PePe Le Peeeew

So earlier in the season we were having issues with what I thought was a bandit groundhog taking a single bite out of each of my eggplant.  So I got one of those live traps (seen in the very left of the above pic) and put it in the lower field in hopes of catching him so's I could relocate him,  I'd placed the trap about 2 months ago, baited it with a fresh red bell pepper and left it.  Nothing ever happened with it and I'd kinna forgotten about it.  Yesterday, while out spreading some Milky Spore to combat the Japanese Beetle, Dora (the Dog) comes trotting up and a wave of skunk scent hit me.  Dora knew she'd been hit by a stink bomb as she has a pretty sensitive sniffer. She was rolling her nose and head around on the ground going 'oh god oh god get it off! get it off!'.  Once she'd determined that I couldn't magically make the horrible smell go away she went off to go seek relief elsewhere.  I kept doing what I was doing and made a mental note to look up skunk remedies before I let her in the truck again.  As I got down to the lower part of the field my eye caught movement from the trap and after my mini-heart attack I saw it was the skunk in the trap.  I went back to the barn, got some telescoping poles and let the little dude go free.  He was pretty hungry and went straight to looking for food as he worked his way back to the woods.

Here's a link to the article that saved the skunks life, cuz I had the .22 with me in case the results from my search of "What do skunks eat" was "primarily they eat garden crops planted by human males whose name begins with B" but, as it turns out, they eat mostly grubs and bugs and rodents so :  Skunks are okay for crops, most of the time.

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WE'RE SMALL TIME NOW!!!

So our little local paper did a story on us!  Check it out.  In there you'll see mentioned some topics that I'll expand upon once the growing season winds down and I have more time to type.

Here's the link:
http://www.yourfoxchapel.com/herald/article/farm-stand-brings-fresh-produce-blawnox-nearby-residents

As for tomorrow's farm stand, we're at the Blawnox Community Field and new this week we have Baby Bok Choi, Butternut Squash, and bundles of firewood in bigger and cheaper bundles than you'll get at Giant Eagle AND it comes with a fire-starter block (not sure if the GE ones do that or not.)

See you tomorrow!

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Planting Winter Cover Crops in Western PA

So, it's apparently about that time.  Once a bed is finished for the growing season the least ideal thing for you to do is to put it to bed for the winter with bare un-rejuvenated soil.  That's why you hear growers talk about cover crops.  Cover cropping is basically where you take a bed that is resting and grow something on it that serves a purpose whether it is erosion control, weed suppression or adding nutrients to the soil.  We chosen to use a "Hairy Vetch/Rye" combo this year on the farm with our beds that are coming out of summer production.  Technically we're in the last few days that this mix can be planted as it needs a certain amount of time to establish vegetative growth in the fall before it goes dormant during the winter and explodes back into growth in the early spring while the fields are still too wet and cold to be worked for other crops.  It's then that you till that vegetative growth into the soil as green manure or just roll it down as a weed suppressing mulch.  Here's a link to the guys at Rodale who did a really great write up on it.  (Almost) never too late to plant hairy vetch.

Photo from Rodale Institute

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Saving Watermelon Seeds

If you are among those lucky enough to have purchased one of our Moon and Stars melons, you may be wondering what to do after the deliciousness? Well, aside from coming out and buying another Orb of Tastiness next Saturday at our stand (we'll be down at the Blawnox Community Field, next to the high rise from 9AM-1PM) you can save the seeds from your Tasty-Session and plant them next May/June and grow your own melon vines.
As you eat the melons, spit the seeds into a cup, when done, pour the seeds into a stainless steel strainer and swirl them around under running water with your finger.  Once they're cleaned off pour them into a cup and fill with water, remove any seeds that float to the top then pour them back into the strainer.  Shake/swirl to remove as much moisture as possible then dump them out onto a piece of wax paper and leave them in a dry room with good air circulation.  Give them a stir with your finger twice a day for week and then when they are dry enough to snap in two when bent, go ahead and put them into a paper envelope and store in a cool dry area till middle of next spring and you can grow your own tastiness!  Refer back to this post where you can find a link to the seed company where we got ours from.

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Blawnox Farm Stand: 04SEP10

We'll be located at the War Memorial tomorrow 9AM to 1PM at the corner of Freeport Rd. and North Ave..

New this week will be the premier of the Moon and Stars Melon

Some red and green Thai Chili peppers that will weld your face shut they are so hot.

And the normal goodness we usually have.

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