The warmth of a promising start to Spring has hastened the growth of our greenhouse seedlings, allowing us to plant our first Spring crop of summer squash in the field! We are hopeful for an earlier harvest of these fruits this season, which will be closely followed by cherry tomatoes. In the coming weeks, we will be making room in the field and high tunnel to plant our peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and flowers! We are especially pleased with high germination yields of our flowers, as many varieties need very specific growing conditions like light exposure to the seed and precise soil temperature.

With the changing of seasons, our new seedlings aren’t the only thing eager to experience new life. Both cool and warm-season weeds are breaking through the ground in response to plentiful rain and sunshine. Our goal is to keep these weeds at bay before we settle into our true Spring and Summer season when weeds are even more keen to consume beautifully prepared bare soil. Though weeding can seem like a chore, it is a necessary part of growing food when the farmer chooses to work alongside nature rather than against it.

If you too are looking to enjoy the outdoors this weekend, please stop by our Farm Stand from 9am - 12pm. There will be an array of freshly harvested veggies, versatile enough to prepare a refreshing salad or a warm and hearty soup! Farmer Sarah will be there to answer any questions you may have about starting a Spring garden of your own too!

In Season: Carrots, Celery, Fennel, Green Onions, Green Cabbage, Parsley, Collard Greens, Curly Kale, Cilantro, and Dill

We are happy to report that Korean melons are back in season at the Farm Stand! These oblong yellow melons are a summer favorite on the farm. There’s nothing more refreshing after a hot day than an ice-cold wedge of melon! There’s no need to peel these melons as they have a very thin, edible skin. We recommend using them to make a batch of agua fresca to keep cool. Try this recipe as a guide and sub Korean melons for the cantaloupe that is called for. Or, try adding them to your next smoothie. 

During the hot summer months, we intentionally streamline our footprint by planting cover crops and placing tarps on sections of the farm to help with weed control. The use of clear tarps is called solarization. These tarps help trap solar heat and raise the temperature of the soil which kills weeds as well as harmful insects. The use of opaque black tarps is called occultation and works by blocking out light in order to prevent weeds from photosynthesizing. This eventually kills the weeds as well. Both of these methods are not only less time consuming than hand weeding, they’re a common no-till, organic method.  

In Season at the Farm Stand: Korean Melons, Okra, Eggplant, Zucchini, Jalapenos, Bell Peppers, Shishito Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Basil, and Flower Bouquets and Stems

We’ve been seeding up a storm in the greenhouse in preparation for the spring season! Now that our tomatoes and peppers are happily growing away, it’s time to plant cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squashes. These varietals are much quicker growers than tomatoes and peppers so they don’t need as early of a start. This will be the first of many successions of cucumbers and squashes that will carry us through spring and summer. You can expect to see them trickling back into season in early April.

An abundance of flower varieties were also planted in the greenhouse this week! One of our favorite spring traditions on the farm is to grow a couple of cut flower beds for bouquets. This year, we’re focusing on planting smaller quantities of more flower varieties than we have in the past. We’ll have some reliable favorites like zinnias and marigolds with newer ones like yarrow and pincushion flowers. If all goes well, we should have cut flower bouquets at the Farm Stand just in time for Mother’s Day!

Aside from all of the seed starting, we took some time to use the flame weeder in some of our beds in preparation for spring planting. The flame weeder is a great way for us to keep weeds in check without disturbing the soil. An added bonus is that it’s much quicker than our other weeding methods! The intense heat generated by the flame weeder sears the leaves of the weeds which causes the plant to die back. As the plant decays, it adds nutrients back to the soil which will benefit future spring crops.

In Season at the Farm Stand: Carrots, Beets, Salad Mix, Butter Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Komatsuna, Swiss Chard, Cone Cabbage, Bok Choy, Kale, Collard Greens, Cilantro, Scallions, Fennel, Kohlrabi, Cauliflower, and Broccoli (limited)

Remember the round of cucurbits and other summer crops we planted back in July? They are doing well and looking healthier now that the field has had a chance to dry out! We’re hoping these crops mature well throughout the month of August so we can begin harvesting them next month. Here are some of the crops that you can look forward to on the harvesting horizon: slicing cucumbers, zucchini, baby butternuts, banana peppers, and baby bell peppers. 

