I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market until 1 with:

Loads of beautiful, hellaciously delicious tomatoes! Including Brandywine, Giant Belgium, Azoychka Russian, Limmony, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Cherokee Purple, Green Giant, Black Krim, romas, Bloody Butchers. The yellows are really abundant this week. Their flavor is so unique – sweet but tangy, and for the VERY best flavor, let them ripen completely. They will sometimes get little orange stripes on the bottom when they are ripe, but not always. The yellow tomatoes go great with the smoked mozzarella from Uno Allo Volta in bldg. C. I also seriously love the soft crust sourdough from Duke’s in bldg B for the ultimate tomato sandwich experience 🙂

Tomatillos, mini eggplant, red and green cabbage, a few heads of cauliflower, a variety of cucumbers including Asian, lemon, mini white, mini green and slicers; carola potatoes, sweet & red onions, Tuscan garlic, 3 kinds of kale, sweet potatoes, wheat.

We are all stocked up on beef cuts, and have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: filet, flank, skirt, flat iron, ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

Hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), beer brats-these are quarter pounders, sliced corned beef, sliced pastrami and sliced bologna.  Made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

I love refrigerator pickles: quick, easy, OMG good & no heating. You don’t want to lose all those health-giving enzymes by cooking! Plus they stay crisp (I’ve found that Asian cukes stay the most crisp.) They’re perfect when you come in from the heat.  So healthy too! Raw apple cider vinegar (like Bragg’s) is a fermented food, so it helps increase good bacteria in the gut and balance pH. Cucumbers are super hydrating and contain more than 50 trace minerals, amino acids, enzymes and coenzymes that help with digestion and a lot more. So cucumbers, raw apple cider vinegar, your favorite sea salt, garlic,  dill and water. Mix up the brine, cut up the cukes. That’s it. Two or three days in the fridge and they’re ready. Here’s the recipe.

See you tomorrow!

Finally planting sweet potatoes with Shane and my sister. 500 purple and 1500 Covington organic slips.  The cows stood at the fence,  mesmerized. Those are sunflowers on the left. Can’t wait for them to bloom!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market until 1 with:

Tomatoes, tomatillos, red and green cabbage -we have a favorite coleslaw recipe – Tangy Mustard Slaw.   So good on burgers too. Purple, orange and white cauliflower; broccoli, a variety of cucumbers, lemon squash, okra, carola potatoes, sweet & red onions, 3 kinds of kale, sweet potatoes, wheat.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

Hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), beer brats-these are quarter pounders, sliced corned beef, sliced pastrami and sliced bologna.  Made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.

Ground beef special – Buy 5, Get 1 free.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

Soooo cabbage.  I have a lot to sell. Let us review the health importance of the simple cabbage 🙂 thereby setting into motion my evil plan to sell more cabbage while helping to prevent all of the problems listed below.  Experts say:

A. Cabbage supports joints, reduces arthritis and helps to reverse osteoporosis.

B. It’s BRAIN FOOD. We all know someone who could use more of that.

C. Cabbage is a cruciferous veg – this category (which includes cauli & broc) helps to stave off a myriad of cancers – breast, ovarian, cervical, brain, lung and intestinal. Shazam.

D. Cabbage is high in sulfur, a valuable nutrient. I amend our fields with organic sulfur virtually every year after what I learned in soil class.  According to my learnins 🙂 soils in our area are low in sulfur and we need this nutrient – it is the 3rd most abundant mineral in our bodies! It helps restore growth of lung tissue, vitamin conversion, protein synthesis and more.

And lastly, without enough sulfur…SAGGY AND WRINKLED SKIN!! Nuff said.

Onions, garlic and grassfed beef and eggs are also sources of sulfur.

This little mockingbird baby was in the garden when Shane was tilling. I never would have seen it. He saved the day. I guess they fledge the nest but can’t always fly right away so the parents still bring it food and it doesn’t matter if it smells like a human because the maternal instinct is so strong and their nose isn’t that great anyway. (I had to google it to make sure it would be ok). He set it down in the raised bed and the momma bird was in the tree making  a big fuss.

See you tomorrow!

Pepper plants survived the monsoons but the squash plants, not so much. Finally dry enough for me to pull weeds without taking the crop with it.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1 with:

Tomatoes, orange and white and a few purple cauliflower; broccoli; green & purple cabbage; 3 kinds of kale, squash, cukes, a little okra, red & yellow onions, and I dug some Carolas but the clay was really sticking to them so I stopped. There’s about half a crate. Sweet potatoes, wheat. Basil, cutting celery, purslane, mint.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones.

