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Posts Tagged ‘Oceana County’
Saturday, October 23rd, 2010
You may be wondering why there are some photos of a field with yellow flowers on our home page. Dave grew a special variety of mustard on this field, for a special purpose. A nasty pest (nematode) lives in the soil; it is a microscopic worm that feeds on the roots of desirable crops. Dave is trying a new method for managing this pest. By growing this special variety of mustard to full bloom, then chopping it and plowing it into the ground right away, Dave hopes to kill the nematodes. He tried it last fall on another piece of ground, but the early cold last year did not allow the mustard to fully mature. This year, the crop of mustard looks great! Dave is always looking for sustainable agricultural practices that are suitable for our crops here in Oceana County!
Tags: mustard, nematodes, Oceana County, sustainable agriculture
Posted in On the Farm | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
You know it’s getting toward the end of summer when local melons are ripe! The photos of our farm in Oceana County on our homepage include some of our melons (we have both orange-fleshed and green-fleshed melons, sweet and juicy), one of our watermelons (we grow several varieties), a close-up of apples showing the typical freckling of SweeTango(R) apples that are turning red (we hope these will make the grade to earn the name!), one of our young orchards which will produce some SweeTango(R) apples around the first of September (the apples will be nice and red by then!), and two photos of peaches ripening. You may notice the stubs of branches near a couple of the peaches. Summer pruning is done on peaches; branches without fruit (often growing straight up) are removed to prevent them from shading the fruit. Peaches need to see plenty of sunshine to develop their beautiful color and juicy sweet flavor.
Tags: apples, juicy, local, melons, Oceana County, On the Farm, orchards, peaches, ripe, sweet, SweeTango(R), watermelons
Posted in On the Farm | No Comments »
Saturday, August 7th, 2010
We’ve just started harvesting some of our watermelon, grown right on our farm in Oceana County! The early and hot weather has brought them to the point of sweet and juicy ripeness! We have personal-size (about the size of a soccer ball) as well as the traditional size watermelons. We also are well into our cantaloupe season, and they are aromatic, sweet, juicy and flavorful! You can select personal-size (about the size of a softball) or traditional size melons; all are good! Dave loves melons, so he selects the best varieties to grow, and nurtures them with care. He trains our workers to pick the melons at their peak quality and ripeness, so you know you’ll get a good one, whichever you select! If you try to shop local, it doesn’t get more local than this!
Tags: cantaloupe, juicy, local, Oceana County, ripe, sweet, watermelon
Posted in At the Market, On the Farm | No Comments »
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
You say “toe-may-toe”, and I say “toe-mah-toe”–but we all say “Hooray!” because tomato season has arrived here in Oceana County! Our vine-ripened tomatoes are now available at our market. Just a tip–the very ripest ones get snagged right away, so pick up some today for this weekend’s BLTs, and let them get that much riper on your counter at home. Oh, boy, we’ve been waiting for this farm fresh flavor!
Tags: flavor, fresh, Oceana County, On the Farm, tomatoes, vine-ripened
Posted in At the Market, On the Farm | No Comments »
Monday, July 19th, 2010
The plentiful rain and abundant sunshine we’ve had this spring and summer have made this year’s sweet corn absolutely delicious! Even our earliest variety is very sweet and tasty, and tender, of course! Here in Oceana County (and Hart, specifically) we have received rainfall when other parts of West Michigan have not. If you take a drive north, you can see the telltale signs of insufficient rainfall–cornstalks that are yellow and brown, and leaves on the cornstalks that stick spikily up instead of flopping over. Be sure to enjoy the best crops of summer–and that includes corn on the cob! We start picking our sweet corn early every morning, so you get that fresh flavor!
Tags: fresh, Hart, Oceana County, sweet corn, West Michigan
Posted in At the Market, On the Farm | No Comments »
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