12JUL30

Greetings from Baker Heritage Farms;

Success in our test garden! While it seems that anyone - and everyone - can grow zucchini squash, at Baker Heritage Farms it is a milestone. Remember, we are working with totally virgin land with no fertilizer or other amendments. We had our first successful harvest this past Saturday, harvesting approximately 20 zucchini and 3 patty pan squash.

First Harvest

Apparently we have not searched hard enough for production, as there did not appear to be any growing the week before; however, one of the zucchini was 15 inches long and 4 pounds. The first one David picked was about 3.1 pounds and was 12 inches long.

First Zucchini Picked

We will now be harvesting every two to three days, as there are plenty of blooms on the plants.

Squash Blooms

Our pickers were very active and found numerous squash hiding under the plants.

Our Pickers

Hiding

Even the dog had a hard day on the farm (it was a hot day).

Spunky

We are patiently waiting for more Patty Pan as that seems to be in high demand. But we see promise.

Patty Pan Blooming

Both watermelon patches seem to be doing well as are the pumpkins. There is some concern as we noticed squash bugs and they are not easy to get rid of. We will have to try hand picking them off of the plants soon.

We have several rows of beans that appear to be healthy. We will need to string them up next Saturday to help them along.

We have concluded that we will not be having tomatoes or corn this year. We lost one tomato plant to disease and one to weather, leaving only two left, and they do not seem to be growing, and the season is about over. The corn does not seem to be maturing.

We did get our soil sample tests back (see previous post) and, as we expected, the field tests were not all that good. There is more organic matter in the test garden as it is below the pond and has trees on two sides, which probably accounts for what success we have had.

We are starting to determine what crops we will plant next year. We will use this information as well as the soil test results to determine what winter cover crop we will plant this year.

We were not sure how we would break up the soil in the Horticulture Section as it is compacted and very hard. We had a hard rain Thursday and David and Donald went down to the section to see if it could be tilled and their test was successful. It will not be an easy task but it can be tilled after sufficient rainfall. The section will need to be mowed again and the tiller serviced so that we are ready each time it rains (1.5 acres will need to be tilled).

The next concern is how we will irrigate it.

Until next week,

Blessings from Baker Heritage Farms