News and blog
Saturday, October 31st marked the end of another successful season at Harman's Farm. As always, we feel such gratitude to our many customers who have been so loyal to us throughout the years, as well as our new customers who "took a chance" on us.
This growing season was wonderful for the corn and green beans. I don't remember having a better crop of corn in years. The cool, wet spring, early summer, and early fall were challenging for the vine crops, but they pulled through with some help from the farmer (Tom). Many farms east of the Mississippi experienced Late Blight on their tomatoes, but we took precautions and were able to avoid the devastating disease.
I enjoyed my many school groups this October, with smiles and the sound of laughter lighting up the straw maze and the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, October weekends were very soggy and wagon rides to the pumpkin patch were in short supply. But our customers were very accomodating and had a good time picking their pumpkins out of the market.
Now it is time to clean up, both the market and the fields. Oh, and my house which has been neglected for months is looking forward to a good bailing out. Tom will be doing maintenance work on the tractors and other equipment, the strawberries will get their winter blankets, and I will be catching up with much paper work that was shoved aside during the summer. Oh...and the boys will enjoy some family time with mom and dad!
Thank you again for your continued support of our farm and market. We hope that you have a happy, safe and healthy winter. Pull out the sleds, for Farmer Tom tells me that we're going to have lots of snow and cold. Oh Boy!!!
Our family loves watermelon! It’s a good thing that we grow them, for we eat watermelon for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner during the summertime. Oh, and sometimes in between!
Many of you know that we grow red and YELLOW seedless watermelon. Yes, that’s right, yellow watermelon. They are very similar to a red, but just a different color inside. Ask Daniel, and he will tell you that his favorite watermelon is yellow. They are sweet and juicy, and quench your thirst on these hot summer days.
Go ahead and be daring. Try a yellow watermelon!
If you're like me, the corn can't be ready soon enough. Luckily, the time is soon arriving and I wanted to share with you some pictures and information about our corn crop.
Like most of our crops, we make many succession plantings throughout the spring and summer to ensure that we will have vegetables the entire season. But I must say that corn wins hands down for the number of plantings; approximately 19. Tom starts planting corn around the third week of March and keeps planting every week into July. He has just finished planting the corn for Labor Day weekend (that's always a big planting). The first several plantings of corn are covered with clear plastic that acts like a greenhouse to keep it warm. Otherwise, the cold March and April days and nights would not allow the seed to germinate, and if it did, a frost could kill it. By planting this early under plastic, we are able to have our first corn by late June.
Our first corn started tasseling June 9th, and we usually plan on the first picking around 20 days from tassel - give or take a few days. The pictures show the first planting and notice the ears. The silk on the ears is white now, but when the corn is ready to pull, the silk will be brown. Now the trick is to keep the deer and raccoons out of the corn so that we can enjoy it!!
What happened to the strawberries?? They were here one day and gone the next. The answer lies in the weather. We had a beautiful crop of berries and were picking large quantities everyday to sell in the market. They were sweet and had good size and shape. We were delighted.
But, then the rain came, and came and came. And when it wasn't raining, the mornings were very dewey. This is not good for berries, and to add insult to injury, it got warm. We continued to pick, but it became more difficult as the rainy days continued. Finally, after sticking my fingers in 10 mushy berries in order to find one good one, I decided that it was time to move on to other endeavors.
But in every cloud, there is a silver lining. All of the rain and warm weather has given us the best corn crop that I have seen in many years. We can't wait until the end of June when we start pulling corn. We hope to see you then!
We are very excited that our strawberries have reached a point that we can pick them everyday. We are happy, for our customers will no longer have to guess whether it is an "on" or "off" day. The crop looks beautiful and with a little cooperation from Mother Nature, we should have them for a few weeks.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Some of you may have noticed that some days we have strawberries and some days, we don't. What's up??
Here lies the answer. This past September, we planted a new, early variety of strawberry, in addition to our tried and true variety. Since we were not familiar with the taste or performance of this new type, we didn't plant a large number of rows of them.
They have performed very nicely, and they have a wonderful flavor, too. The only problem is that we don't have enough to pick every day. With the large number of our regular variety, we alternate the blocks that we pick in order to allow a day of ripening. With the early variety, we pick them all, then allow them a day's rest for ripening. Allowing them to ripen to their fullest makes all the difference in the flavor.
