We are excited to share that watermelons are back in season at the Farm Stand! We can personally attest to how sweet and delicious this batch is and can’t wait for you to try one. We have both personal size (“icebox”) and full size melons available for you. Since watermelon season tends to go by fairly quickly, we highly encourage you to stop by the coolers soon so you can snag one. Aside from snacking on chilled wedges of watermelon, they’re especially delicious in a salad along with cucumber, feta, mint, and lime. Or, you can use them to make a batch of agua fresca (recipe here). 

We just planted a round of striped Armenian cucumbers and are excited to see them eventually make their way into season in August. This particular variety has not been grown on the farm since 2021 so we are incredibly excited for it to make its return! Though they’re called a cucumber and look like one, striped Armenians are technically a melon. They have thin skin and a mild taste that is a cross between a cucumber and an unsweet melon along with distinctive dark and light green stripes. You can see a preview of what they will look like below!

Summer has arrived which means the variety at the Farm Stand won’t change too drastically over the next couple of months with the exception of major weather events. You can expect to see a small handful of new things making their way into season like Korean melons and Armenian cucumbers, but overall our core summer crops like eggplant, okra, long beans, and peppers will remain the same. While we still have tomatoes available, their production is slowing down so we highly recommend stopping by and enjoying them while you can. Our Grab-and-Go coolers are available to you 24/7 while our Saturday Farm Stand is open every Saturday from 9am-noon. 

In Season at the Farm Stand: Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Long Beans, Okra, Eggplant, Cherry and Slicing Tomatoes, Zucchini, Jalapenos, Bell Peppers, Shishito Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Cornito Peppers, Lunchbox Peppers, Baby Butternuts, Carrots, Basil, and Flower Bouquets and Stems

We are now deep into the Summer Season and with the high heat comes some new and interesting veggies for the Farm Stand. If you want a sneak peek at what’s to come, make sure to join us for our Farm Tour this Saturday (July 15th) at 10:30am. We’ll chat about what varieties will grow during the heat of summer and show you the ones we’re most excited about. And, you’ll be able to see all the gorgeous hues of our Benary Giant zinnias (pictured below) and a preview of the upcoming watermelon harvest! Our tours are open to the public and free of charge so we hope to see you there!

We’re beginning to harvest watermelons so we’ll have a few for you at the Farm Stand this weekend! Since our watermelons are just beginning to ripen, we’ll only have limited quantities available over the next week. Though there are many commonly used methods to test for a watermelon’s ripeness, we start by looking at the tendril nearest the melon’s stem on the vine. If it’s browning or dead, the melon is most likely ready! We also check to see if the spot where the melon has been resting on the ground is yellow which is another great indicator of the fruit being ready for harvest.

Hot pepper fans rejoice! These spicy crops are just beginning to trickle back into season with the first small harvest of both jalapeño and serrano peppers. While both of these peppers are green, you can easily tell them apart by their shape. Jalapeños (pictured on the left) are darker green with that quintessential chili pepper shape. Serranos (pictured on the right) are a lighter shade of green and are more slender in shape. Farmer Reuben loves to make salsa with these peppers or finely chop them and add them to ground beef for a spicy kick. You’ll be able to find limited quantities of each at the Farm Stand this weekend.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Eggplant, Watermelons (limited), Korean Melons, Long Beans, Okra, Sweet Peppers, Serrano Peppers (limited), Jalapeño Peppers (limited), Onions, and Cut Flower Bouquets (limited and only on Saturdays).

Sometimes, you have to make time to stop and smell the roses, or in our case, zinnias! This row of Benary Giant zinnias is full of vibrantly colored blooms that are thriving in the summer sun. If you’ve had the opportunity to snag one of our coveted fresh flower bouquets lately, you’ve probably seen some of these in the mix. If you’d like to experience these lovely blooms in person along with the high summer transition on the farm, we invite you to join us at our next Farm Tour on Saturday, July 15th at 10:30am. Our tours are open to the public and free of charge so we hope to see you there!

