The Stand is finally open.  It took until August, and I don't have as much produce as I'd like, but we are finally open.  Sweet corn is ready, as well as some cukes, zucchini, watermelon, and tomatoes.  Stop on by and see what we have.  Should have corn for a few weeks, but what is ready now is beautiful.

The first big rain of the year happened last night, and today looks to be a beautiful day.  Waiting for a bit of growth on the pastures so I can turn the cows out and let them enjoy harvesting grass as they were created to do!  

Planning for the vegetables continues, and we are looking forward to getting many things planted in the next month or so.  Then the fun EATING part!  Hoping to have many plantings of sweet corn this summer also, so we can enjoy and share that for an extended length of time this year.

The stand still needs some fixing up after someone tried to pry one of the windows open (we think).  But it is open for business.  Sweet corn is ready this week, and we have been enjoying it ourselves.  I've become such a sweet corn snob after being married to a farmer for almost 12 years.  We're growing only Ambrosia this year as it has been our most popular seller.  It is a bi-color variety and is definitely our favorite!  No need for butter or salt...in fact it is even okay raw but that's not my favorite way to eat it.  -- Anne

Well, most veggies are in the ground and growing, but we were worried for the baby plants after this past weekend's rain.  It looks like the puddles have mostly soaked in, and I don't think any plants drowned.  

Apparently I didn't blog any last summer, but I am back.  We are considering raising some free-range chickens (possibly out in the pasture with the cattle?)  We are wanting to know what sort of interest there would be.  These would be chickens raised for meat not eggs.  We want to know if there is local interest in this.  You can let us know via email (crookedcreekfarms.valpo@gmail.com) or facebook if this is a good idea.  Maybe I will even add a page to our website for chec

After such a hot summer fall seems to have come quickly.  While I enjoy the start of harvest in the fields and bringing in the corn and soybeans, it is bittersweet to see the plants in the garden dying as well.  We did our best last week to pick lots of tomatoes at green peppers before the frost hit.  The plants froze hard on Sunday night, so whatever we have at the stand is all that is left.  

However, there are a couple new things available now that fall has arrived.  I need to spend a long afternoon or two digging, washing, and bagging our colorful potatoes.  We also planted some Indian corn this year (to be used for decorative purposes).  I hope to have these available at the stand by early next week.   

We have started harvesting our second planting of sweet corn, so there is tender, fresh corn available this week.  We spread out our plantings this year by a few weeks to try and extend the sweet corn season.  So far it seems to be working.  Just as our first planting was starting to get a little dry and starchy at the end of last week, the second planting was becoming ready for picking.  So this week is all new corn!!  We planted 5 separate times, so if each planting lasts for 2-3 weeks we should have sweet corn for quite a while.  (Now if only the Lord and the weather will cooperate with us.)

We're so thankful for the rain we received over the last couple of days.  Taking buckets to the growing number of baby plants was getting rough.  It wasn't a ton of rain, but it will help.  We planted some awesome varieties of watermelon and tomatoes the other day, and they needed a good watering.

Found some beets coming up, lettuces, and carrots!  Also found a groundhog...will have to take care of that problem.  If this nice weather holds up, hopefully we'll get a lot more planted this next week. 

We brought the shed out of winter storage, so it is all ready and waiting on the produce.  You can still see us if interested in some grass-fed ground beef.  We just sold off some quarters to people interested in some steaks, roasts, and burgers for the summer.

When we headed down to till the garden, we were pleasantly surprised to find that some of the lettuce and spinach had survived our very mild winter.  So today (March 19th...crazy!) I picked our first crops of the new year.  It is nice to be having our own vegetables again (even if it is just a very little).  It makes me excited for the coming summer.

We got the rest of the rows plowed and after some weeding/cleaning up, we are ready to get some early crops in the ground these next few weeks.