Mid-summer monsoony dreams....

Our days have been filled with analyzing the weather patterns, obsessing over the barometric pressure and crossing our fingers for daily monsoons. When the sky darkens and the clouds open up we breath a sigh of relief that we do not have to water!

Luckily in Arizona we have two summer seasons which means we can have two plantings of summer crops. These last few weeks we got tons of new squash, beans, watermelons and flowers in the ground. We are kind of in between right now as our early summer crops fade out and our new plantings take hold. Right now its all about keeping the weeds at bay and making sure our babies get enough water. We expanded into our second field for our monsoon plantings and the soil over there is incredible. The previous owners had horses for many years so the land is well fertilized.

We have some early summer crops that are chugging along like the Long Island Cheese pumpkins. I love these fairytale style pumpkins and they are super delicious with a sweet light orange flesh. Plus they hail from our home, Long Island, so I love them even more. We have so many growing and the patch continues to expand out with new blossoms.

Boy are we having fun with the zinnias. Not only are they epic producers, lovers of the desert environment, but the bees and butterflies go crazy for them! We have a mellow natural bee hive in one of the cottonwood trees and its clear they are sticking around this summer because of the zinnias. Also Andrew planted some mammoth sunflowers by the mushroom greenhouse that they love. We are drying the heads to sell at market so keep your eyes out for them.

And no, we haven't forgot about mushrooms! This week we are cleaning out the greenhouse and getting ready to start making logs to be ready sometime in September. The next few weeks will bring us weeding, weeding and more weeding and hopefully many more sunsets like these.....

Thanks for reading and see you at the market! -Nicole, Andrew, Willy & Big Girl

Hello Monsoons!

The monsoon season came in late June to everyone's surprise. Usually it rolls in about the 4th of July but it came a bit early making for some very happy farmers. The smell of summer rain is intoxicating. The sunsets, clouds and lightening they bring is slowly making summer my favorite season.

Andrew was excited to get the tiller out once the ground softened up. We received our seeds right in time and have lots of beds planted with more squash, black eyed peas, basil, okra, cucumbers and zinnias among other things. Speaking of zinnias the ones we have planted have really begun to flourish. We started selling bouquets at the market and people have been loving them!

We also planted a few new rows of sunflowers. The branching sunflowers have been doing great, we are harvesting the heads to dry and sell as bird feeders. The butterflies, bees and hummingbirds have been busy pollinating the entire garden. The flowers have really helped to attract them.

Oh! And the crenshaw melons have ripened! These melons are INCREDIBLE! The flesh goes right up to the skin so you get so much sweet fruit from one melon. We may just end up eating them all ourselves. Our heirloom tomato crop has been producing like crazy. We love that our friend Charlie (of Aravaipa Heirlooms), down the canyon, grew all the seedlings. These are true Aravaipa Canyon tomatoes! We have been picking tons of them every two days and they have been selling great at the markets.

The next few weeks will bring more planting and LOTS of weeding and LOTs more harvesting from our early summer crops. Hopefully as it starts to cool off more we can get mushrooms going. I know many customers are missing them but with the new green house its just TOO hot in there. Thanks for reading :) -Nicole & Andrew