Are we "there" yet?

 

 

As I sit here dreading the arrival of yet another Arctic front, I'm skimming through old photos and posts from past winters. We've had our share of freak snow storms, a few ice storms and some late frosts. But it seems these deep freezes that last days on end, are somewhat newer to the N. Texas climate. 

  

 

When we first started out, I ordered plugs for many of our crops. We didn't have a dedicated place in which to start seeds, and especially warm season crops, as they need a warm, sunny/well lit, place. I would "bump" those plugs up into bigger pots and let them root in well, before planting them out in the field - after the risk cold had passed us by. I couldn't risk planting them too early, because it takes another 4-6 weeks to grow out and get new ones if I lost them to a frost. 

Once we built a little make shift "seed house", I used to begin starting my spring seeds as early as the last weekend of January. I used to plan around the annual TOFGA conference so I'd not be gone when they needed to be watered and monitored. 

 

But as our seasons seem to drag on and become more erratic, I've stopped daring ma Nature to be "normal" and have just adjusted the varieties of vegetables I plant instead. I don't rush to start seeds in January any more. I've never planted onion slips before February. 

In order to help compensate for later planting, I choose more heat tolerant tomatoes for my main crop. I don't get in a rush to start peppers, as they require pretty warm bottom heat - consistently - to get a good germination. And they yield  heavier in shorter days anyway, so we consider them more of a late summer crop. 

Plus, my seed/germination house is outside, and it was getting pretty expensive to keep the bed warm enough to germinate them. So we have learned to stop competing with the weather and just work with it. 

Once this latest blast blows out of here, I'll transplant the brassica seedlings in the high tunnel and drop a lightweight cloth over them - to help keep out the nibbling critters. The lettuce, beets, arugula and carrots are already planted, some doing better than others. We'll also direct sow some radishes. The turnips are growing outside and probably loving the cold snap, honestly. Depending on how the tender greens did, we may need to re-seed those and the kale. We did cover some of the still yielding fall crops - we'll find out in a few days if they made it. 

 

Fava beans, peas, more lettuce, more broccoli and fennel, dill, parsley and other cool weather loving crops will grow much easier than trying to force tropical crops like tomatoes to grow when it's barely above freezing and soil is cold. One thing members of Eden's CSA learn is to eat in season. 

I get it, some farmers are trying to beat the guy down the highway at market. And I've been known  to put in a "risk crop" just to see if we can get lucky and a few weeks of early maters for our spring shares before the lion's share in early summer. But when I worked retail, I often re-sold tomato starts to customers who jumped the gun and ended up losing everything they'd planted. 

Farmer Bev's seed company will have us testing several varieties this year as well. It's always a mystery! One year, she brought out boxes and boxes of seeds and let me dig through them! Boy, THAT was fun! 

I do love the heirlooms, and I still have some favorites I save seeds and plant from. But I also like to have a nice and healthy yield for my members. Using hybrids that are bred to sustain heat, defy disease and pests, and yield higher - help assure success. Farmer Bev's seed company, Texas Tested Seed & Plants, carries some of the most reliable varieties I grow. She specializes in varieties that tolerate the high heat and humidity of the South.  

So, while some days it feels like I should be doing something more - I go back to my list, check off a few INside things and wait for a warmer sunny day to get to those outside projects. I've learned not to rush any more. Maybe I'm slowing down, or maybe I'm just learning to savor moments and go with the flow. 

 

Weeks of days of long hours will be here soon enough and I'll be wishing for a break. So, this weekend, I think I'll pop some corn, bake some kale chips, make a hot cocoa and find a movie or two to watch in between tossing out more hay for the sheep and horses, and making sure no one has knocked over their water buckets. 

Bundle up if you have to go outside this weekend. They're promising a cold one! And let's hope winter's grip loosens in February, instead of tightens. We can always hope. Spring's gotta come eventually! 

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Farmer Marie  

 

PS, if you'd like to join our CSA, we do have room for 2026! Sign up for our info email and watch for the enrollment letter!  

 

Looking Ahead

Dear Farm Friends,

Just thought I'd pop in and give you all an update on the farm. Even though it feels like it's been drama, drama, and more drama, over the past 2 years, lately, it's just been back to farming, and I like the pace of that much better. While I can't control what Nature throws at me, at least I know it's nothing personal. 

