Colvin Family Farm

Hello everybody!

As usual on our farm we've had a busy week full of mundane things that we do every day of the week--along with a double handful of things that have never happened before (just enough to keep us hooked on farming)--It is fun to watch the different vegetables come in and replace the ones that are winding down--like mini-seasons, we get to watch the seasons change up close. So close that we often don't even realize that they've changed! It will suddenly dawn on somebody that--ahhh!!! look at all of the green leaves that have popped out all over the place (or something similarly silly). It is just funny that we don't always catch the obvious because we're so busy noticing the minute details of things!
New for this newsletter, I've posted all of the pictures as 640x480 pixels instead of 320x240 pixels (sorry to all of you dial-up folks). What is the difference? Well, now you will be able to right click on the picture and choose to "view image" and you'll see a larger version of it--with the smaller photos that we've always sent, you couldn't see the small things in a detailed photo--that always has bothered me, and now I've fixed it--please let me know if you all like it this way better or would prefer to see it the way I've always done it!

I hope that you've had a great week--and enjoyed your vegetables. I have the recipe/letter that Mom wrote last week posted on our website, so click on the picture below if you want my Great Aunts' (pronounced "ant" down here in Tennessee) wonderful Spinach Salad! See you all!

Adam Colvin
Colvin Family Farm (CNG)
www.ColvinFamilyFarm.com


Farm Update

We have three new flowers blooming on the farm--Foxgloves are blooming in one of Mom's beds--I think they're one of the prettier flowers she's planted!



The daisies are one of Mom's favorites--it blooms all over the fields and on the sides of the roads up here on the mountain.



A lily somebody gave momma--she planted a semi-circle of them in the edge of the vegetable garden (yes--flowers in "my" vegetable garden).



Mom snapped this picture of Dad cleaning out some cabbages early on this week--patience and persistence (two different qualities) are necessary to do a good job on weeding.



I took this picture today--it has several of us working on harvesting different vegetables--green onions, spinach & kale.



These cabbages & broccoli were planted from plugs (little bitty baby plants) just last week and have taken off! They've probably tripled or quadrupled in size!



Several small raised beds full of Snap Peas--we'll be having Snap Peas in our CSA shares next week! They are one of the #1 favorite Spring vegetables--I like mine simple--steamed and buttered with salt to taste!



This bed of kale is looking good! It is one of the more familiar varieties of kale (green frilly leaves) and will last throughout the Summer and into the fall.



A view of some of our beds. In the foreground is Arugula (bolted Arugula), than Kale, Mustard, Turnips....etc...



Our onion patch seems to be doing well--the tops are bigger than we normally raise them already, and several of the bottoms are starting to bulge!
We've decided that we probably needed heavier paper as we've lost several sections due to wind, wet, and other weather. However it has done a fine job of keeping the weeds in check--the principle is right, we just need to continue perfecting it--maybe a different method of laying it would fix it--maybe some other kind of mulch would work best--I don't know but it is something we are looking into and discussing quite often.



Garlic Scapes--Garlic Curls--whichever name you use for these garlic flower buds, they are awesome for flavoring stir fries, soups, casseroles etc... and will be accompanying our CSA shares in the near future.



We harvested our first batch of beets for the Spring--they are beautiful, from the size of a large shooter marble to the size of a softball, they are all sweet, tender, juicy...delicious!



Charity posed for this picture in a feed sack--she's worth more than a sack of chicken feed!



Mowing--finding time to do the "normal" chores around the house can be an interesting thing! Several chores (including mowing) have been passed on to younger brothers as they start to take over more responsibilities on the farm.



While we were working over in the peas or potatoes (sorry I can't remember which), Titus heard some growling in the top of a tree--ends up it was a coon--no six or seven coons (properly known as racoon) in their den! I've wanted to see a den tree of coons as long as I can remember, and to think when we finally find one it was within 100 yards of the house!



Up in the top of the tree, one of the boys snapped this picture down the hollow--it has one of the coons showing up (look closely in the middle for the masked face).