Henry’s Acres

Summer 2025 –

Hello everyone! Thanks for checking my site. Last year we had a couple coyotes come thru and kill all our chickens in broad daylight. The chicken coop is right next to our house. It was a pretty brazen attack. Actually there were two attacks spaced 3-4 days apart. I have since replaced our chickens with 8 more. The coyotes have moved on (for now) and I try and move the chickens between 3 locations so if the coyotes come back they can’t detect a pattern. The chickens are happy and safe and are pumping out 2.5 to 3 dozen eggs a week. The spring planting went well. I have focused on radishes and lettuce. Both are big sellers. The planting starts in March and the germination is great. I have decided the main “go to” crop in the summer will be ocra. It is really the only plant that can hang in the heat. Green beans (Provider) always look great and are big sellers but they suffer when the temperature gets into the high 90s and 100. Usually August is when this occurs and the blooms literally fall off the bush. I planted okra mid summer in 2024 and it thrived in the heat so this year is when I will see if going “all in” on okra works out. I suspect it will be an issue trying to preserve the pods once picked as they don’t hold their taste and shape for much more than 3-4 days after being picked. If you leave them until the day before selling, they get too big. The second crop that doesn’t mind the heat are hot peppers (jalapenos and habaneros). Not much money in these but they are fun to grow. I am also growing bell peppers. They are slow to start but will keep cranking out peppers into October. Bell peppers also suffer from the heat and will simply stop producing when it gets too hot. I did plant 1 row of green beans and they look great. They will be picked in mid June. Carrots have also been planted at the end of April and will be ready beginning of July. Big sellers and not hard to grow. I still use labels that say: “Wash Me! Fresh Off The Farm” and our awesome customers are good with that. There is nothing really to wash off except maybe some dirt since I put nothing on any of the food. (I do use neem oil when I have small plants and the bugs are eating them.) The lettuces are heat tolerant from Urban Farmer website. The lettuce varieties are Grand Rapid, Prize Head, Royal Oak and Romain (Jerico). I use shade cloth (lettuce). My lettuce usually is done by June 15th.

Thanks for reading!

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We grow your food with no herbicides, pesticides or chemicals of any kind. We are small non-certified organic farm located in Rock Hill South Carolina. We use no-dig and no till practices. Only inputs are compost, azomite (rock dust) and CoopPoop fertilizer. See the FAQ section for more info.