Unity Gardens

Orchard Minutes Oct 13,09

Hi all, We had our second orchard meeting tonight. Weather kept many away. Thank you for all your energy. On the peach tree front it was decided to get two Redhaven and either two Cresthaven or two Canadian Harmony. The second will be decided based on input from our expert Michael Sheets. The trees will be standard in size, acquired from Stark Bros(I will actually go and pick them up on Monday November 2) in seven gallon pots, are two years old and approximately 6 feet tall. On the apple tree front it was decided to get a Liberty, a Jonathan, a Braeburn, a Honey Crisp, a Golden Delicious and a Winesap. These too will be in seven gallon pots, two years old and approximately 6 feet. Jim Minor will ask Larry Wheeler and Dick Faris to layout the orchard with north/south and east/west bearings. From there we can determine our tree rows and grouping of trees. It was suggested that we cover the tree planting hole area to keep the area somewhat dry for planting purposes. The orchard area was bush hogged last week and Michael Mellor has already given the area a closer mowing. Thank you Michael. Please stay tuned for the planting date (tenatively slated for Thursday November 5th). Questions were raised about our fruit trees. Other trees will be discussed and planted next spring. In particular nut trees were discussed. It is felt that there are enough pecan and walnut trees on Unity property that we could make arrangements to just go and pick them up. I will confirm that an arrangement can be made to allow us to do this. Thank you. Carl Lewis The Gardens at Unity Village. _________

Mums

                                            Mums (chrysanthemum)

When left in pot, the mum should be watered lightly daily and a small amount of fertilizer (5-10-5) added weekly.  If covered or brought in during frost, the mum may still be beautiful at Thanksgiving in the Midwest.

If planted for a permanent flower, the mum should be planted at the same soil level as in the pot.  It should be watered 3 times a week and fertilized as if still in the pot.  Although considered hardy, care is needed to establish the first winter.

The soil should be loose and if not, then compost should be added.  The plant should be put in the soil as soon as possible to allow the roots to establish before winter.  One should mulch with straw-(leaves not recommended for mums)-about 6 inches deep.  After a couple of hard freezes, the mulch should be added almost covering the entire plant.  In the spring, the mulch should be pulled back and the plant cut to about 6 inches.
From this point on, adding grass in the summer time to the mulch will probably take care of fertilizer needs.  One can point the discharge chute from the mower to the flower bed to achieve this purpose without added effort.

When the plant has grown 6 inches of bud stems,  pinch or cut the stems back about 3 inches.  Continue this until about the middle of July and then allow the plant to bloom.  It will bloom around the first of Sept.  Deadhead the flowers as they wilt by cutting at the base of each flower stem.

Prepare for the following winter with straw mulch.  Many times the plant will last for years and new plants can be started by taking cuttings

Pete

July 22 Auction News

On July 22, 09 the Amish auction at Lamoni had sweet corn as low as 1
dollar a dozen and a high of 2 dollars.  Some of this corn had not been
sprayed, all looked fresh and was mostly  worm free.  Most other
vegetables were reasonable with green beans going for around a dollar a
pound.  One of the things I have noticed at the  auction at Lamoni is that
most is very fresh looking.  I have a feeling that since the auction
starts later than Jamesport, much of the produce has been picked the
morning of the auction.  There were very few tomatoes and the last report
was that tonmatoes are still high at Jamesport.  I know that in the
Stanberry community, they cannot raise enough to satisfy their own
customers at their homestead.  We fully expect that the tomatoes will fall
drastically because the 6 week behind will finally catch up or we will
have a extended hot spell.  Lamoni still has a large selection of small
batches at reasonable prices that will allow us to have a wide variety of
product.  In the Stanberry community , two farmers are raising pumpkins so
that we may be able to bypass the auctions for better prices;
transportation is a problem for the Amish,

pete

July 7, 2009 auction news

July 7th Auction news;

Prices have fallen for the 3rd session in a row.  We should be able to get excellent quality tomatoes for less than a dollar a pound.  In addition, sweet corn arrived by the wagon load, rather than just a few sacks.  Small lots of new potatoes, onions at cheap prices, slicing cukes and  pickles by the box full as well as yellow squash and zucchini at reasonable prices.

Good product still maintaining good prices as expected, but with a possibility of a reasonable markup.

I have found an orchard that is non-amish which sells wholesale(mostly apples) and also near the auction is the egg farm which raises the exclusive pasture raised eggs.  Shortly, non cage raised pullet eggs will be available from the Stanberry Amish and we will need to discuss if this is a product we want to handle.  We can probably get these for less than 50 cent a dozen and they are natural enough that the yolks are high and firm.  For those who are not familiar with the difference, cage laid eggs with only prepared feed will have a pale yellow yolk which breaks easily and sits low like the whites.  Hens that are allowed to range on pasture will pick up bugs and other natural feeds and their good omega levels are much higher.  Of course, the strictly range feed hen will not have any feeds that are prepared and will not have processed ingredients preventing the organic label. The strictly pasture feed eggs are in demand and will run expensive while the non cage eggs will still be high, just not as high.   When the hens begin to lay, they are called pullets and the eggs, pullet eggs.  They are small, but two will still make a good healthy breakfast.  To small to be saleable in the stores, they are a discardable items, but I can get them for a 2 month period and they will be carded(examined inside), cleaned and boxed.  They will make a good item to explain to people what they are and to work in why cage free is better than non and to lead them into learning about the full benefits of pasture raised hens.  Although the cost of a pasture raised hen egg may  be 2 or 3 times more than a cage raised egg, the difference for a breakfast will only be around a quarter--What a way to start the day.  I think most  experts will agree that the pasture raised egg is just as healthy as Sammon fish contray to the impression that a cage egg may be bad for our health.

gary

6/12/'09 Jamesport Amish Auction

click on Amish Auction for report