 

We're harvesting a nice fall crop every week right now for our CSA members who are making all sorts of delicious meals with it. Soon, we'll be picking a nice little taste of what is normally winter crops, in that this year, I planted some broccoli and cauliflower outside this fall and it's doing well. Normally, I reserve those sometimes finicky crops for the high tunnel, especially cauliflower, where I can control things a little better. But they're both about to be ready to harvest - missing Thanksgiving by about a week - as they're just not full size yet. But we did harvest some green beans, greens, summer squash and fresh herbs.

We're looking for a few new members for the winter and into 2026. 

We're prepping the tunnel for winter shares now and with Tim's BCS the rows should be in great shape this year. I've already dropped our stall waste from the horse barn in there and run the disk over it - now it just needs to be tilled under, get the irrigation run in the rows and planted! 

I've got cauliflower and broccoli transplants started in our little seed house, and radishes, spinach, fennel, cilantro, lettuce, greens and more will all go under cover for our winter season. 

Meanwhile, the seed catalogs are trickling in for spring planting! Now, I'll be honest with you, I really thought I'd be retired by now, but I'm feeling much better about the workload these days with Maleke and Tim here more regularly. Sharing the heavier work with stronger and younger folks is very helpful. I appreciate them both more than I'm sure they realize. Even though my plans to put in an agri-village for folks hasn't worked out, my mission to keep growing good, clean healthy food - with integrity, lives on. 

The other good news is the young lady working with me here at the farm is working diligently to devise a way to turn the farm into a non-profit operation. She's a real go-getter, I tell ya. Bee keeper, grower, volunteer, Veteran, with doing service for others at the center of her heart - she's aspiring to do even more!

Nothing would make me happier than to turn the reins over to her with this vision.

It'd mean the agricultural aspect of the place would live on, the non-profit(s) that owned it would have permanent homes w/o fear of being booted out of their borrowed places, ever again, the community that rallied around the farm and WANTS it to stay a farm, would continue to be served by it, the environment would be spared as it wouldn't end up a giant parking lot or warehouses, and I'm sure services would be expanded.  

 

While I’ve done what I can to support our local food bank and SNAP recipients, a non-profit would have access to grants and resources that I don’t, enabling it to reach further and help more people in need. It could also provide the whole community with a much-desired return of the farmer's market, and perhaps even a pick your own section, a market store, coffee shop, or eatery— just a few possibilities, while continuing and expanding the CSA, and host more farm events again. I honestly see the potential for a well-rounded public-private operation here one day.

My fingers are crossed that a group can pull together, with the philanthropic resources needed, and pull off an even better version of what I envisioned. 

  

Until then, we grow!  

So if you're interested in helping support this "little farm that could", and has since 2008, join our CSA today! You can join for yourself, or, sponsor a family that struggles to afford access to fresh, locally grown farm food. Either gift a share to someone you know, or we'll work with someone we know here locally.

 Enjoy your Thanksgiving - be grateful for the farmers and workers who made it all possible - and  

 Eat Your Food - Naturally! 

 

Farmer Marie 

What's New on the Farm?

 

Just thought I'd send out an update on farm life since it's all been about the disappointment of the City's dismal failure to do what the community asked and approve our re-zoning. 

Life does go on, as it has to. 

While our CSA enrollment is way down this year, likely due to all of the drama and uncertainty on top of a less than stellar summer growing season, is my guess, I'm still growing food. I've got a lovely younger farmer here helping me now, as well,  she is growing her own crops for her own uses, as she learns working with me. I've been teaching her to drive the tractor, use drip tapes for irrigation and succession planting. 

It's what I envisioned to a large degree going forward. Passing on the knowledge and experiences I have been fortunate enough to acquire over my lifetime. We have some pretty fun conversations - she seems to laugh a lot - maybe I should look into stand up and simply describe various life events? 

I guess you could say my journey has been anything but ordinary. I mean I started out like any normal kid, I guess. Then, I moved pretty far from home, which was the first out of ordinary thing I did. But I was not in love with winter weather and I was ready to move to a warmer place. 

Down here, I ended up finding the cutest little "house in the woods" of south east Dallas, where I spent many years and held many different jobs. Eventually, I ended up here where I am now, and farming, and of course that's what the majority of our chats are about. 

How I never intended to become a farmer. That all was unplanned. But, as I've said many times, it's been the most gratifying "job" I've held. And if my school of hard knocks lessons can help someone else, it's worth all of the messes, cuts and bruises, miscalculations and mistakes. 

Buying this land was just meant to be an investment during a time when I was preparing for my eventual retirement.  I never dreamed how attached to the place I'd end up becoming. Nor, that I'd end up living here. But here we are! It's made for some interesting chats. 