High summer planting continued in the greenhouse this week with sunflowers, zinnias, okra, and cucumbers. We’re especially excited about the two sunflower varieties we planted: Summer Breeze Mix and Ring of Fire. Summer Breeze is a mix of branching sunflower varieties in a range of colors that is great for cutting and adding to bouquets. Ring of Fire produces bi-color sunflowers that have a distinct ring of bronze around the center. We can’t wait to add these to our bouquets!

We should have the first watermelons of the summer for you very soon! This succession of watermelons is called “Sugar Baby”, a variety that is known as an icebox or picnic variety due to its small size. These melons have dark green skin and red flesh along with that quintessential sweet watermelon flavor. We should have these for you at the Farm Stand in the next week or two!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Korean Melons, Okra, Long Beans, Banana Peppers, Sweet Peppers, Limited Cherry and Slicing Tomatoes, Eggplant, Cousa Squash, Onions, and Cut Flower Bouquets (limited and only on Saturdays).

Watermelons are back in season! Our last succession of Sugar Baby watermelons are being harvested and are available at the farm stand. Farmer Alex thinks this round is especially tasty and can’t wait for you to try one. We highly encourage you to get your fill of melons because their season will be coming to a close in the next couple of weeks. We should have watermelons for you over the next two weeks but our Milan and Korean melons will only be available for the next week. Aside from snacking on them raw, you can juice them, make a granita, or enjoy them in a salad with cucumber, feta, and mint.

Remember the winter squashes we planted? They are swiftly growing and we’ve already spotted the first female blossoms! Like all winter squashes, both our butternuts and Autumn Frost squashes produce male and female flowers on the same plant. The female flowers are easy to spot because they have a tiny squash at their base while the male flowers are on a long stem. You can see a female butternut flower above and one from our Autumn Frost squashes below.

Since we won’t be planting any more summer crops, we’re focusing a large part of our attention on preparing the farm for the fall season. This includes tackling the weeds that grew exponentially with the recent rainfall and slowly clearing out spent summer crops. It also includes doing a lot of planting in the greenhouse but we’ll share more about that with you in our update next week. We hope you’re as excited for the fall season as we are!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Spaghetti Squash, Egyptian Spinach, Roselle Greens, Sweet Peppers, Jalapenos, Habanada Peppers, Fresno Peppers, Cayenne Peppers, Okra, Armenian Cucumbers, Zucchini, Watermelons, Korean Melons, Cantaloupe, Long Beans, Italian Eggplant, Asian Eggplant, and Sunflower Bouquets.

We’ve been hard at work planting crops for summer despite the intense heat. Last week we planted two different melon varieties for you: Milan (an Italian melon similar to cantaloupe) and Torpedo (a smaller Korean melon with white flesh). Even though these won’t be ready for you for several weeks, our watermelon crop is getting close to the first harvest! The drier conditions we’ve been experiencing have been incredibly beneficial for our watermelons and we have a feeling this is sure to be an exceptionally tasty and sweet crop. We’ll make sure to let you know as soon as we start harvesting!

Have you had a chance to snag any of our sweet peppers from the farm stand yet?! Since we’ve been harvesting them in abundance over the past couple of weeks, we decided to run a special at the farm stand. Our sweet peppers are only $3 per pound for the rest of the month! Make sure to stock up so you can make a big batch of roasted sweet peppers, roasted pepper dip, or simply chop them and freeze them for use in your favorite recipes throughout the year.

