Henry’s Acres
Spring/Summer 2023 –
The spring planting went well. Successfully germinated lettuce, radishes, arugula carrots. I decided to do a “less is more” approach:. Farming in South Carolina is a joy and you can farm year round pretty much. I took down my cheap green-house as it was coming apart after less than two years. I will not build a shed, I have plastice storage containers under tarps and that works well. I will not buid a wash-pack station. I bought 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 can protect plants in the winter with row cover. The super-freeze we had in December 2022 did minimal damage to the lettuce and if i had plastice row cover there would have been no damage. I did lose the collards but they were100% unprotected. This summer the goal is to push lettuce thru the summer so I bought heat tolerant lettuce from Urban Farmer website. The lettuce varieties are Grand Rapid, Prize Head, Royal Oak and romain (Jerico). Started indoors with soil blocks and also direct seeded 1/2 a row in April. I purchashed shade cloth and will see if I can keep planting and growing throughout the summer. My lettuce usually is done by June 15th. Carrots are coming up and will be ready end of May begining of June. Radishes are ready to go. I will plant a variety of hot peppers. No real market for them but they are fun. I may have to give them away. For summer we will plant Blue Lake bushbeans (1 50′ row every two weeks.) They beans look 100% better than anything in the store and they sell well. We will also grew cucumbers on a trellis and try cateloupe (trellis) for the first time.
The interest in our food is still steady. I was able to pay off the farm loan so now anything we make we can keep or re-invest back into the farm.
The chickens are now grown and are happy running around in a big 500×500 fenced wooded area where they forage and hang out all day. The electric fence is working and they have not been attacked at night. They are living the dream life. They are “free rangers” for sure and we will keep them even after they stop producing eggs. We intend this to be their “forever home”
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.