Wednesday, August 22, 2012

12AUG22

Greetings to all;

It appears that our garden is still growing, which is a good thing.

David went down and took pictures of our newest products - a few watermelon and the first pumpkin. Unfortunately, due to limited internet access, no photos can be posted at this time.

David is catching up on the hen house, the floor has been completed and the sides and roof that are constructed have been painted. Once the rest of the roof and front are completed and painted, the fencing project will start. We will be working to ensure that predators will not be able to gain access to the chicken coop, at least from the ground.

The weather has improved substantially, with a good rainfall in the past week and lower temperatures. Work will start in ernest on the fields in a couple of weeks.

Once the internet can be accessed in the normal fashion, we will be posting photos of craft items that have been made, and we will also be starting to post recipes for dishes made with farm products.

Blessings to all from Baker Heritage Farms.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

NOTICE - COMMENTS

We have been asking people to post their comments (especially suggestions, recommendations, but even constructive criticism); however, we failed to notice that comments were restricted to members only. This has been corrected, so please feel free to leave comments.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Please feel free to post.

Baker Heritage Farms

12AUG15

Greetings from Baker Heritage Farms in Eastern Oklahoma (for those who have just joined us)!

You may have noticed that this posting, as well as last weeks, have been made in the middle of the week. This is due to business commitments that must come first so that we can continue to support the farm. Postings will be sporadic for the next several weeks due to these commitments, but we hope to be back to normal by winter (whatever normal is).

Debbie, David, and Elizabeth went down to the test garden today and found out that we now have watermelon and cucumbers. We expect to see some pumpkins pretty soon as there are a number of blooms on the vines, and the pole beans are doing good as well.
Pole Beans (and other plants and weeds)
Cucumber
Watermelon
And our one remaining sunflower even seems to be doing well after being eaten by deer.

Lone Sunflower
When they returned from the garden they brought up more zucchini and patty pan squash, and when David finished the watering, he brought up some small cucumber's that had separated from the vine.

We now know that we can grow vegetables, which was the initial purpose of our test garden. Our test garden is starting to show the results of the draught, but fortunately most of the plants were of decent size to withstand the hardship. Now we are just waiting to see how well everything was pollinated. It is possible that we are doing as well as we are due to planting so late. Most of the problems we have been hearing about are from pollination issues, and we have had a lot of good activity in that area (except for the corn). It has started to cool down considerably and hopefully we will continue our bountiful harvest.

David and Donald did some work on the production fields in Section I this past weekend. They are getting ready to prepare it for tilling so they can plant winter cover crops. They also worked on "Dory's Plot" and broke up more of a very large pine tree that was blown down in the tornado in early 2011(it was already dead from a lightening strike the year before). Donald also started mowing the hay in Section II so they can remove the mower and put the box blade back on. He ran short of fuel so decided to end early and hope diesel prices go down over the next couple of weeks. Section II has to be completed, as well as the mid-hill orchard plot and the "L". Once all of those areas are mowed, the mower can be removed for the winter.

Debbie continues to work on her crocheting projects and we will try to add some pictures of her work next week. She is entering several projects in the Oklahoma/Arkansas state fair in Fort Smith, including a number of photographs she has taken as well as some of her crochet work. She has entered several times in the past and has won several awards.

Remember, farming is not only growing food, it also includes working on other projects for extra income.

While we have had our ups and downs during our first year of farming, we are pleased with the results, which makes us work all that much harder. We have learned a lot and will be using what we have learned on the production fields this spring.

Until next time,

Blessings from Baker Heritage Farms

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

12AUG08

Greetings;

This is a late update.

Due to the heat and work schedules, very little farm work has been done.

We have not been affected by the draught as much as many of the areas around us; however, it has been very hot. David has been watering the test garden about every 5 days now, and we are able to keep it green and growing. Debbie, David, and Elizabeth went down Monday to gather more squash and tie up the beans.

Donald is in Sloan, Iowa this week surrounded by corn fields. It is amazing that both corn and soy beans are growing after the floods last year (they said it would take about 3 years for the soil to rebound); however, it is reported that, while the corn stalks appear to be full size (much taller than 2010) the actual corn cobs are dwarfed and not growing to full size.

David has started to work on the hen house again as the weather permits. Hopefully the hen house and fencing will be completed by the end of the year.

Actual farm work will be limited over the next few weeks due to time availability and financial uncertainty. We are actually reaching the point where we will be testing our ability to be resilient farmers. We are also getting to the point that will decide how commercial the farm will be in 2013.

Until next week - 

Baker Heritage Farms