May was an incredibly productive month on the farm and June is proving to be no different! Even though tomatoes are slowing down, both sweet and hot peppers are coming in strong in addition to other summer favorites like cucumbers and zucchinis. Curious how you can get your hands on our delicious produce? You’ve got a couple of different options:

1. Our farm stand – though our in-person farm stand is only once a week on Saturday mornings from 9am-noon, you can use our self-serve option on any day at any time!
2. Through any of the following Houston-area restaurants that work their magic with our produce – Cafe Louie, Nancy’s Hustle, Nobie’s, and Ostia.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Molokhia, Eggplant (limited), Bitter Melon (limited), Long Beans, Tomatillos, Jalapenos, Sweet Peppers, Cherry Tomatoes (limited), Spaghetti Squash, Delicata Squash, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Carrots, Scallions, and Cut Flower Bouquets (limited)

We’re harvesting up a storm to make sure we have plenty of delicious veggies for you at the farm stand! This Saturday, May 21st, the farm stand will be set up alongside the Splash Bash, an event hosted by Jordan Ranch’s Lifestyle Team. There will be water activities for kids, 20 local vendors, a food truck, and of course, our farm-fresh veggies and flowers! The Splash Bash takes place during the same hours as our farm stand, 9am-noon. We’d love to see you there!

Harvesting spring crops means more space for summer crops! This week, we planted Sugar Baby watermelons (pictured above) and Asian eggplant. We don’t know about you, but we’re always excited to see watermelons back in the field! They’re definitely one of our favorite summer treats and we can’t wait to share them with you. We hope to begin harvesting the first watermelons about 2 months from now. In the meantime, we’ll make sure to keep you updated on their growth!

Stay tuned for some brand new veggies coming on next week! Both our winter squashes and tomatillos will be ready for harvesting in the next several days. Tomatillos (pictured above) are an interesting crop to harvest because the telltale sign of ripeness is when the exterior husk splits open. Our winter squashes on the other hand are ready for harvesting when the skin has toughened and doesn’t yield when pressed with a fingernail. We’ll be harvesting Delicata (pictured below) and Spaghetti squashes.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Green Beans, Zucchini, Cousa Squash, Yellow Squash, Cucumbers (pickling & slicers), Tomatoes (slicers & cherries), Carrots, Beets, Kohlrabi, Scallions, Leeks, Collard Greens, Kale, Basil, and Flower Bouquets

August 12th, 2021

We’ve got a summer treat for you…we’ll have the first watermelons available at the farm stand this Saturday! The variety we’re harvesting is “Sugar Baby” and you can bet it lives up to its name in terms of flavor. Sugar Baby is what is known as an “icebox” or “picnic” watermelon variety because it is small enough to easily fit inside your fridge (or a picnic basket). This variety has dark green skin and red flesh along with that quintessential watermelon flavor. We like to think of Sugar Baby as a personal-sized melon because we can easily polish one off in a single sitting after a hot day on the farm.

Along with our watermelons, we’ll be harvesting a new cucumber variety: Tsuyataro. This Japanese variety yields glossy, dark green cucumbers with smooth skin. Tsuyataro is a “burpless” variety with crisp, firm flesh that makes it perfect for snacking on raw. In Japanese cuisine, this variety is commonly used to make Tsukemono (pickled cucumbers). Japanese pickles are typically used as a garnish, relish, or digestive food. You can read all about the process here if you’d like to make your own.

For the past several weeks at our Saturday farm stand we’ve been offering a build your own bouquet option with our fresh cut flowers. Have you had a chance to try it yet? This allows our customers to exercise a little creativity and only choose stems they want to take home and admire. You can pick from a colorful mix of zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds that are currently being grown and harvested on the farm. If you’d like to build your own bouquet and pick up some beautiful produce at the same time, make sure to stop by our farm stand on Saturday from 10am-noon!

I tend to be fiery by nature. I’m much more comfortable in snow than sun. Since Houston isn’t exactly my ideal climate, I have plenty of methods in place to keep cool. In order to stay hydrated and get a little cooling action at the same time, I use mint and lime a lot throughout the summer. They make the perfect addition to this delicious, fresh melon agua fresca. I typically don’t like to sweeten mine but I’ll leave that part of the recipe up to you.