Growing Greens

Growing greens for your health is a great way to begin to eat better for both you and your family. When I was a child, the only vegetables we ate were corn, green beans, carrots, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, and onions.

Once in a while someone in our extended family would make a pan of baked beans or some zucchini, but we did not eat anything else in our home as far as vegetables went.

Growing Greens - October 2-October 8, 2023

Monday, October 2, 2023

Matt spent most of the day planting seeds for the fall garden. We are growing greens and root crops.

Good morning. It is still dark and it is raining which is very exciting since we have had very little rain since last May. It did rain for about ten minutes yesterday which was a blessing. Anyway, I fed the dogs and cat and have been working on today's orders and the website.

It was raining when I finally got outside to take care of the animals, Matt was there and it was drizzling. We got the animals fed and watered and I got some of our feed containers filled with new animal feed so they do not get moldy.

I went back inside and got changed since I was soaking wet. Then I had a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast and got ready to go open the store.

I pulled a ton of orders. We had two visitors to the farm this morning. The first couple wanted to buy some storage bins that David is selling. The second visitor was an older man who said a friend sent him here to pick up some of our watermelons from the garden. Everyone wants our melons for free but I had us in mind when I had them planted.

Then an Amazon driver stopped by and I had to sign for four packages. None of them were even worth much so I am not sure why. It has been sprinkling throughout the day.

Matt and Brendon have been outside planting fall crops like carrots and beets all day long. It is now almost 4pm and they are still planting. It is 89° Fahrenheit and humid.

Lots of clouds over Production and the seed shacks.

It is now almost 5pm and the rain is coming down at a decent rate. We had zero in store customers but a lot of online orders.

We live 12 miles away from the closest town but when you have a farm, you can't live in town. The town has a Facebook page and someone said yesterday that the town needs a place that sells plants with people who know about them. We have been in business now for 14 years and we have been out here with a Poteet mailing address for four years. We have been licensed by the state of Texas to sell plants for about seven years. We know a lot about the seeds and plants we grow and sell.

So I saw the post and commented that we are here, right down the road and that we are licensed to sell plants. One person responded, asking if we sell Christmas trees. What?

Anyway, over 30 people responded favorably to having a plant shop in the town of Poteet. No one else said anything about our company being right here in their backyard. We are a nationally known company and we ship to all 50 states in the USA and have now for 14 years. I was told today by a local that it is because they do not know us. We have been out here for four years so why haven't the people interested in gardening come out here to meet us?

We have gone to several businesses in town over the past four years and we have sponsored several community events having to do with the Poteet Strawberry Festival yet they want nothing to do with us. We have spent several thousand dollars helping the community, the volunteer fire department, donating money to local churches for Christmas and other projects. I find it very strange to just be ignored like that.

Anyway, the thread has been taken down now. Having a plant nursery is expensive. You have to have a greenhouse to keep warm in winter and air conditioning to keep plants cool in summer plus grow lights and lots of water in the hot Texas sun. Plants are expensive and there are only so many people to buy plants locally. It takes a lot of time to plant seeds to grow plants. You need soil, pots, growing trays, good seeds, fertilizer, and more. You have to pay to register your business locally. You need to get a sales tax permit and a nursery license from the state. These things all cost money.

Then if you are in town, you need to rent a place and get utilities. You need to get a business checking account. You need to hire an accountant to help you pay the taxes monthly, quarterly, and annually. If you hire anyone, you have to match payroll deductions and pay those to the government monthly. Owning a business is a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. There are no 40 hour work weeks for business owners or the business will fail. It will be more like 80 hours a week, seven days a week if you want the business to succeed.

Tonight, we enjoyed another episode of the new Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsay. He is very entertaining. It also makes us think about where we eat when we go out. It is scary and we have eaten some questionable food. Have you?

Growing Greens

This is a variety of spinach called Corvair. Growing greens includes many different plants.