Every season, we plant multiple rounds or “successions” of the same crops. During the summer, these successions are spaced out about every 2-3 weeks. Succession planting helps ensure that we are able to harvest a continuous supply throughout the season. It also helps in the event of weather or pest related issues. A great example of succession planting is our two rows of long beans in the photo above. You can see the newest round ready to start producing on the left while the older plants on the right have reached the end of their life cycle. 

During the summer months, we intentionally reduce the footprint of the farm. This allows us to cover crop sections of the farm (above) and get them ready for fall. It also allows us to get ahead of weed pressure by tarping. Since we don’t use any herbicides in the field, every weed is dealt with by hand. A great way for us to tackle a large area is by placing a tarp on vacant beds. The tarps block out the sunlight which smothers new weed growth. You can see this process in action in the high tunnel below. In a few weeks, these beds will be primed and ready for fall planting! 

In Season at the Farm Stand: Poblanos Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers, Shishito Peppers, Serrano Peppers, Okra, Long Beans, Cantaloupe (limited), Italian Eggplant (limited), Cucumbers (limited), Mexicana Squash (limited), and Baby Butternuts

Since we typically have warm and mild conditions in the fall, we’re able to plant successions of some spring crops. We’ll be growing a fall round of dragon’s tongue beans to lend some diversity to our harvests. Dragon’s tongue beans are a farm favorite for their lovely flavor and beautiful appearance. They’re a Dutch heirloom that produces flat yellow beans streaked with purple. We can’t wait to share these delicious beans with you!

Remember the bed prep process in the high tunnel we shared with you last week? This week it’s being planted for fall!  We’re able to plant beds in the high tunnel for fall earlier than in the field due to the shade cloth installed over the top of it. The prepared beds in the high tunnel will be planted with a mix of quick-growing crops that can be direct seeded. Curious what varieties will be planted here? We’re sowing arugula, radishes, Hakurei turnips, and a few different baby greens. 

We aren’t doing any major  planting in the field right now so that we can prepare it for the fall season. A major part of this process is staying on top of weeding! Eliminating weeds is important because they pull available nutrients and water from our crops. By getting on top of them now, we should be able to eliminate the amount of weed seeds in the future. Once we tackle the weeds, we’ll be able to move on to bed prep so that we have plenty of space available for fall crops! 

In Season at the Farm Stand: Long Beans, Malabar Spinach, Armenian Cucumbers, Zucchini, Eggplants, and Okra.

As you might have noticed, the recent overcast and rainy weather conditions have been affecting the network signal on the iPad at the Self-Serve Farm Stand. We greatly appreciate your patience with it thus far and fear not as we are currently awaiting the installation of the farm’s internet connection, which should be a long-term solution! In the meantime, the iPad payment system still works the majority of the time (especially on sunny days) but feel free to stop by the Farm Stand while the team is on-site from 7am - 3pm so they can assist with any technical issues that may arise. If an issue occurs when the team is not there, then you can send an email to JordanRanch@Agmenity.com with the veggies you took home and we can help settle the transaction.

While the rainy and cloudy weather hasn’t been beneficial for the iPad, it’s been incredibly helpful in relieving drought issues! Now that the sun seems to be back, we’ll be focusing on preparing our beds for fall crops. And trust us, we’ve got A LOT of them ready to go into the ground! We’re currently tarping several beds to help us get a jump start on weed management. The tarp method works to kill the weeds in the ground by taking away their source of sunlight. Once the weeds are dead, we’ll be able to prep and plant our beds!

Join us in bidding Farmer Caitlin a fond farewell as she moves on to her next venture: grad school! Caitlin will be leaving us today in order to study International Agricultural Development. She has thoroughly enjoyed interacting with our Jordan Ranch community and sharing her love of veggies. And, she feels like she has learned a lot during her time with us that will carry her into her studies. If you happen to see her today, make sure to wish her good luck!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Okra, Asian Eggplants, Italian Eggplants, Cucumbers, Sweet Peppers, Roselle Greens, Egyptian Spinach, and Zinnia Bouquets.

Even though we just transplanted our Molokhia a couple of weeks ago, it’s ready for the first harvest! You’ll be able to find Molokhia at the farm stand starting this weekend. Molokhia, or Egyptian spinach as it is sometimes referred to here in the states, is a plant in the mallow family that produces edible leaves. Since it does incredibly well in hot climates, we’re growing it on the farm as one of our summer greens. Molokhia has a taste similar to spinach and can be used in much the same way. Farmer Alex recommends sauteeing the leaves first then adding it to pasta or lasagna.

