Dropstone Farms

(No, not that kind of Roundup.)

New things:

• First day at the farmers’ market! We sold 7 $4 pints of plums. The booth fee was $12.50. So, not bajillionaires, but about in line with what we expected. And it was really good to have our first market experience be pretty low-key. Slow ramp-up is good.
  

  First day at market!

• Braiding garlic: fun! Pretty!
• Cleaning fish: fresh sardines!
• Cooking sardines. My verdict: yum! Garth’s verdict: eh.
• I took my sewing machine apart to try to fix it. I didn’t break it further and it was cool to see its guts, but I also didn’t manage to fix it. Oh well, I have heard about someone who fixes Singer Featherweights for cheap, so maybe I’ll have fancy market aprons for us by next week.
• Bulk delivery of chicken feed. 57 bags is a lot! I found folks on Craigslist to share the order with us to get the total under 50 so we could save some money on delivery costs. It worked out pretty well (though it looks like they forgot to load 2 bags of oats for someone from Auburn, which sucks) and I figure we’ll be doing it again.

Not-new things that also happened this weekend:

• Made some butter from Fresh Breeze whipping cream, saving the buttermilk for frying chicken and/or making biscuits later this week. I froze one batch of butter into 1-tablespoon pats so I can bake with them more easily in the future. I got 30 tbsp from 2 pints of cream.
• Tilling continues at Johnson Farm (the Old New farm) as we prepare the ground for some fall crops and lots and lots of cover crop. The soil is compacted and dry and dusty so we are hoping that a good cover crop, chosen specifically to break up the pan, combined with lots of compost next spring, will really help it get going. The tomatoes and squash in the ground up there are doing pretty well despite the non-ideal soil.
• It’s OMG HOT here. I’m so grateful for our ceiling fan.
• I’m giving in and ordering some prescription sunglasses. My stylish hat alone just isn’t cutting it.
• We might have a few squash and cucumbers for sale next week, too. Or, I might just keep them and eat them.
• I didn’t get enough sleep. That one is *definitely* never new. I’m going to start going to bed now.

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Tomorrow morning from 9am-1pm we will be at the B.I. Farmers’ Market to sell plums. Any and all local readers, come say hi! We should have a sign with our name but if not look for the booth labeled Terra Bella (we’re sharing) — or just look for the plums!

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Every day I think “Oh I’ll blog about this interesting thing tonight,” or I take a picture and fully intend to post it, and every day I do not manage to do so. Tons is going on here and even though I am now taking vacation from work on Fridays to stay home and work on the farm, we’re still going nonstop. We are fully deployed at the Old New Farm and the New New Farm and are hoping to be at market for the first time this weekend with some plums we happened to find on a spare tree at the Old New Farm.

Tired.

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… but we got to stretch two days’ worth of work out over three days, and a good thing too — it was too hot to work outside between 12 and 4ish every day this weekend, so we got to take breaks and drink gins and tonic and read our books. But all the same, we got a lot done and of course there is a lot left to do. We are at least six weeks behind the season, I feel like, which is especially sad since it has been super sunny and warm here for about that long.

The various (50+) squashes and pumpkins just got in the ground at Johnson Farm on Friday and Saturday. They have been living in the greenhouse in gallon pots. Many of them have several blossoms. I don’t know if that’s good (yay fruits) or bad (plant growth is now stunted?).

Today we cleared out our bolted radishes, chicken-pecked and side-shoot-producing broccoli, and crowded lettuces (destined for lettuce kraut) finally, and fertilized, composted, and got 21 tomatoes, also in gallon pots, into the ground at home. There are probably 80+ plants waiting to go in at Johnson Farm and at our New New Farm (which Garth has referenced but we haven’t yet introduced properly — that’s on my list). Tomatillos and eggplants and peppers are in the same boat.

I shall stop now lest I fall asleep at the keyboard, but suffice it to say, we are feeling pleased and optimistic with FINALLY making progress … and there is more to come.

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