So this week while planting and watering and weeding, among other things, we've been talking about how cool it would be if a non-profit organization could take over the place and create a permanent base for several local food-oriented groups. That would mean selling to them, instead of some commercial developer sure not to take as much care about the trees, the land and the natural environment. 

I hear all of the time about different groups that have to pull up stakes and move their operations - over and over again. It's not only expensive, but it's disheartening to watch all of the work put into a place left behind. Community gardens, the infrastructure that can't be moved, and all of the work put into the soil of growing and livestock operations. It's not at all like packing up some office into boxes. 

So how much better would it be for each of say, two or three groups to come together with their missions and divvy up the place - under one parent organization that could act as a sort of property manager for them? They'd have a board made up of some new people, some folks from each of the existing boards and hire an independent director. They'd each pay into the parent organization to fund the (part time, so it's not a drain on the funds), director - maybe a retired and experienced person. 

That would free up the individual directors to run their organizations and not worry about collecting rent from any vendors, paying property taxes and utility bills, etc. They'd handle capital improvements, too. Perimeter fencing, the bones of the farm house restoration like plumbing, windows, exterior, insulation. 

One group could then could finish out the inside and turn the old house into a market store/coffee shop and use it also to hold classes, feature local artists, artisanal foods, etc. Another group that focuses on livestock husbandry could use the vast pasture for small livestock/chickens - and, it would create an opportunity to launch a mobile "processing" facility, too. Small farms need access to small processors. And there's plenty of room for portable office space!

Of course agri-tourism would be a big part of the income - seasonal long table dinners, field trips - both for kids and adults.   Cooking classes, growing classes, and so much more. I used to do much of this when I started out - but you know, it's hard when you're also the only one to plan and execute it all - ON TOP of doing all of the growing. 

So, my advice came with a warning not try to do it all on one's own. I've been a serial entrepreneur I guess you could say, so it never really crossed my mind to become a non-profit. But I can now, looking back, see the benefits of spreading the work out over many people who have a vested interest. 

I've had lots of folks volunteer over the years, that's for sure. But most of the planning and coordinating was on my shoulders. I sometimes wonder how much more good Eden's could have done with a board and team behind it. Now it is time to pass on the baton and I'd love it if it was to someone who dared to see. 

In the mean time, we've planted transplants of collards, cauliflower, broccoli, even a late crop of summer squash, peppers, eggplant and a cucumber plant we hope to get some goodies off of before a hard freeze. We've seeded bush beans, arugula, lettuce, and peas. And our other remote farmer has been working on getting the high tunnel in shape for our winter growing. He's a much more experienced grower and pretty much just does his own thing, but we're glad to have him around when he's here - he uses his BCS to till up land for us when we need it and has been gracious with letting us use some of his supplies. He's like the Batman of small farming - he's got all the cool toys! 

I just popped about 20 eggs into the incubator after discovering a nest that would never have survived the small night time critters that frequent the place. My back yard is a highway for skunk, opossum and raccoons - and this little white hen was RIGHT in their path.  So, I'll help her out and see if we can't hatch them for her inside where it's a lot safer. 

We've got more starts in the little "seed-house" that'll be ready to transplant in a few weeks. I've got some garlic to order from @Texas Tested Seeds, and I got my onion slips pricing in this week, too. 

And then it won't be long before it's time to start tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and artichokes.  The growing cycle continues whether the City Council lets us build starter homes or not. And we have spaces available in our CSA so if you've been thinking about how to help support this little local farm - sponsoring a local family or buying a CSA membership for yourself is a great way to start! 

Badger, our calendar dog, needs to get over his fear of loading up in the truck because he's due to go see the vet. And we have a couple of cats that are due for check ups as well. I wonder if my large animal vet who comes to treat the horses would do all of the animals at once? That would save a lot of anxiety on poor Badger. He wouldn't even climb up in the cab - for a piece of STEAK! 

He got to meet one of my friends the other day and was making silly faces when she was trying to take a selfie with him. He's like the Mrs. Kravitz of the farm you see - he's got to keep an eye on everything all of the time - so he wouldn't focus on the camera lens. hahaha But he's a keeper, just the same. 

So, that's just a little update on what's rattling around my head and been going on here at the farm.  I hope your getting your fall garden in, too. Growing your own is one way to help take the edge off the grocery bill and be assured of how your food is grown.  

 

Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Farmer Marie