Rural Lifestyle on Highway 6

Well, I made the jump onto Twitter a few weeks ago, at the urging of one of our CSA members, Jenice Johnson who is a media guru and works for the Dallas Morning News. I was trying to follow some event that was going on in town and they kept saying to follow it on Twitter but I thought it was only for cell phones or something. Jenice set me straight and now occasionally, I Tweet.

The significance of what I am doing throughout the day seems pretty mundane to me, but apparantley, there are 25 people out there who find it worthy of "following". ok. Among them, just happened to be a radio program out of Iowa called Rural Lifestyle on Highway 6. He became interested in the farm and what we are doing down here in Texas and has invited me to be on the show this Sunday morning at 8. If you follow the link in the heading, you can follow the link to hear the show on line. I guess they podcast it, too if you miss it and want to hear it later.

I'm not sure what exactly he will ask me yet, but you can be sure we'll talk about the proposed ban on roosters here in town as well as our wonderful CSA and getting the good stuff (organic food) out to as many people as we can through Eden's Garden.

Hope you can tune in!

On the Farm

I (and you) am anxiously awaiting things to ripen and grow! I pulled 3 baby potatoes out of the pile yesterday just to see if they were really down there, and there they were! They are no where near ready yet, but the good news is that they are growing and tasty!

I fried them up with some onions. There are spring onions and we're getting some larger ones, too - funny how they all go in at the same time, but grow at different rates.

So, keep the rain coming once a week or so and I think we'll be eating from the garden again by the early part of June!

Don't be strangers to the farm inbetween seasons though. Market Days are 1st and 3rd Saturday and next Saturday, May 30th, I have invited a guest speaker to come to the shop at 10 and talk all about insects. This would be a good one to bring the kiddos to, because Kim usually does some show and tell. Yeah, really. ;)

I hope you all have a peaceful weekend this Memorial Day holiday. We'll not have an official work day. Look for your email next week when I catch up on newsletter stuff. I'm hoping Butch and Bubba are almost done with our web page so we can update everyone there instead of creating an email everytime.

Y'all take care,


Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Doctors warn about GE Foods

The best way to know you're not eating GE or Genetically modified foods, is to know your farmer. Eden's searches high and low for organic seed and plant starts for you! And if I can't find them, I research what I'm getting before we plant it to be as sure as we can be that it is safe, not GE'd and/or full of pesticides.

Sweet potato starts have been a real challenge. I'm not late yet, but we're probably not going to find organic starts to get started this year so I will be using the same producer as one of my farmer peers who is USDA Certified Organic. He's known the guy a long time and uses his starts. Then, we'll try to have enough of our own starts for next year and the future. THAT is the best way I can assure we're using organic sources.

But, when you buy processed foods or eat out - you may very well be eating more GMO than you realize.

Pass along the word - Who's YOUR Farmer?

http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=2989

And, if that wasn't enough.....how sad is this? CSA is the only way a small farm has a chance with these kinds of statistics... the wonder of it all....who gets all of the money?

http://nfu.org/wp-content/043009_farmersshare1.pdf



Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Day at the Soggy Farm

Whew - when it rains it pours, eh?

This was the sight on the back end of the pond the afternoon of Gleaning day a few Saturday's ago. And the pics are from the front end of the pond where we usually walk. Would have needed a rowboat that afternoon! The taters flooded, but I think they'll be ok, thanks to our sandy soil. It drains pretty fast out here.

Other than weeding there isn't a lot to do with it so wet though. I've got the irrigation lines all run and will be splitting it up into 2 systems later this week. 300' of flat tape and all of those 100' drip lines are just a bit too long to do an efficient job. So we'll water it like 2 gardens rather than up our power needs or stress the pump.

We have had 2 meet and greet days at the farm and I would like to welcome 4 new shares! Heather and Jason, Amy and Greg, Stephanie, and Kristen. We have 1 more date, next Saturday, due to the rain we had yesterday. Amy and Greg were troopers though, I must say - came with their golashes and everything!

I am constantly humbled by everyone's commitment to sustain a local farm in the Dallas area. I do not know what all is in store for its' contribution to this community, but I feel it will be wonderful. It is all possible through the support of you great folks, too! Without your financial backing, I can't do all I do.

And, here is one of those things I am going to have the opportunity to do next Sunday -

Eden's Garden will be visiting with Michael Libbie of Rural Lifestyle on Highway 6 radio show next Sunday 8am go here http://tinyurl.com/5qgdpp for details of webcast, unless you'll be traveling through Central Iowa and can listen on the radio.

Cool eh? from Texas to Iowa! We'll talk about the farm/CSA and our fight to keep our rural way of life, including our right to keep chickens and roosters in town. And you can betcha I'll tell everyone how our CSA family is making it all happen in DFW!

Well gang, it's too wet to play in the dirt today, so I'm taking some inside time and R&R.

Remember, you can always call me up (or email) if you want to come out to the farm for a mom's day out or kids trip. We can always find simple things to do that won't leave you too sore. ;)

I think we're still a few weeks from harvesting, but I see squash and maters growing and the taters are blooming, too. It won't be too long!

Enjoy this beautiful weather - see you all soon.

Marie

Eat Your Food - Naturally!