Midsummer Update

I’ve been so busy this summer that I wanted to give a quick update!

The day that you’re reading this I will have just started a new job which will give me more money for buying plants and nursery stock but with slightly less time to work on it all. It’s a trade-off I’m willing to make for now.

We’ve had a pretty bad extended heat wave this entire season so far and we went through a long period of a stage 3 drought, so things have not been growing ideally to say the least.

Tree Sale

Back in the spring I sold a bunch of fruit trees to people in the community, and you all really turned out for it! Thank you so much to everyone who bought them!

This fall I hope to do another tree sale if I can order plants in time, but the specifics will have to wait until I hear from you all what you’d like to buy!

Nursery Plans

Part of my collecting various plants and varieties is so that at a future date I can start an edible perennial plant nursery (in true David The Good fashion).

I have a list of everything I’d like to carry eventually, and I really think there could be a good market for it even if it’s just one of a handful of agrarian enterprises that collectively equal a full-time income.

I will likely have some popular named varieties of the classics since I know people expect that in the area, but I also want to have seed-grown saplings and more obscure, food-forestry plants.

My goal is to carry regionally adapted fruits and nuts along with supporting plants and perennial herbs.

Project Updates

Watermelon Landrace

Obviously, there isn’t a lot of interesting results yet, but I do have some observations to share:

Firstly, the ants seem to prefer the yellow varieties but haven’t touched any of the other ones. The fruits of the variety called “lemon drop” (which has yellow skin and flesh) was eaten up completely by ants while less than 4 inches across. My guess is that this is because of the sugar content but I honestly don’t know the reason for the preference.

That said, there are a few groups of plants that look stunted and likely won’t produce anything but there are a handful of plants with healthy looking fruits and distinctly different looks that seem to be doing well!

The only downside is that I won’t be able to eat the watermelon this year (I’ll explain below).

Tomato Trials

So, we’ve been having a rough time with tomatoes this year and it sounds like most people in the area are.

While the plants are alive, I’m not seeing as many fruit sets on any variety we’re growing as I’d like to see, and it seems to be fairly late in the season to not have ripe fruit yet.

The drought has been pretty rough on the plants even with constant watering.

This heat has been brutal. Unlike other regions, when it gets hot here in the Midwest, it also gets wildly humid which results in a very uncomfortable funky heat that feels thick and makes you tired and lose fluids very fast.

All that to say, we’ll see what luck we have with tomatoes this year, but I don’t have high hopes.

My mix of tomato seeds from Joseph Lofthouse’s mix also did not come up this spring so I may have to try again more carefully.

Plot #2

Thankfully, we live right near Plot #2 right now so that means I can keep a close eye on everything.

Currently these tomatoes are the ones that look the best, and thanks to my mom we have plenty of variety. The peppers are struggling, but we’ve had great success with beans, carrots, blackberries, raspberries, elderberry, basil, nasturtium, and our immature fruit trees are taking the drought very well so far.

We’ve doubled the space in this plot and laid down some new mulch, and it looks very presentable for the client who owns the property!

Plot #3

This plot is where I have my watermelon landrace.

The watermelons look good as I mentioned above, however one unfortunate development has occurred: an herbicide company mistakenly sprayed my garden area.

I’m working with the people who apparently hired the company and to the best of my knowledge it was a complete accident. Thankfully none of my plants have actually died, but even according to the conventional label the spray is not considered anywhere near “food safe” so I won’t be able to eat anything from that garden this year.

Next year it should be safe to plant in, but I don’t feel comfortable eating the produce or sharing it with others after knowing the chemicals they sprayed.

Garlic Sales

Lastly, I decided last-minute to list a bunch of garlic for sale rather than just use it for growing stock and within hours of listing it I had sold out! Thank you to everyone who bought garlic this year, we had a great harvest compared to previous years!

Next year I will have more garlic since there is apparently an insatiable appetite for the stuff.

Also, shoutout to my mom once again for saving the day and giving us the new well-performing variety after we’d accidentally tainted our old stock years back.

Thanks for your continued support, I appreciate everyone who reads this newsletter and everyone who buys our plants and produce no matter how small scale we are! Every little bit helps.

What plants are you most interested in us carrying next year or by fall of this year? Reply to this email or comment on the article to let me know!