the afternoon and night." 

Fascinating, isn't it?? 

Well, we survived a very hot and humid field trip yesterday!  48 students from the Tara Heights Kids Club, part of the Papillion-LaVista school district, visited the farm for our first-ever summer field trip.  They were a nice bunch of kids, ranging from first through sixth grade, with a few high school-aged helpers along to supervise. 

The kids ate sack lunches in the shade of the big Hackberry tree in our yard.  After lunch, we split them into two groups.  One group stayed back and played, explored the farm buildings, and visited the horses.  This was Abbie's first exposure to a large group of kids.  She was safe behind her fence, but it freaked her out a little when twenty-some bright green clad youngsters all ran toward the pen at once.  After that, she took it all in stride.  She'll be an old pro by the end of our first fall weekend.

We took the other group on a farm tour, talking about the field corn on our way to the pumpkin patch.  We came back on the nature trail, where the kids got to see deer and racoon tracks and water striders on the creek.  As a born-and-raised farm girl, it continues to amaze me how horrified and/or fascinated kids can be by bugs...and poop.  One of the horses took a poop while the kids were watching, and you'd think the world was coming to an end!!

We gave the second group a tour, and after the kids filled up their water bottles and took a trip to the restroom, they were on their way.  It all seemed to go by too quickly -- there was much more about the farm which we would have liked to share.  But, it was in the lower 90s and extremely humid.  One little girl told me "Kids don't get hot"... however, teachers and teenaged helpers do. 

It was a lot of work to get ready for the visit, but we had a good time.  Hopefully the kids learned something from us and took a little knowledge of farm life back to the big city with them.

We have babies!  Hundreds, probably thousands, of baby pumpkin plants! 

It's been eight days since we finished planting.  When I went out to the fields Friday I saw several seedlings emerging (see above), and by Sunday afternoon nearly all of our hills and rows had sprouted.  The weather last week was warm, and the 2+ inches of rain we received over the weekend made them very happy.  We got a really good germination rate, and it is always nice to start the growing season on a good note.

Squash bugs and cucumber beetles love the little seedlings, so diligent bug control will be our next task.  No matter how many plants we have, it is always heartbreaking to lose one to bugs! 

We started our planting last Thursday (5/28) and finished up on Sunday evening.  This is record time for us -- maybe after six years we're finally getting the hang of it! (KNOCK ON WOOD...I wouldn't want to jinx it for next year!)

We planted four "patches".  One of the two big patches south of the house has all of our specialty colored pumpkin varieties, along with all the gourds and squash.  That should be a fun one to watch.  We planted a new pumpkin variety called "Knucklehead", one new large/bottle-type gourd variety, and three new, very decorative kinds of squash.

We're excited about offering hay rides for the first time this year!  The second large patch to the south will be where we stop to let hayrack riders choose their pumpkins.  It has the small pie pumpkins, the giant Big Max pumpkins, and two Jack-O-Lantern-sized varieties.  I don't know if anyone will choose the giant pumpkins from the field (they weigh 50-150 lbs!) but it should make for some great photo opportunities.

Two more Jack-O-Lantern varieties went into the north patch by the Chicken House.  The small patch by the schoolhouse will again be a U-Pick patch and has pie pumpkins, Turk's Turban squash, and some funky-looking Blue Hubbard squash.

The seedlings should start coming up this week, and then the bug and weed control begins.  It's a labor of love for sure.  We'll grow some good ones for you!

Terry planting in the north patch.  He finished up just before a surprise hail storm hit!

 Rocket gets excited about planting time, too!

The snow is coming down and there's no doubt it's winter outside.  Thankfully I'm inside today and thinking SPRING.  I got out my seed catalogs, last year's leftover seeds, and the list of what we bought in 2008 and sat down to place this season's pumpkin, squash and gourd order.  

There are always the old stand-bys that we order every year.  They're great performers and customer favorites.  That makes up the bulk of my order, but I always like to try a few new varieties each year.  Last summer I ordered the beautiful book "The Compleat Squash" by Amy Goldman.  It is a gorgeous coffee table-style book full of photographs of squashes, pumpkins and gourds.  I found one adorable squash in the book that I ordered online today from an heirloom seed company.  While on that website I found two other interesting squash which I also decided to add.  These, plus a couple of gourd types that we've always wanted to try will round out our new inventory for 2009.

As long as we still get excited when the new seed catalogs arrive, we'll know we're in the right business.  Four months 'til planting time -- yippee!