October 2014

Crops are up. The only disappointment was the garden. We seeded broccoli and beets. Both were no shows. Everything else is doing fine.

These are our oats:

 

These are our sugar snap peas:

 

 





These are our fava beans and rye:

 

 

We sprayed concentrated mined P&K with seaweed N in a 10-10-10 analysis. This should kick the crops on along. 







September 2014

September was fall/winter planting time. We planted Elbon Rye and naked oats, then intercropped sugar snap peas and fava beans. I used the 71 Flex planter for the favas and broke the seed cap. Favas are way to big for that planter. Should have used the drill.

The old Allis Chalmers All Crop Drill did a superb job on everything else. I could have set it up to drop everything, Including the favas and done it all in one pass.

We can make two winter crops in our zone. One planting in September, harvest in November. The next planting in December, harvest in March. We will then let the grain grow on out and harvest in June. Winter bean / pea crops are: sugar snap peas, English peas, snow peas, and fava beans. Green beans are an option for fall, September - November. 60 day southern peas have a chance to make as well.

August 2014

We spent August picking the last of the peas. Blackeyes. For the record, even though I can pick semi vining and vining types with the BH-100 by removing the first round of picking fingers from the front of the picking reel, they really are not worth the hassle. Yields are way too low. California 46 is NOT really a bush type pea, they are not determinant, and they do not have a concentrated set. I am still searching for such a pea. Arkansas Blakeye #1 is such a pea, but no seed vendor picked it up. U of A should do like Texas A&M did with Texas Pinkeye and produce it themselves on contract to CT Smith.

We sold way more flour and oatmeal this year than peas.  Our new packaging is plastic re-sealable, freezable, vacuum packed, with a tear off top. Customers love it.

 

Currently, we are out of rye. We do have a little bit of oats on hand. We have no wheat. Rye and oats grow really well in our area, so we are going to raise more rye and sell part of it and buy hard red wheat in an amount suitable for us to mill.  I think most of our bean and pea business will migrate to fall.