Since I married David, my vegetable world has greatly expanded. First of all, his favorite vegetable is broccoli, a vegetable I had never even tasted before we got married. I have learned to grow it, cook it, and enjoy it, along with cauliflower, squash, eggplant, and many other vegetables. David grows a lot of greens, some of which I had never before heard of. I thought that maybe there were others like me whose parents were not vegetable aficionados so I have created this page.

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

Good morning! The rain finally stopped. Nacho and his crew were here bright and early. Stickers have grown up everywhere. We dug up the sweet potatoes (or the lack of them.) To my disappointment, there was one very small piece of a sweet potato that was left behind. Out of 30 sweet potato vines, seven were left intact and I thought I would get some sweet potatoes. Those horrible gophers ate all of the sweet potatoes but left the leaves of seven plants.

This 1 piece is the only thing that comes close to a sweet potato. It is all bitten. Everything else was gone.

Where we dug for the non-existent sweet potatoes, there were tunnels from the gophers who enjoyed good meals.

I was very disappointed. I am planting the rest of my sweet potatoes and potatoes in containers. No more feeding the sorry gophers. They tear our property up constantly, eating my peanuts and sweet potatoes this year. Here is the page where I planted my sweet potatoes about 120 days ago.

Some left early & others came late but there were about 20 there for the first Small Business Meeting at Farm To Familia. Our thanks to Lynne & Richard Cruz for hosting us in their Event Center.

Today at 6pm, David had his first meeting of the Small Business Club at Farm to Familia Event Center. There were about 20 people present. I say about because five people came just as we were finishing and several others left before it was over because it was National Night Out and they had activities going on where they live. We did not.

It was a very good response to David's idea to have this new club over a month ago. It is for any local business person and when I say local, I mean any of the towns out here, not just in Atascosa County like the other business club we used to attend. We met a lot of new people who never went to the other club and it was very nice. We will meet the first Tuesday of each month.

Then we came home and I felt very tired and had a headache. I hope I am not getting sick.

Growing Greens

Growing greens includes collards on the left side of the photo from our greenhouse.

In the fall of 2012, David and I went to Walt Disney World resort for a conference and fun. At one of the restaurants at the Dolphin Hotel inside the Disney resort, I ate my first portion of collard greens. I have to tell you they were delicious. I thought they would be nasty and slimy like the canned spinach my grandmother once tried to make me eat as a child. Instead, they were seasoned and cooked with some pork in the water for flavoring and I loved them. Moral of the story? Don't be afraid to try new things.

Order your collard seeds here.

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

From the backdoor deck, part of our yard, hoop houses and then sheep next door in field.

Good Wednesday morning. My nose is stuffy and it is hot and humid outside at 7am. After the animals were taken care of by Matt, I grabbed up my potatoes with chits and sweet potato vines from the kitchen and planted them all out by the gazebo in black plastic pots and in metal troughs that we bought from Tractor Supply. Hopefully, they will be happy and produce.

Then I went back inside and cut off the rest of the vines growing from the sweet potatoes on my kitchen windowsill. I put them in fresh water, about eight of them, to root. I put the old sweet potatoes in the compost pile.

Then I stocked the store with five boxes of new seed sets after pricing them. Now I am filling orders in Fulfillment.

Nacho and his crew are here again today. I really don't know what David has them doing.

Nacho and his crew picked over 100 watermelons and pulled up all of the watermelon plants on the property. They were popping up all over. They also weeded and took care of other projects.

Someone put six boxes of seed set collections together but did not make the ones I am about out of. I sent a list over to be made. Not sure why they made the ones that I already have so many of. I priced them all and hung them up. If you would like to take a look at our seed collections, you can find them on our website under the tab "Seed Collections". They will save you money so we think they are a great idea.

This evening, Sue Ellen barfed all over the newly cleaned carpet in the den and then for good measure, she did the same in the kitchen. Clean up was a lot of fun for me.

Growing Greens

Asian greens should be considered when you are growing greens. They have good flavors and textures.

So what are greens? I always thought they were salad parts, like lettuce or cabbage. I had no idea there were more...

