Category Archives: summer

Purple Haze Carrots and Other Veggies

Standard

This record breaking summer heat and drought is making for miserable working conditions for Missouri farmers.   Dean & I are a part of the local agriculture scene, though we farm more for organic promotion, recreation, and creation purposes.    For the farmer who is required to be outdoors all day and everyday, it is disheartening to see your crops dry up and wither in the sun.  My friends at EarthDance Farms as well as all the local farmers cannot seed any more carrots, beets, and beans for a fall crop because the earth is rock hard, and the seeds cannot germinate without rain.  I miss my favorites: purple haze carrot, candy cane beets, and tender  bush green beans!   Please pray for rains, several rains for Missouri and our neighboring midwest states.  We need God’s divine intervention. Deanna Greens and Garden Art’s tropicals and houseplants such as bird of paradise, hibuscus, banana trees, spider plants, red leaf philodenrens, arrowheads, rabbit foot ferns, and asparagus ferns love this heat and humidty as long as they are under our shade trees during the day and have plenty of water.  We water everything twice a day when it is over 100 degrees, which means almost everyday for the past 6 weeks!  Our oldest daughter took care of the plants, cats, and house while we vacationed in cooler Minnesota.  We were so thankful for a much needed break!   Now onward to the Saturday markets and the rebuild of our greenhouse.

I’m Dreaming of A White Christmas …

Standard

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas …”  I am!  I had enough of these 100 + temp days!  How about you?  Well, if I cannot have a white Christmas right now, I will settle for milder summer days in the north woods of Minnesota with friends. 

Dean & I are headed there for a few days!  Need  to hear the loons once again! 

Lemonade Summer Evening

Standard

It is a lemonade summer evening, maybe the hard lemonade kind tonight.  Trying to make lemonade out of lemons!  We had 2 vehicles break down this past week, one fixed and another one to go.  Then we had a fender-bender with our white beast of a van this morning parking near my work in Clayton.   Did not damage the beast, but the nervous lady’s Mercedes luxury sedan has some damage near the bumper.   I think Dean will be ready for that spiked lemonade.  Maybe watch a summer rain storm come in tonight.  What is your favorite lemonade?  I found a recipe for Lavender Lemonade, and adapted it to suit my tastes.  I cannot wait to try with the crop of lavender in harvest season right now.  This herb is beautiful, fragrant, and so versatile.  Where is the bottle of vodka in this picture???

The Movement of A Summer Storm

Standard

St. Louis, Missouri and surrounding areas have encountered 10 days in a row of record high temperatures, triple digits with no or trace rain for almost a month.  The corn is turning gray and rustles with the wind like fall leaves. We have had to water our plants 2 times a day during the drought.  God, the plants need rain!  Nothing beats real rain water!  It finally brewed up yesterday, some places more so than others.  We marketed at the Chandler Hill Vineyards Farmers’ Market yesterday afternoon, watching the clouds turn to thunderheads and shift different directions.  Wind gusts would sway the tents one direction and switch in another minute.  Maybe movement for the better?  On our trip home we left the storm further behind us.  Awesome views while in the wine country hills of Defiance.  But yesterday evening finally my hometown St. Peters received 1/4 – 1/2″ of rain with the summer storm.   My cats even seemed curious about that rumbling outside.  We had not heard this in weeks.  Hallelujah, our rain buckets are full now!  Our plants are saying “aaahhh!”  Another summer storm is brewing up this afternoon.  Maybe more rain?!