Yellow root , the Spring, and Jumping Boys

Up early and ready to pick purple hull peas today and then off to the farmers market . While we were cleaning the spring out we found we had a huge amount of yellow root which from what the sources indicate is the same as golden seal. We will make tinctures and salves with it. We want to get the spring ready for our own use soon.Ron and Seth probably scooped the mud out which was probably 18" thick. The spring hadn't been used in years.
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Fall/Winter CSA and Summer pie recipe

Here is a great raw food frozen pie recipe: It is called Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie but you use carob instead of chocolate. make a crust with 1/2 c. raw walnuts ,1 c dates and 1/2 c coconut- blend without water or use 3 T water) in blender until powdery and a little sticky- press into pie pan. Place almond butter in pie shell.
In food processor or blender add: 2 large avocadoes or 3 small ones; 1.3 c. carob powder; 1 c. pure maple syrup (or agave syrup, honey or dates.)
Blend until creamy, If you want darker chocolate taste, add more carob. If you wnat it sweeter, add more maple syrup, agave, or honey. Pour mix on top of the almond butter. If desire, crumble 2 T of crust on top of pie for garnish. Place in freezer overnight. Do not use in glass pie pan. Glass gets too cold and makes it difficult to remove the pie.
Fall/Winter seedlings are started: cabbage, broc, leeks, cauliflower, celery,melons. We drove over to Smiths Grove to visit with Paul Wideger who wrote the book on High Tunnel Gardening. He was very generous with his time and answered a lot of questions that we had. He does a lot of mesculin lettuce, radishes, carrots, turnips, leafy greens, tomatoes and strawberries. Tomatoes and strawberries are ready a full month ahead of everybody else. This is done with no heat. He does have an inflation fan in the high tunnel so that is one source of electricity. We will plant some lettuce and spinach- keep the ground cooled by keeping it wet and planting in the evening. Paul sprouts his spinach before he plants it. We will try that. So much to do.
Off to the farmers market tomorrow. More melons and purple hulls to sell then we will have a break. We are trying to get more organized so that there are few breaks during the season. We are also trying to extend the farmers market for the winter. Will have to network with other vendors to see the possibilities.
For our CSA we are networking with others to provide artisan bread, jams, maple syrup, goats milk soap, possibly honey along with our produce. herbandplow.com

Rain. We needed it and now we have had it for the last 3 days, but who is complaining. Forget the market today but tomorrow we go to market with our fresh corn, potatoes,peppers, & green beans. By the end of the week we will have melons. Our CSA brochures and Homestead Dream Maker brochures should go to print this week. We are planting for our extended fall and winter garden: cabbage, melons, tomatoes, broccoli, cauli, eggplant, leeks, peppers and more. Everything will be started in trays- even the huge variety of lettuce. Everything except carrots and kolrahbi Anybody interested in extended gardening must read Elliot Coleman's books. They are excellent. A good seed source is from Johnny's seeds; their quality is excellent and they are generous with info and advise for the seasoned and aspiring gardener. Can't wait to taste those french melons.
Succession planting and hoop tunnels will extend our market garden and pulverize our grocery bill .
My Market Gardening article will be published in the July/August edition of Rural Heritage. More articles are in the making. This is fun.

Seed order from Johnnys seed for this fall accomplished. Garden is doing well. Praying for rain. 60% chance today and tonight. Planted cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, cleery, cukes, tomatoes in trays to transplant for fall garden. We will operate a CSA from September until May.
We will start digging the pond in a few weeks in the smaller creek bed. Great area, shaded, wet will hold water well and be essential for irrigation. Cleaned out the spring now we have to rebuild the walls-great supplemental water.
We have been accepted for the certified naturally grown status. Our farm will have to be inspected then we are official.
Lots to do. Salves to make and CSA and Homestead Dream Makers brochures to distribute. This should be posted on HerbandPlow.com, too.

We have been doing the farmers markets this week and enjoyed meeting the friendly people. We are also working on our CSA brochure for the fall/winter 2011 season. Also in the make is the brochure for our homesteading projects. We are offering services to build a self sufficient home and prepare individual homesteads for self sufficient living whether it be capturing their spring, designing their gardens or building their house, wood sheds, barns, etc. Included in this post are some pics of our new post and beam and the market garden.

Hurry Up and Wait and then Hurry.....

That seems to be how gardening is: Hurry up and wait and then hurry....
We are in the thick of the season. We harvest about 20 pounds of spring lettuce a week. We wish we had planted more. We sell it for $5.50 a pound. We have also been selling new potatoes, green beans, squash and beets. We are informally starting a CSA- hope to create a nice community market for that.
We are having fun meeting new folks through the market garden. We put a produce sign out at the end of the driveway yesterday, and sold a bunch of beets and green beans and best of all met a new neighbor. We like this area more and more.
Tomorrow we go to the Farmers Market in Knoxville with beets, gr. beans, lettuce, sprouts, potatoes, squash and cukes.
We will go for our kitchen certification also. Who knows what we will come up with . Lots of ideas rolling around.
Still have small things to finish on the house and Ron has a remodeling job- not good timing but thankful anyways.
We are continuing to work on our website: HerbandPlow as a homesteading educational site. Big on ideas little on time.

Right after we moved into the house, we drove over to see our daughter, Sarah who is 6 months pregnant. She looks great and is so excited. Then we drove down to Charleston, SC to see my 88 year-old mother. She is amazingly spry and can keep up on a 1 1/2 mile walk with no problem. Enjoyed the beach and surf, too.

We have moved in to our new home. Still a few odds and ends to finish. The garden is flourishing. Preparing for insect and fungus problem by having Gardens Alive Shield-All and rotenone/pyrethium on hand.

We are selling about 10 pounds of spring lettuce a week. New potatoes, greens, beets, onions and yellow squash are coming on, too.
Our article in Rural Heritage was in the May/June addition. I am working on another now for Rural, Market Gardening and signed a contract with BackHome Magazine for my article, Finding a Usable Piece of Land. I am not sure when it will be published.

Going after the weeds systematically every day makes it much easier. If we weed something everyday, we are not overwhelmed with huge weed patches and the garden is so beautiful.