Greens are leafy plants from which the leaves are harvested and eaten. They do not grow additional fruits on their plants. There are about 1,000 plants that are considered to be greens. We definitely don't offer anywhere near that amount of greens seeds.

Greens are easy to grow in the garden. They take anywhere from 30 to 70 days to grow and are then ready to eat.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

Site of our new pond. See our pine trees by the fence and look at those menacing skies. We really need the rain!

Good morning! Guess what? It is pouring! I took Ethel out at 6:40am and it was sprinkling. She went and we came back inside. Soon after, it started raining heavily and it still is 40 minutes later. Matt took my new vehicle home with him last night to get me some new wiper blades. Good thing he did because he will need them this morning coming to work. It is still dark out so I have not attempted to go out to feed the chickens and rabbits.

So far, our new Easter Eggers still have not started laying. I read online that it can take up to six months before they start. The Ideal 236 birds and the Leghorns started at 14 weeks. My Ameraucanas started at four months but that was three years ago. By the way, we still have three Easter Egger roosters that need to be given away. They recently started crowing. I was supposed to have a good crew of egg layers. Instead, I ended up with seven roosters this past summer.

There is so much to do today that I do not know where to start. LOL!

Well, I cleaned up out by the chicken coops. There were a lot of plastic things for the chickens on the ground. It was lightly raining on and off after pouring so I got all of those items put away. I fed and watered the bunnies. Two of them are supposed to be bred now.

Then I started laundry and dishes and got ready for the day. I made myself some eggs and it was pouring again. I pulled orders and now I am adding listings to the Etsy shop.

I have ten dozen eggs right now in the fridge for $4 a dozen if anyone is interested. We still have six types of garlic and it is time to get that in the ground now. Out in the plant area, we have some beautiful Snake plants, Aloe Vera, and Wandering Jew as well as some Rue (Ruda), Citronella, and Morenga.We still have a few pecan fudges left and I believe there are three pecan brittles and two toffee covered pecans left in the store.

I don't expect we will have much foot traffic today since it is supposed to pour all day long but if you are in the area, we have it all right here.

It is now almost 5pm. We had two customers all day and they both wanted eggs. No seeds, no garlic, just eggs. The rain finally stopped around 3pm or so. It is much cooler. The humidity is gone and it feels cool and amazing.

Nacho and his team left around 2pm. I have been adding listings to our Etsy store all afternoon and I am tired of doing it. There is a good breeze. I have been going back and forth all day long, trying to get some laundry and dishes done in the house.

Tonight, the second episode of the new Hell's Kitchen with Chef Gordon Ramsay is on. We are big fans and it is a lot of fun to watch.

Growing Greens

This is Toscano Kale, a kind of dinosaur kale that is good to put in smoothies or to make kale chips.

Greens are the leafy portion of plants that are eaten as vegetables. Not every plant has edible leaves. Some leaves are poisonous and others just taste nasty. For instance, you can eat the greens of sweet potatoes, turnips, and beets. You cannot eat the green from regular potatoes or from rhubarb.

They are called by several names such as salad greens, potherbs, leafy greens, and vegetable greens. When properly prepared, they are nutritious, they provide the fiber your body needs, and they taste good.

Friday, October 6, 2023

This morning's sunrise looked glorious with the clouds over our dark back 40!

Good Friday morning. It is still dark out and 68°! It has not been this cool out since early spring. I went out with the dogs about an hour ago and it felt great. I need to get dressed to go out and take care of the chickens soon.

This morning, I am planning to plant my grow tower in the Farm Store again. There doesn't seem to be any time to do anything anymore, now that I am pulling orders in addition to everything else I have to do but if I don't actually take the time to do it, it won't get done. I will be growing greens like lettuce and spinach in the grow tower.

It is now 11:10am and I still have not had time to plant the grow tower. I have been filling website orders and Amazon orders. Our seed counter is out today and our envelope maker is out working in the back 40. Matt is at a dental appointment so it is just David and me.

FARM TOURS ARE BACK!

Pool deck and my greenhouse as well as the field we plan to buy soon.

