Wow! The last couple of days have been gorgeous! And Spring begins Sunday! We are already extra busy with 12 to 14 hour days and still not enough time to get everything done. That is why I am late writing this news letter.
We will begin daily hours at the market next week. (every day except Mondays) For the next couple of weeks we will be open Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 until 2:00; Saturday from 8:30 until 3:00; Sunday from 10:00 until 2:00. We are again in booth #74 at farmers area #2. Debra will again be ready to help you during the week days. We appreciate her help.
We have tender, sweet spring greens in collards, red and green kale, mustard, turnip, upland cress, and red and green leaf lettuce. It is time to plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, romaine lettuce and we have plants for all of those. We also have several varieties of tomato plants ready for you to get an early start. Herb varieties are catnip, lemon balm, sage, white horehound, mint, and oregano.
There is a good selection of grass-fed Jersey beef and pasture raised chicken. Chicken is on sale at 25% off the regular price and beef roasts are all $5.00 lb.
We have plenty of free range farm eggs.
One bit of information you may be interested in is a UN report stating that small scale sustainable farming is the best choice for feeding the world’s growing population. To check out the article and link to the report http://www.slashfood.com/2011/03/08/u-n-small-scale-farming-could-double-the-worlds-food-productio/ . I bet Monsanto and Conagra are seeing red!
We will be looking for you at the market.
Blessings,
Joe
We plan to be at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market Saturday 3/12 from 9:00 until 3:00 and Sunday 3/13 from 10:00 until 2:00.
Items for sale will be essentially the same as last week-see the previous post. We are out of flank steak and flat iron steak.
Remember that daylight savings time begins Sunday so don’t forget to set your clock forward Saturday night.
We hope to see you at the market.
Working in a greenhouse is rewarding but it sure is a time consuming thing. We have spent countless hours planting, watering and taking care of plants. It is nice to see things green and growing while everything outside is still dormant. And it is a sign spring is not very far away. All those plants will soon be making great fresh vegetables. We plan to have some of the early cool
season plants for sale on Saturday. They will include cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, and arugula plants. Herb plants consist of sage, lemon balm, oregano, and white horehound. We will also have some large tomato plants in gallon pots that could be set out in the sun during the day and taken in
at night. They would give you a head start on early tomatoes. Just to remind you, all our plants are non-GMO and are grown with natural fertilizers and no pesticides. There will probably a few
cents increase in prices per pound or item this year. Along with increased fuel prices, all our supplies have increased in price. The farm is our living so we have to make a profit to keep going. That is part of sustainability.
Some businesses have not keep their products profitable. One example is the large chicken integrators. Almost all of them have gone bankrupt and sold to foreign companies for a fraction of the actual value of their assets. They still
operate under the same brand names but are foreign owned. The pressure to keep their prices low forced them out of business. And this sort of thing is becoming all too common. By contrast, we need to support locally owned and USA businesses. We recently became
aware of one such company, Texas Jeans, which is located in
Asheboro, NC. Their jeans are USA made from USA goods. They are
available online at www.texasjeans.com. By browsing their website you can order their products and read their business philosophy
which we found to be right on track with what our society needs. We have not purchased their product yet but will soon. USA made products are not readily available in stores but a search online for ‘made in USA’ revealed 416,000,000 sites. We need to support
each other. Collectively we can make a real difference for our mutual benefit.
Now it is time to get down from my soapbox and cease from speechmaking; we plan to be at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market Saturday from 9:00 until 3:00. Along with our plants we will have some leaf lettuce and arugula from the greenhouse. From the field we have those sweet, tender, early spring greens in green kale, red kale, collards, upland cress, and perhaps a bit of
turnip and mustard. We have a good selection of grass-fed Jersey beef and pasture raised chicken. All beef roasts are still on sale for $5.00 lb. There is a good supply of free range farm eggs in
mostly xlarge and jumbo sizes. The chickens have picked up laying with the warmer temps and longer days. We had planned to be at the market on Sunday from 10:00 until 2:00 but the weatherman is calling for rain. So if it is pouring rain on Sunday we will have
to cancel. However, Saturday is a definite. Here’s hoping you will
come by the market to say ‘howdy’ and pick up some wonderful, delicious, healthy ‘real food’ for your
family.