In an effort to diversify our summer offerings, we’re growing bitter melon this year! Bitter melon (sometimes referred to as bitter gourd) is a member of the Cucurbitaceae family along with cucumbers, watermelons, and squashes. It has a distinct warty looking exterior and an oblong shape which you can see in the photo below. Since it grows in a vining habit, we have it trellised both for support and for ease of harvesting. We noticed this week that it’s just beginning to set fruit! Hopefully we’ll have the first bitter melons for you to try within the next couple of weeks.

Remember the cover crop of cowpeas we planted last week? One of our goals with this cover crop is to crowd out the nutsedge, a very resilient and pesky weed. Since we are an early stage farm, one of the biggest challenges we face is managing the weed population. Nutsedge (the grassy looking plant between the two small basil plants in the photo below) has proven to be one of the most prominent weeds on the farm, requiring special attention. In addition to cover cropping, we’ve also been intensively hoeing in order to remove it by hand. It’s also been incredibly helpful that it has been a relatively dry year as nutsedge thrives in wet environments. Slowly but surely we’re tackling this weedy nemesis!

In Season at the Farm Stand: Molokhia, Long Beans, Tomatillos, Jalapenos, Sweet Peppers, Tomatoes (last week for these!), Spaghetti Squash, Delicata Squash, Cucumbers, Amaranth Greens, Zucchini, Cousa Squash, Carrots, Beets, and Scallions.

June 9th, 2021

We’re delighted to introduce you to our newest farmer, Alex Serrao! Originally from the Northeast, Alex farmed for five years in that region before making her way down to the Houston area. She was drawn to Houston to learn more about the climate and year-round growing season. Farmer Alex begins this week, stepping in to fill the space left by Farmer Josh as he moves on to another Agmenity farm. Both Farmers Kim and Alex are excited to be part of an all-female farming team and are eager to grow food for the community!

Now that we’ve had a few days without rain, we’ve been able to tackle the most arduous of farming tasks: weeding. While hand-weeding our melons, we noticed the first fruits on the vine! We’re growing Sugar Baby watermelons and Arava melons. Arava is a type of tropical Galia melon that has a netted yellowish skin and green flesh. After falling in love with their aroma and sweetness last summer, we knew we had to include these incredibly delicious melons in our crop plan this year. Farmer Kim estimates that we are about six weeks away from the first melon harvest.

We added a trellis system for our long beans this week and they are already beginning to make the vertical climb. We expect that they will begin flowering and setting fruit within the next week or two. Chinese long beans, sometimes referred to as yardlong beans, asparagus beans, or snake beans, produce edible pods that can reach up to 18 inches in length. The crisp and tender pods can be enjoyed just as you would a standard green bean.

March 24th, 2021

We direct-seeded cowpeas in the high tunnel this week and we’re pretty excited because these are seeds that were collected and saved from our crop last year! Our hope is that we can start to do this with more of our crops in the future. These cowpeas are a variety called “Red Ripper” and they can be enjoyed fresh or dried. Cowpeas like the heat of summer so we opted to plant them in the warmth of the high tunnel to get a head start. The awesome thing about cowpeas is that they are an edible cover crop. Cover crops work to manage soil erosion, improve soil texture, reduce weeds, and in the case of cowpeas, fix beneficial nitrogen back to the soil.

In addition to cowpeas, we planted Hopi Turquoise corn. We direct-seeded four rows with this heirloom variety as well as a couple of trays in the greenhouse. Heirloom varieties can often have spotty germination rates so we’re hoping to be able to use the seeds started in the greenhouse to fill in any gaps in our rows as needed. Hopi Turquoise corn gets its name from the Hopi, an indigenous tribe of the American Southwest. This variety has adapted to the harsh climate of the Southwest over many generations making it more drought tolerant and robust than traditional corn.

Aside from planting we’ve been doing a lot of spring cleaning on the farm which involves weed control. Weeds love the spring weather as much as we do so as we’ve transitioned from winter to spring, we’ve seen a sharp increase in weed growth. The key with depleting the weed seed bank is to remove weeds before they have a chance to go to seed. Using either hand tools or our trusty scuffle hoe, we’re aiming to get the weeds under control by the end of this month so that summer crop planting goes as seamlessly as possible.

If you’re out and about and want to support restaurants that are using our produce, we delivered iceberg lettuce to Chef Justin Yu at Better Luck Tomorrow and mixed greens to Squable.