It is finally cool enough for Farm Tours. As long as it stays below 90° Fahrenheit and we have someone here who can give you a tour, we will start them up again. They are $5 per person. It is an all walking tour through sand and it is not recommended for strollers and wheelchairs although it has been done. Wear tennis shoes or hiking boots, not sandals or dress shoes. There are snakes, stickers, scorpions, and spiders to deal with. Bring a cap.

Growing Greens

Mustard greens are very popular to grow.

So why would you want to be growing greens in your garden and then incorporate them into your diet? Because greens are low in fat and calories, and are high in fiber, calcium, protein, and iron (remember Popeye?). They contain vitamins C and K, along with magnesium, carotenoids, folate, and lutein.

They help with digestion and they add color to your dinner plate. They also have very few calories so you can eat a lot of them and not feel guilty.

Saturday, October 7, 2023

These are some of my beautiful new zinnias grown from seed over the past few weeks.

Good morning. I wrote several paragraphs earlier today but they are no longer here. It is now 1pm and no customers have come today. Strange since this is the first cool day we have had since early spring. It is the perfect day to come out shopping for the garden at only 74° Fahrenheit and everyone has stayed home. It is also the perfect day to plant garlic bulbs, carrot seeds, turnip seeds, beet seeds, onion seeds, wildflowers and more. We close in 55 minutes. That is too bad because we were prepared to give the tours that everyone has been asking for when it was so hot.

When I got up this morning, it was cool and breezy at 68°. We haven't seen that temperature since April. It felt amazing. I went out and got all of the animal chores done. I went in and did the dishes. Then I got all of David's and my pills ready for the new week.

A woman showed up just before 1pm but she did not buy anything. She looked all around and said she is a horticulture student at a San Antonio college. She asked if David is a Master Gardener. No, he is not. He knows a whole lot more than most of them do. He has been gardening for over 50 years, since he was a boy. (A lot of Master Gardeners have come into the store and asked us very basic "how to" questions that even I can answer. The answers to all of the questions we have been asked are on our websites. I think they take a course and at the end they get a piece of paper saying they are Master Gardeners only most of them really have no experience in gardening.)

If you are a Master Gardener who knows how to garden well, no offense has been meant but there are so many that we have met in our store and at various trade shows and they have not gardened. They ask how deep should they plant a seed or how often should they water. How do they know if their soil is good? How can they store seeds they don't use? Basic stuff that most gardeners have learned. Some have told us they have the certification but have not yet grown a garden.

This woman in the store also said she is supposed to be growing some plants as a project but has not been successful. I asked what she was trying to grow. She said some basil indoors on a windowsill that does not get much light but it never comes up. I asked her if she has a grow light. She said she does but she does not want to use it. I found this very interesting. I mean, how much are they teaching her at that college if she doesn't know that plants need six to eight hours of sunlight to grow? When you are trying to grow something indoors, always use a grow light. Very seldom does a windowsill get six to eight hours of sun each day. The sun moves and most windows are not that big. She left and I went back in to Fulfillment to work on the computer.

About five minutes after I wrote the first paragraph today, some customers came looking for coffee. They left with three bags of coffee as well as two packs of seeds. Before they left, another customer came in to pick up her order that she made two days ago. Today, she also bought three packs of bluebonnets, garlic, carrot seeds, and onion seeds. No one came the last ten minutes and now the store is closed.

We grilled burgers for Svengoolie. There was football on instead so we watched Star Trek The Motion Picture. It was different...I hadn't seen it in years so I forgot a lot of stuff but it was good to see the crew together again. This one is my least favorite of all of the Star Trek movies.

Growing Greens

Here are three types of spinach leaves to be enjoyed raw or cooked.

You may have eaten greens in salads. Fresh spinach in salad is wonderful. We eat spinach salads a lot. But, like me, if you have never tried cooked greens, give them a try. Look online and find some fun new recipe so you are inspired when growing greens.

