The high tunnel work continues. You can view the latest progress by clicking on the video to the right. Thanks once again to all who helped. Today John and I framed in the second end wall. The view from the top was quite nice.

High tunnel beds ready for planting

We hosted a farm tour for Lincoln University and MU Extension, as well as the Mattie Rhodes Center on Saturday and had a good time. Marlin Bates, one of our local horticulturalists from MU Extension, gave a talk on GAP or Good Agricutural Practices. The students toured our packing room facility and we talked about the importance of safe hygiene.

Lincoln U./MU Extension tour

Dr. Jamie Pinero, an entomologist from Lincoln talked about pests, beneficials, trap cropping, and stink bug and cucumber beetle management. We will be working together with him next year and feel good that we will develop systems for reducing loss from these pests over time.

The target of these bugs is the cucurbit crop, which includes melons and pumpkins. That is why we don’t have enough pumpkins for everyone, or watermelon for everyone, but have just enough for them to be a choice. Some are larger than others so sorry if your portion size is small, we are working on it.

Melon Additives
Picking vine fruit like melons is a tricky process. You have to know the signs of ripeness, be they a thump or a sniff or a look. So we can not guarentee perfect ripeness in every melon. If your melon is just not up to ripeness, you can enhance the flavor a bit with some salt, sugar, honey, citrus, or whatever you like.

Rebecca uses a syrup of juice of half a lime, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp honey. I like a dash of salt.

Lastly, you have to see this picture of a sunflower that grew in our yard all by itself. No tilling, planting, hoeing, weeding, trellising, pruning or watering. We estimate this helianthus is 12 to 14 feet tall. Amazing.

Farm Flowers