Shane picked up hot dogs (skinny and quarter pounder), beer brats-these are quarter pounders, sliced corned beef, sliced pastrami and sliced bologna from The Weeping Radish today!  Made from our 100% grass fed Angus beef, no added nitrates or nitrites.. When we have this stuff made, we keep back the premium steaks, brisket, bones and ground beef for the market (and the organ meats for our dogs) and we send the whole chuck, shoulder, rump, round, sirloin to the Radish. It’s made from the GOOD STUFF people 🙂 No weird parts.

There are a few packages of hot dogs that didn’t properly seal (not vacuumed) on sale for $8 lb.

Bulk pricing on our beef: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

Tomato plants are already taller than me.

It’s finally getting dry enough to mow and weed around my crops. We got 3.5″ of rain in one day and I don’t know what else on the other days. I haven’t been able to even walk down the crop rows really, boots sinking into deep mud except what I have on the landscape plastic.

All but 3 of the squash plants died this week. Some got broken over in the storms and the rest who knows. If I was diligent I would  investigate…

Cucumbers are where it’s at anyway 🙂 I’ve been making the MOST delicious juice, cuke-celery-apple-lime.

All the rain and not being able to work in the fields, seeing the weeds take over and not being able to plant is killing my shazaaam. It has been really beautiful weather though, especially in the evenings.  Picking cukes in a sweatshirt, that’s new right!   Shane is starting back on first cutting orchard grass. Hope to get lots of stuff done next week.

Ok I’ll see you tomorrow!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1 with:

White & orange cauliflower (just 1 purple), green & purple cabbage (this Dijon Roasted Cabbage is one of our favorite recipes for green cabbage), tomatoes, cukes, summer squash, red & white spring onions; curly, rainbow and lacinato kale; sweet potatoes, wheat.

Fresh cut herbs: Genovese basil, parsley, cutting celery, mint, purslane.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, filet, sirloin, flat iron,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones, and all natural hot dogs (quarter pounders only) and bologna made with 100% Angus beef with no added nitrates or nitrites.

Special on ground beef – Buy 5, get 1 free.

We’ll have beer brats, skinny dogs, sliced corned beef and pastrami coming back soon!

Bulk pricing: quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

Did you know we have a raw juice vendor back at the market? In building C at the far end. He has a bunch of delicious raw veggie juices (and samples), granola, cashew cheese and I don’t know what else. I’m totally advertising for them because I want them to be busy so they’ll stay. The previous one didn’t last long and I like to have my green juice! It just doesn’t work out on Saturday mornings for me to make it, I’m doing good if I stumble out of the house with a coffee and a banana.

That’s so messed up! I just bought 1500 ladybugs for the tomato hoop house to help with the aphids. Eat something else!!

I’m so cute.

Yikes! I’m so murdery!

See you tomorrow!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1 with:

Cauliflower, green cabbage, a few tomatoes and cukes; nice big heads of fresh & uncured Susanville garlic – this is the last week I’ll have garlic straight out of the ground.  Susanville is a very flavorful variety that is also spicy.  Spring onion bunches; curly, rainbow and lacinato kale; sweet potatoes, wheat.

Fresh cut herbs: parsley, chives, sage, mint, basil, cutting celery, and purslane. I planted purslane this year even though it grows wild in my fields, because it’s an amazing plant! I juice it and put it in our smoothies. It has the highest omega 3 content of any land plant. Read about it here.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, filet, sirloin, flank, flat iron,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones, and all natural hot dogs and bologna made with 100% Angus beef with no added nitrates or nitrites.

Special on ground beef – Buy 5, get 1 free.

We’ll have beer brats, sliced corned beef and pastrami coming back soon!

We have bulk pricing on quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing

Sweet potato slips are here. I really wish they were here about 3 weeks from now, when we didn’t just get 6 inches of rain. The best way I’ve found to hold them until I’m ready to plant is in these low tubs with potting mix. They’ll grow some roots, and when they’re set out they take off like crazy and shade out the weeds.

Ok they don’t really shade out the weeds.

That happened. That’s the okra patch. Not a good look.

We had our annual Animal Welfare Approved inspection this week. I think there are  around 200 points we have to meet. We were non-compliant on fecal sampling 🙂 which has to be done yearly (I forgot) and it’s also time to get the pastures soil tested, I think that’s once every 3 years.  Gotta take some fresh poop to the lab! That’ll be Shane’s job. He could just scrape it off his hat. I don’t know how he gets so dirty.

See you tomorrow!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1 with:

Spring onion bunches; curly, rainbow and lacinato kale; fresh cut herbs, sweet potatoes, wheat. I’m hoping to have squash next week, then cabbage and potatoes the week after.

