Cool amazing rainy May!

May came in with some beautiful cool weather and a surprise few days of rain and thunderstorms. From the past six years of living here I always remember May starting in the 90s and rising quickly to 100 but this year has been a wonderful cool blessing. We had so much rain in the start of the month that Aravaipa Creek started to run again!

Obviously our summer crops were loving all the precipitation. Our squash has been blossoming away and we even harvested our first zuchinni a few days ago.

The tomatoes have been exploding with blossoms and tons of baby green tomatoes. Even the plants that were damaged a few weeks ago with cold weather have been coming back with a vegence.

The bush beans have been putting out the most beautiful purple blossoms and the tiny beans are so cute.

The sunflowers have been growing so fast, some are almost 3 feet tall! We planted a variety of different sunflowers and zinnias for our cut flower bouquets. We are going to have a very colorful market table this summer.

The first part of the month we spent clearing out all the old winter crops. I weed whacked in between the overgrown rows and harvested anything we had left. The fridge is still stuffed with turnips. We believe it is important to keep grass and organic matter growing between and on top of old rows to protect the precious soil from blowing away. It works great as long as we keep on top of it so anything growing doesn't overtake newly planted rows.

The mushrooms are still producing beautifully, even in the warmer weather. We are hoping to keep producing through June. It may be a challenge in the new greenhouse when it reaches 100+ out but we shall see. It is all new territory in this grow house, lets cross our fingers that it can take the heat! Thats all for now, thanks for checking in! -Nicole & Andrew

Its been a great two weeks with my parents here. Looking back on all we accomplished with them is awesome! My Dad really worked hard on the mushroom area. He built a drainage furrow for the used mushroom water to feed a baby cottonwood tree...

An awesome water system that feeds the swamp cooler in the greenhouse and our hose system for the mushroom tanks...

And organized the whole area to make mushroom log making super easy!

Dad also made a row around a mesquite tree and Andrew planted gourds there. Its going to look beautiful once they start sprouting.

We also got the mower going! All it needed was a new battery and a tune-up. We got the yard looking great and now we can walk through without the weeds blowing pollen in our faces..yay!

We all organized the tools, got the washer/dryer going, cleaned up the old mobile home along with countless other projects. They were an awesome help and now they just need to come out here full time! Now to veggies. The carrots and beets have been amazing. We've made some really good stews and roasted them with chicken. YUM!

Next up for harvest is bush beans (green), tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, summer squash, zucchinni, FLOWERS (zinnias & sunflowers) and basil. We got all of our summer stuff in so now its just watering & weeding. Stay tuned :) -Nicole & Andrew

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