Mega-Post

Wow! Its been a month with no updates and we have good reason for that. We finally moved! Got all our stuff out of the little casita and moved into an even quirkier little casita on a ranch next to Catalina State Park. Its a fun place filled with horses, chickens, a hysterical goose named Edgar & a bunch of cool people living in equally quirky adobes.

In addition to moving our personal lives we had a mushroom farm to fully get up to our land. Two UHaul trucks and many hours hauling old mushroom logs and equipment from Tucson to Aravaipa we finally got it all done! Just in time for my Mom & Dad to arrive. WHEW! The are both here right now and helping out immensely. My Dad can fix just about everything and my Mom is a great organizer and helper, its been amazing having them here! Now to just make it permanent... :)

Now onto things that we are growing. We picked up about 80 heirloom tomato plants from our friend down the canyon. He runs an heirloom seed company (Araviapa Heirlooms)with his wife and we are super excited to be growing heirlooms this summer. We got the all in the ground with help from Melanie & Alex, volunteers of ours, and they are growing fast already with this warm weather.

The root veggies are still going strong. Our beets, turnips, carrots & radishes make for a beautiful display at the Farmers Market. The colors are so vibrant and the taste, mmmm, so earthy and sweet.

The beans have been sprouting so fast, it feels like we just planted them. Also with the help of my parents and our volunteers we were able to make a ton of new rows and plant summer squash, basil, sunflowers, zinnias and pumpkins this week. I am very excited to be selling cut flowers at market this summer.

I'm sure this week with my parents here we will get even more done so I'll have lots to post about. Thanks for reading :) --Nicole

Shedapalooza & Turnipocalypse

Wednesday was mushroom shed moving day and what an adventure that was. Our beast of a shed weighed 8000 lbs! Gary from Apache Towing was a rock-star and with all odds against him he managed to wrangle the beast and get it all in one piece up to the property. What a relief! It sits all comfy in its new home and soon we'll be putting it back to work.

The warmer temps last week have our arugula and tat-soi flowering. Veggies make the prettiest flowers! We picked our first spring bouquet today.

The purple top turnips have been going crazy! We have so many of them its ridiculous. Turnip soup, steamed turnips, pickled turnips. The greens are incredible as well so don't throw them out! The chard is coming along although we had some deer damage to some of the plants. Still plenty left and they are going strong.

See you next time! -Nicole & Andrew

Spring Time

Hello and welcome to our first blog post! Spring has come early to our farm. Lots of rain in Aravaipa Valley then above average temperatures has everything growing like crazy, including the cottonwood trees! Its been awesome to drive down the San Pedro Valley and see the ribbon of bright spring green. Its wonderful to sit under our cottonwoods and look up into the baby leaves during a mid-day siesta.

The vegetables are going strong here. Our sugar snap peas have been producing the most delicious crunchy peas. The beets are almost ready for harvest and Andrew was able to sample a baby beet last week. So sweet!

We finally got around to purchasing an Earthway Seeder! This tool is amazing and cuts down on so much planting time. It plants and covers seeds simultaneously and Andrew has been having a blast with it.

This week we are moving up our mushroom shed from Tucson. That means we will be able to really get cranking on producing tons of Oyster Mushrooms for our markets! We have been making mushroom logs in Tucson then driving them up to the Farm to fruit, so this final move will make our lives much easier. Our carrots are looking amazing! I cannot wait to eat the first one. Also the spinach is coming along and will be ready for harvest soon.

The ladybugs are out in force! They are our first defense against many types of bugs and they love our tatsoi and radishes.

See you next time! --Nicole