Elliott Family Farm

The hot Texas summer is still ahead of us, but the spring samples have already arrived. There is adequate moisture in the soil, and our winter cover crop residues are conserving much of it. It has gotten us through 3 weeks of below normal precipitation.Since we are dry land farmers, moisture is critical. Last minute repairs to the one row picker need to be made and we will be ready to pick. In about 12 days or so we should have English Peas. It is supposed to rain today and it couldn’t come at a better time.

The Big Jack will be leaving us soon to a new home in Arkansas.We don’t really need it yet. I can see us needing it if we get into the sweet corn business on a large scale. I like that machine because it is so versatile. The one row Bean Stalker is currently the ideal machine for us, as we are farming less than 10 acres.

Tomatoes are growing nicely in Nathan’s container garden and we have yellow squash. Peppers are also coming along nicely and a little bit of sweet corn. When the peas are done, Purple Hull peas will replace them. No edamame this year.

We are very concerned about the economy, and we are concerned about food safety. You will notice that no food contamination cases have come from small or organic farms.Industrial ag requires a small army of migrant workers if you are raising produce. We use machines wherever possible to do this work. All the hand labor on our farm is done by the family. We are intimately connected to each piece of produce we sell.

I hope to see as many of you as we can at the Dallas Farmer’s Market or at the farm starting in about 12 days. Time is getting near and the English peas will be here then gone for the summer.