Don't boil spinach leaves. Yuck. Wilt them down in your sauteed vegetables as soon as they are finished. They will just wilt as they quickly cook. They absorb some of the oil or liquid in the pan and taste great.

Sunday, October 8, 2023

Taken from my gazebo, this is the grass farm across the road from us. We bought grass several times from them but the heat kills it. You can't water it enough in the heat.

Good Sunday morning. It is 7am and 54° Fahrenheit, very chilly and I dread going outside to feed the animals. It's funny that I hate the heat but I wanted it to be 70°, not colder. We have not had a nice, normal summer yet where it is below 100° and now we are going directly to winter. In spring, it warmed up and jumped to 90° in May and then 100° in June until last week. Then it was in the 90s, one day in the 80s and here we are. Why?

I have so many baskets of laundry to fold. The week is so busy that it seems I never get the chance. I spend six days a week in the Farm Store and pulling orders. Today, is church. The high is supposed to be 80° so what do I wear? It is freezing now and will be hot when we get out. The problems we go through in Texas, right?

I hear Israel is at war now. I hope things will be fine in a year, because we are planning a trip there, a trip of a lifetime...We will see. We don't travel much. Back in 2020, we were supposed to go on a first cruise and it was going to be the trip of a lifetime. It got canceled the week before we were to set sail due to covid. That info is here on the website in March of 2020. It was so disappointing. I wonder now if this trip will be canceled.

I need to get out of my warm pajamas and robe now and put some clothes on to go feed all of the animals. Then I need to eat. I am pretty hungry.

I got all of the animals fed and watered and now I am having some pancakes left over from yesterday morning. When you nuke them, they are still light and fluffy. I wanted eggs but I waited too long and I was too shaky to make them. It is chilly but I did not wear a jacket because I did not want to get it dirty. There is always dirt in the water containers that I have to hose out. Chickens are messy and kick dirt, hay, wood chips, and food into the water containers, blocking them so water doesn't come out. Why? I have no idea but for the almost four years I have had chickens, that is what they do every day.

I just read that next Saturday from 10:04am Central to 3:55pm Central, there will be a solar eclipse. That should be fun to see. Most of you all will have off and I will have to work through almost the whole thing but I will get some chances to check it out in between the one or two customers who might come. LOL!

Tomorrow, the low will be 68° so that is much better. The high is supposed to be 84°. Now our plants will really take off and produce. They can finally grow in the cool weather. We should get some wonderful green beans soon.

After church, David made fried chicken strips and fixings. Matt came to eat with us and we watched The Wrath Of Khan. It is 79° at 4:15pm. I am wearing shorts in my office and my legs are so cold. Soon I will have to go out and feed the fish. Then I will go out back and collect eggs and make sure that the chickens and rabbits have what they need for a successful evening. Each time I go into the main coop, I have to carry our net to keep Foghorn from attacking me. He stays away from me when I have it.

Tomorrow is a holiday so there will be no mail or banking services. Therefore, it will not be payday until Tuesday.

Growing Greens - Actual Planting

Swiss chard stems come in bright colors and are fun to grow.

So what are the best instructions for growing greens? In Texas, we can grow most of them in early spring after the danger of frost is past and again in fall, once the temperature begins to cool down.

If you live in a more normal climate where it is not 100° Fahrenheit or hotter all summer long, you can plant your greens in full sun. If you live in Texas, use shadecloth. You can find shadecloth online if there are no garden centers in your area that carry it.

Water to keep the greens bed moist, but do not overwater. Stick your knuckle down into the soil and feel it before you water.

Mustard greens, kale, and spinach like cooler weather so you can plant them in spring about six weeks before the last frost date in spring. Lettuce and Swiss chard can be planted approximately three weeks before the last frost date in spring. Malabar spinach, as well as most other leafy greens, should be planted after the danger of frost has passed.

In the fall in Texas, do a second planting for most greens. Growing greens can be very successful in the cooler weather.

Growing greens should include vining spinach like this Malabar Red Spinach growing out in our orchard.

Return from Growing Greens to Year Five On The Farm

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