We have our 100% grass fed & grass finished, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, filet, sirloin, skirt, flank, flat iron,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones, and all natural hot dogs and bologna made with 100% Angus beef with no added nitrates or nitrites.

We’re still doing the special on ground – Buy 5, get 1 free.

We’ll have beer brats, sliced corned beef and pastrami coming back soon!

We have bulk pricing on quarters, halves and wholes – $3.50 lb hang weight plus the cost of processing.

Those are some chubby butts.

We finally got a rain-free week in the forecast so Shane has been working on the first cutting of alfalfa. That’s all he’s done since last weekend, from about 7am til anytime between 9:30 pm and midnight. As if he needed more to do, I was in Florida for 5 days visiting my aunt and uncle. She made a bunch of pottery for me so I absolutely HAD to go pick it up 🙂 You know how it is.

Anyway they have a farm too and they’re in the middle of their season now, with tomatoes, peppers, and all the summer veggies plus every berry under the sun AND papayas (my favorite fruit of all time), mini bananas (what!) and they have pineapples, avocados, loquats and guavas coming in. Tropical Paradise. Fruit coma 🙂

All that amazing stuff on their farm and this is the only picture I took-

We stopped at the beach on our way home.

Ok see you tomorrow!

Fresh out of the ground, uncured Tuscan garlic has delicious garlic flavor without being hot. I will only have the fresh Tuscan this week!

Have you ever spread roasted garlic on some warm crusty bread? No butter needed – roasted garlic is soft and buttery, mild and sweet. Check out How to Roast Garlic.

I roast my heads in a ceramic ramekin instead of wrapping them in foil. Hello Alzheimers! I do cover the ramekin with foil though and remember to check on it for optimal roastiness 🙂

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til noon with:

Fresh garlic, spring onion bunches, mini cucumbers; curly, rainbow and lacinato kale, fresh cut herbs, sweet potatoes, wheat and eggs – free range, organic fed, soy free  eggs from my neighbor Carl (Carlea Farms). He goes to the Matthews market where his eggs sell out,  but isn’t going this week, his daughter is graduating from State. He has about 30 dozen eggs to sell.

We have our grass fed, Animal Welfare Approved Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, filet, sirloin, skirt, flank, flat iron,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, boneless chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones, and all natural hot dogs and bologna made with 100% Angus beef with no added nitrates or nitrites.

The ground beef special is back – buy 5, get 1 free.

Last week I forgot to put the boneless chucks on the truck (too busy complaining about it!) and then you came asking for them so I have them this week!! Sorry 🙁

As I was digging the garlic, I heard swarms of bees in the asparagus bed beside me. Hundreds, it was super loud. Who thought there would be much pollen in the asparagus ferns? Last year I barely saw the first honeybee so I thought the world was going to starve. Plus the news said so.

Potatoes are hilled up and looking good. Can’t wait to start digging! …Ok Lies. I dread digging potatoes but do love eating them!

Onions, thumbs up.

Cauliflower, thumbs up.

Sweet corn, double thumbs down. In farming, the technical term for this is A CRAP – ASS STAND OF CORN. The day after I planted it we got hard driving rain and a hard crust formed on the clay soil. I guess that’s where the blame lies. So I didn’t bother to cultivate the weeds out and I’ll just till it up and put in a tricolor snap bean mix.

See you tomorrow!!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Last year I was at a packed bar wearing a Mardi Gras-style beaded shot glass necklace drinking cheap margaritas garnished with limes that were all stamped with moustaches, yay!

This year I’m wrapped in an old lady sweater drinking tepid water while reheating a  2 day old sweet potato, boo. Anyway, did you know that tomorrow is World Naked Gardening Day? Hmmmm….worst idea ever?? On so many levels.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1pm with:

Mini cucumbers; curly, rainbow and lacinato kale, rainbow chard, fresh cut herbs, sweet potatoes, wheat, and the last plants:  Greek oregano, lemon balm, tumbling tom container cherry tomato plants,  mini container  purple eggplant. Here’s a super awesome article about how to use lemon balm and WHY.

We’re all stocked up on our grass fed Angus beef, here is what we have: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, filet, sirloin, skirt, flank, flat iron,  brisket, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, bags of soup bones, and thanks to the processor screwing up in a whole new way, we now have bone-LESS chuck roasts. They are super creative there. If no one buys them I’ll send them to the Weeping Radish for pastrami.  All natural hot dogs and bologna made with 100% Angus beef with no added nitrates or nitrites.

