First Farmer’s Market – Ruidoso Downs

Our first day at the Ruidoso Downs Farmer’s Market as a vendor was a great experience.  It afforded us the opportunity to get to know our customers and find out the various ways in which the produce is baked, cooked, fried, BBQ’d or canned.  That information assists us in knowing how to pick the vegetables for their needs.

We picked our produce the morning of the market.  Inevitably, we did not arrive to the market until 7:45 am rather than the scheduled 7 am start.  We were sold out of all product but four zucchini before 11 am.  

Here is our produce, with Myron and my sister Becky in the background utilizing what little shade we could make.  The radishes in the box to the left are already almost gone.

We shaded the produce as best as possible with an old apple bushel basket and apple crate from the days when my grandpa sold apples off the farm.

It is a very easy going market.  If you do not come by the farm and buy direct from the field, we hope to see you at the market next Saturday.  You know the produce will be fresh because it will be picked that morning, therefore we appreciate your patience as we will be a tad late.

Open For Business!

This week we are picking:

* zucchini squash

* yellow crooked neck squash

* scarlet radishes.

Yesterday we had our first drive in customers.  Caroline and Denys bought zucchini squash and yellow crooked neck squash fresh off the vine.  They also bought the only two ripe tomatoes we had, again, right off the vine.

This Thursday and Friday we will be available to drive in customers from 8 am to 5 pm.  It is to your advantage that we leave the produce on the vine until you arrive.  If you are worried that we may be out of product, please give us a call at 575-354-2444.  Please be patient if you must leave a message because we are in the field.  Cell phones do not work out here.  No worries.  We will see your message soon enough as we tend to come inside to rehydrate or cool off, or lately, to get out of the rain.

Zucchini Squash – 1 Basket (~3 medium or 4 small) $3.75

Yellow Crooked Neck Squash – 1 Basket (~3 medium or 4 small) $3.50

Scarlet Radishes – $0.50 each or 3 for $1.25

Our market garden is pesticide and herbicide free.   Buying locally gives you a freshness that is unattainable in a grocery store.

Tomato Hornworm…EEWWW!

One of the challenges of gardening without insecticides is, well, dealing with pests.  We are putting out natural deterrents for the grasshoppers, always using something edible to us but harmful to them.  We have a great deal of help from a family of roadrunners that has claimed this property.  The roadrunners are quite entertaining and deserving of their own post, but it will have to wait until I can capture those voracious birds on camera.

The roadrunners have not yet figured out how to find the disgusting, wait – I mean – juicy, tasty, treat of the tomato hornworm.  One hornworm can defoliate a nightshade family plant (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) in short order.  We knew we were at risk of these evil caterpillars when we saw so many of the adult moths ramming our bright flashlight during our late walks and also hitting the windows at night.  “The adult moths, sometimes referred to as a "sphinx", "hawk", or "hummingbird" moths, are large, heavy-bodied insects with narrow front wings. The tomato hornworm moth is a mottled gray-brown color with yellow spots on the sides of the abdomen and a wingspread of four to five inches. The hindwings have alternating light and dark bands.”[i]  These moths lay their eggs on the leaves of the nightshade plants.

Picture by Didier Descouens - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46972574

Shown here is damage done to one of our plants in less than 24 hours:

Shown here are the defoliating culprits.  Big!  We find one per plant and have removed about 20 so far.

One the bright side, we have hundreds of healthy tomato plants.  We can pick these nasty creatures off each morning and keep the damage to a minimum and keep them from reproducing a second time this season. 

We have many rows of healthy tomatoes, here is an example of a two.

A couple of tomatoes beginning to turn.

Also, the sweet corn is coming along.

The zucchini and crooked neck yellow squash are close to picking.  Here is one of many zucchini plants after a good rain.

Let us not forget to show some of the good guys.  This lady bug is cleaning the zucchini plant.

We are not ready for market yet, but oh so close!

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[i] “Tomato hornworms in Home Gardens,” University of Minnesota, http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/tomato-hornworms-in-home-gardens/

Hail - Oh No!

Once the fence was up, we became quite busy prepping the soil, installing drip tape, black mulch, erecting low tunnels, transplanting, seeding and weeding.  We are working with a new seeder and it has taken a few runs to make it work for our desired spacing and for each different seed.

We started transplanting during Carolyn's visit.  Here is Becky at work with the transplants.   

Carolyn and Becky help Myron string up transplants:

Dena with the little tractor and trailer (yes, must keep the sun off tender skin, and I love my 20+ year old Panama hat), Myron putting up the arches for the low tunnels:

Used through mid-June, the low tunnels protected plants from hail and from low night temperatures:

Since then we have planted corn, carrots, beans, onions, cucumbers, turnips, beets, kale and spinach, eggplants, Big Jim peppers, sweet peppers, rosemary, french tarragon, lavender, garlic, borage, poppies, sunflowers, bee balm, okra, kohlrabi, broccoli, as well as transplanted another nine rows of tomato varieties.

How exciting to see the first tomatoes on the vine:

There are still more plants and seeds to get into the ground.  The weather, however, often has other plans.  One day, shortly after the eggplants were in, I was desperate to get to town for water, ice and some groceries.  I met dad and Myron on the road coming back from working on the new water line for Becky and Mike's house.  Just after seeing them, I drove right into a fierce thunderstorm with lightening, thunder, hail and flash flood rain.  Slowly making my way to town at about 20 MPH or less, I pulled over at the water station.  I finally realized that the power was out, after numerous attempts to get the machine to take my money.  I moved on to the grocery store.  Their power was also out and they were only taking cash and local checks.  No food for me today.  I drove the back roads to another water station.  It was a bit stressful with muddy water rushing across roads, but I did not want this trip to town to be a perfect waste of time and gas.  I was drenched, but ultimately found myself heading home with R.O. water and two bags of ice!

Returning home on Highway 37 between Juniper Springs and Cora Dutton Roads, the hail was so thick on the ground it looked like snow on the hills and along the highway.  My heart sunk and I prayed that all our plants were spared as we had already removed our low tunnels.  Myron was out in the field as I drove up.  He said there was very little hail at the farm but the rain and wind had been strong.  He was checking for broken plants - but all fared well.  Even the newly transplanted eggplants looked as if they were saying "yeah, bring it on!"

We are now enduring a long stretch of hot weather.  The plants love it, as long as they get water.  Not so fun to work under out in such conditions.

A view of the garden from the road.  The sweet corn and tomatoes dominate the picture as opposed to the smaller plants such as carrots and beets:

A view of the farm from the east:

Only a few more rows to plant.  We know we are late this year, but better late than never.

We will post on this blog when we start picking, and what we are picking.