Strawberry flowers

The online market is open for orders. Asparagus is in its prime season now. The strawberries came through the winter nicely. They are blooming beautifully now and there should be berries ready in about 4 weeks, or maybe a little sooner. I have spent a good portion of the day today pumping water on them. During the bloom and fruit sizing stages strawberries need a good soaking rain or irrigation at least every 5 days or so to give a full crop. We are way behind normal rainfall so far this spring, I hope it rains tonight. There are little cucumbers on the vines in the greenhouse and Melvin picked the first ripe tomato. In a week or two we should have them for sale. Enjoy the springtime. Daniel

Sprouts and seeds

I have lots of glad bulbs to make your place pretty. 1/2 bushel of our homegrown bulbs can be yours for only $25. We also have lots of asparagus and spinach. Through the rest of May is the best time to get asparagus orders in for your freezer needs. That hot weather last week was kind of rough for the little transplants that were set out but the corn and bean seed loved it. As for this farmer- he would rather work in the cool. I do not envy the gardners that live in the south. In normal spring weather it can be a challenge to get heat loving seeds such as corn, squash and beans to sprout. This is especially a problem for those of us that do not use treated seed. A little trick that makes a big differance is to watch the weather forcast for 3 days of bright sunny, dry weather and then plant the seed fairly deep (down to moist dirt) When it is sunny the soil is warming but as soon as it cloudy the cold from deep down is pushing back up. As soon as the seed has sprouted it is somewhat safe from rot etc and it does not matter so much if it gets cool again. Frost does not matter as long as the sprouts have not come up. Daniel

Asparagus

Asparagus harvest is starting. I cut the first today. We will be open at our farmstand tomorrow . ( Thursday). Summer stand hours are 10am – 6pm Mon- Sat. Daniel

Monday, May 4

It is spring time! It is time to plant, plant, plant. I love to see the sprouting seeds and to hear the birds when I go out in the morning. The asparagus is up now. With this nice warm weather I expect to cut the first asparagus sometime late this week. We plan to open the stand for the season on Saturday, May 9. Hours will be the same as they have been in the past, 10am- 6pm, Mon- Sat. I have lots of beatiful spinach and green garlic ready now from outside and lovely mild greenhouse arugula.

We are always looking for ways to make your experience with us easier and more efficient. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive regular updates about our produce and life on the farm! Andrew has joined our crew fulltime. He will be doing most of the social media posts. I plan to still write the weblog as I have been and that will also be on facebook etc. Daniel

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Asparagus in four weeks

Hello everyone, spring is coming! The asparagus should be ready or almost ready in four weeks. There is less variation than one would think in the time that asparagus harvest starts. Since I am growing it, it has never been ready in april and we have always started cutting by the end of the first full week in May. The stand will open once asparagus is ready. The tomatoes and cukes are growing nicely and I am excited to be able to see the ground again in my gardens.
In February- early March we went out to the midwest and down to Mississippi to visit my wifes family. From there we took the long way home and took back roads all the way down to the ocean on the Gulf of Mexico and then across Northern Florida and up the east coast to Deleware and Pa. We went with no fixed schedule, picinicing along the way and at night we either found a place to camp or a motel. I had never been down south that far and the coastal plain along the east coast was also new country to me. We especially searched out produce farms and farm markets etc as we traveled along with anything else that caught our attention. It was a rich experience.
After we got back home almost the whole family came down with some kind of strange version of the flu. I was mostly in bed for two weeks. It left us really weak but now each day we feel much stronger. It was amazingly hard to get a good diet when traveling. Non of the farms that we chanced upon were organic. We don’t have much experiance shopping for food at resturants and stores. We ended eating quite a bit of food that was good- but by a different standards than we use at home. It is hard for parents to get the sleep they should have when traveling with 8 little children. I have to wonder if this along with a diet that had too much chemical farmed and GMO food in it left our immune sytems weak. Anyway we are back and home looks beautiful.
Not every community is blessed to have places like our farm and stand to get good food. I am excited to be part of what we are and I hope that you all can enjoy some of our good food this summer Daniel

Winter Work

Hello,
We have printed another edition of the Bugle which is a little magazine that my family puts out. Besides the print edition, it is also online at
www.thebugle.martins4u.com
We hope you enjoy it.

On the farm each season has its natural work and harvests. Traditionally farmers gave attention to their woodlots in the winter. I have been working at thinning my sugarbush so the trees get more light and grow nice and healthy. This has resulted in a huge pile of firewood and logs. If anybody needs hardwood lumber contact Luray 268-0309 we have a lot for sale at reasonable prices. Have you ever wondered if it makes much differance if you thin carrots in the garden or trees in your woodlot. The answer is that it does. The garden vegetables such as carrots and lettuce get much bigger. Look at the differance if a bed only gets half done and then not finished for a few weeks. Weed control is also important for this reason. Over at my Dads farm we thinned part a hill we call “Stone Hill” 25 years ago. It had a dense stand of young pole sized maple. It was 15 years before we returned to finish the rest. The trees that were thinned on time are twice a big as the trees on the other section.

So much of life is like this. Sometimes God removes things that we love and it appears like trouble to us but God is preparing us. We do well to love God and relax in such events. God is good. Daniel

Winter on the farm

It is cold but there is still lots of cabbage, potatoes, garlic and more in our storage. Remember us if your supply needs replenishing.
It is almost time to plant the tomatoes for the greenhouse. We are mostly finished with planning what should be grown next year and the seed and plants are purchased. A major change in the fields is the move to semi-permanent raised beds for a good portion of the farm. There are many reasons for this change including an increased ability to plant on time even if the weather is adverse. I can also have deeper topsoil in the root zone that is not compacted by the tractor tires.
I have cut some logs out of our woods and milled the lumber I need to build more strawberry carriers. I am also working at closing in the stand building. The goal is to have better and fresher produce because of less sun and wind on the display. We are are also working to set things up better so that our energy can be used to grow good food and love and serve people rather than spending so much work carrying tubs of produce back and forth and in and out.
Andrew is working at some changes to our web presence. We want to develop a website that is as close as possible to giving you a virtual look into our stand so you can see what we have along with prices etc. You should see this toward spring time if we are satisfied with it. Daniel

December 1

Have you ever wondered what happens during this time of the year on a produce farm? We are not planting, weeding and picking things all the time but rather this season is dominated by mostly maintainance and planning. By the end of the month the seed orders need to be in. In about six weeks it is time to seed tomatoes. We also sleep later in the morning and pay more attention to the childrens school and in general just living. This is a good time of the year for us. I like the long winter evenings. We get to relax a bit and eat the food we have stored away. I will not be writing this webblog every week during the winter however the online market remains open for orders through the winter. Daniel

Thanksgiving

What a lovely day! There is still arugula, kale, spinach and parsley that is good out in the field. The snow saved things from the cold. And of course there is lots of root crops etc in the coolers.
As long as you are ordering product that is listed as Daniel and Mendy Martin it is OK if you pick it up early. Just leave us know which day and about what time you wish to come. Daniel

Winter Hours

Winter hours are starting now. We are open on an informal basis throughout the winter. If we are home we give service. Ring the doorbell or call ahead if you want to be sure not to waste a trip. I just came in from getting a load of Kale. Kale is pretty nice tasting this time of the year. I also still have a nice amount of spinach and lettuce that was cut friday along with lots of root vegetables. Summer hours will resume next May when the asparagus gets ready. Daniel