I don’t have any pictures. I don’t even know what I did this week. How is it Friday and what happened since last Saturday?? I know I made some delicious food, like lots and lots of basil pesto because the plants are off the chain! Have lots of cut basil for tomorrow. Also, this: Creamy Sweet Potato Noodles with Spinach and Cashew Sauce. I subbed basil for spinach. Made roasted sweet potatoes with leftover cashew sauce and pesto; roasted kale and tomato (tomatoes are coming in already!!)sandwiches on sprouted grain bread with cucumbers and feta and pesto and hummus AND I REALLY NEED a donut pan so I can make these Baked Sweet Potato Donuts with Dark Chocolate and Coconut.

That is all.

See you tomorrow.

P.S. Have some margaritas for me.

They’ve already dropped their petals! Sigh.

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1pm with:

Curly, rainbow and lacinato kale, rainbow chard, some cut herbs, sweet potatoes, wheat, and plants: sage plants, some beautiful Greek oregano plants a few thyme and lemon balm, probably the last of the regular size tomato plants, tumbling tom container cherry tomato plants,  mini container  purple eggplant.

Our grass fed Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, sirloin, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, liver,  osso bucco, hot dogs and bologna.

We will have a beef quarter available the second week in May! Bulk pricing is $3.50 lb plus the cost of processing.

Won’t be long! I learned my lesson about using too much alfalfa mulch. It’s a potent nitrogen source and if you overdo it, all you get is foliage and no fruit. I spread it thinly to keep the ground from drying out and to provide a very light, steady nitrogen supply.

That pretty lettuce came up on it’s own, and I was so careful to work around it, then Shane came in with his death boots and stomped it flat when he was pounding in the T-posts. How do you not see that! Are you blind?? But it came back.

Sage plants from last fall are blooming. I feel like this is the plant you carry into the Home Depot and say mix this up. The perfect shade of green, and the perfect beautiful shade of violet.

Spring is a fantastic time to start juicing! Celery and cucumber are super hydrating, and purslane, from what I’ve read, has the highest Omega 3s of any plant. I use it in our juices and smoothies. Lettuce is also fantastic for juicing, and it makes a really light tasting juice which is a nice change from all the kale and chard I’ve been juicing.

Jake stretching his legs. He’s on a dirt lot for the summer – a horse that can’t eat grass 🙁 He has a form of insulin resistance (there’s a ton of sugar in green grass).  I turn him out for a few minutes so he can roll in the grass and have a few bites. He looks good here all stretched out, but he’s obese. He’s one of those that can just LOOK at a bale of hay and gain 150 pounds.

So it’s a balance of rationing his hay so he doesn’t go too long without food, but doesn’t gain more. The goal is to lose some but with no one riding him that’s not likely. Horses shouldn’t go more than 5 hours without eating, and a fasting period is even worse when they have insulin resistance because when they start eating again it releases a lot of insulin. Not helpful. We use a slow-feed hay net that helps his rations last a lot longer. In Jake’s case, too much grass causes the bones in his feet to start to rotate causing lots of pain and if just left to fend for himself in the pasture would eventually have to be put down as the bones protrude through the bottom of the hooves.

You can see his fat pads on his sides and the lumpy cellulite on his rump.

But he has nice thick mats to stand on and a fan in his stall, and he has room to roam around…but it’s super boring and lonely! He can be a bully to other horses so putting a friend in with him isn’t an option plus then I would have to shovel sh*t for 2. Do you have any idea how many times they go in a day?? 18 times. 18 TIMES!!! I counted.

He entertains himself by putting his feet in the water trough and splashing it all over himself. I’m thankful he handles it well, even when I let him out for a few minutes he comes galloping back when I call him. I have him on an herbal supplement that’s supposed to help his body deal with the insulin so maybe he’ll be able to have limited turnout and I won’t have to shovel so much sh*t.

I’ll see you tomorrow!

I’ll be at the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market tomorrow til 1pm with:

Curly and lacinato kale, rainbow chard, lettuce, kale raab, sweet potatoes, wheat, and plants: sungold, red cherry and pink cherry tomato plants, lots of  heirloom variety tomato plants, tumbling tom container cherry tomato plants,  mini container  purple eggplant, a few thyme, lemon balm and purple basil plants and more edible flowers by popular request!!

Our grass fed Angus beef in these cuts: ground, stew, philly steak, cube steak, ribeyes, NY Strip, filet, sirloin, flat iron, skirt, eye of round roasts, bone-in chuck roasts, sirloin tip roasts, short ribs, liver,  osso bucco, hot dogs, corned beef and bologna.

We will have a beef half (or 2 quarters) available the second week in May! Bulk pricing is $3.50 lb plus the cost of processing.

Time to plant eggplants! Mow.

Add amendments with this torture device.

Till in the clover and ammendments.

Aaaand then repeat here there and everywhere.

See you tomorrow!