The good news is that the regular variety is getting ripe and I foresee that very soon, we will be picking every day.
Thank you for your patience and look for the "Harman's Sweet Strawberry" sign when you drive by!
Paula
Harman's Farm Market is excited to announce that we will be opening for the season on Friday, May 1, 2009. We thank you for your patience in waiting and look forward to seeing all of you.
Our season will begin with a beautiful selection of hanging baskets, large and small combination planters, potted annuals, and a large assortment of vegetable transplants. Yes, that's right, vegetable transplants. Although we enjoy selling our fruits and vegetables to you, we encourage everyone to enjoy the rewards of growing their own gardens - and especially if you have children. Let them see that these fruits and vegetables don't just grow in the grocery store.
So please stop by, even if you'd just like to say "Hi".
In our last story, I explained that we have started seeding some of our first transplants. I am happy to report that those seeds have successfully "hatched" or germinated and the first baby plants were born. The nursery, oh I mean greenhouse, is quickly filling up with many young transplants.
Each day, I work in the greenhouse to care for the new baby plants. Subsequent seedings have been made, and we now have a nice array of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beets, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and many varieties of cut flowers. In the near future, I will seed additional types of fruits and vegetables as well as repetitions of what has already been seeded.
Back in the greenhouse, I spent many days putting together hanging baskets and container gardens from small plugs. We use Proven Winners, for we have been pleased with the quality of these plants.
I hope that you are starting to get outdoors to enjoy the beginning of spring. It's a wonderful time of year that brings hope and rebirth to everyone.
The Olympic Games commence with the words, "Let the games begin." On our farm, you can hear the words, "Let the growing begin" when the beginning of March rolls around. The greenhouse is officially running. Yesterday, even though it felt warm enough to plant outside, I spent the day seeding my first vegetable and flower transplants.
March has turned into one of my favorite times of the growing season. After many months of indoor work, I am finally playing in the dirt again. And the best part is that even if it is cold outside, I have my own little personal summer inside the greenhouse.
All of the vegetables and annual flowers, with the exception of the corn, beans and pumpkins, are started in the greenhouse. Tiny transplants, started from seed, are grown in 50 or 72 cell trays. Each week, we start a new set of transplants so that we have successive plantings throughout the spring and summer. For instance, we do 6 plantings of tomatoes, 8 plantings of squash, and 18 plantings of sunflowers. Charts are carefully maintained to keep track of the seeding schedule. Once the weather gets warmer, and the transplants are big enough and tough enough to leave the ideal conditions of the greenhouse, the plants will be planted in the fields.
To me, watching these tiny seeds turn into the plants that produce the delicious fruits and vegetables that we enjoy in the summer is nothing short of a miracle.
I'm often asked, "What do you do during the winter when the market is closed?" While it is true that we live life at a slightly slower pace during the off season, things are still happening to make the upcoming growing season a success.
Tom has been busy doing maintenance work on the many tractors and other equipment. I am so grateful that Tom is such a good mechanic.
I have been doing much of the bookwork and paperwork that gets neglected during the growing season. Tax preparation, flower and vegetable variety selection, seed and supply orders, seeding and transplant schedules, marketing plans, school tour scheduling, all help to keep me busy during the winter days.
Tom and I also attended two conferences; one the Southeast Strawberry Expo and the other, the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Growers Convention. We always learn so much when attending conferences, not only from the sessions, but also when talking to vendors and other growers. It also gives us time to talk and make plans for the upcoming season.
But the best part of winter for me is having the opportunity to devote more time to our boys, David and Daniel. We had the best Christmas ever this year, focusing on the simple things and enjoying each other. The boys have had many friends come to visit and shared their love of playing in the stream, and having some daring airsoft gun battles. We've taken in a couple of movies and enjoyed cheering on Daniel's beloved Steelers to a Super Bowl Championship. Tom and David enjoyed some "bonding time" while hunting for waterfowl. We visited "Pop-Pop" and "BB" at Deep Creek Lake and had a grand time snow tubing. I have been able to spend some days volunteering at Daniel's school and of course there's the time devoted to helping out with homework, when needed.
While wintertime may be a depressing season for some, I see it as a time to relax, recharge and enjoy my family.
