Aunt Sue's Barn
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About the farm
This farm is just beginning.
We have developed less than 4 of the 10 acres we have here so what you see is going to change - possibly by the next time you log onto the web site! Even if you can't see the changes externally they are going on inside.
Our goal is to provides a delicious, healthy product, grown with organic methods to the local community. The local community is defined as the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
When we pick up a package of berries in the store that comes from the north east, west coast or even South America, we recognize not only how long ago that fruit was picked, but what it cost to bring it to our table. The fuel, the labor and the time. The farmer sees very little of what you may have paid for that product and family farms are on the decline in this country. More importantly, the fruit cannot be picked fully ripe and still sustain the shipping/delivery process with the same firmness and flavor that Mother Nature provides right off the plant. For that reason we are growing what we love.
Although we love berries, we are also grow stone fruits. We have a small existing orchard of 15-20 peach and plum trees and have just added another 70 trees this last winter. Some of those just added are very young pomegranate cuttings, several year old apricot trees and the remainder are young peach trees.The new trees will take another 2-3 years before they are producing well.
We have close to 1000 thorned and thornless blackberries. We overplanted 1000 roots this spring and did not have the capability to manage that expansion, so sometimes things don't work out as we had planned. Trying to grow faster than we can accommodate is a learning experience.
We are working hard at providing fabulous raspberries! We have several hundred red and yellow raspberries, as well as black raspberries and wyeberries (blackberry and raspberry cross). Some of these are new and we are experimenting however, once you taste a freshly picked ripe raspberry you wil have difficulty with the store bought varieties! New in 2009 are a northern fall variety that have taken off and we hope can sustain our summers with sufficient mulch and drip irrigation. We chose these because they grow on current year growth, meaning there is no pruning of the vines for next year - they are mowed over once production has ceased saving hours of labor.
We almost left off the asparagus! We planted 400+ crowns in in January and they are UP!!! Can't wait til next year to harvest some of these. Pictures of these are on the pictures tab!
When we thought of what to grow, we decided to grow something we love, so everything you see growing here is what we enjoy ourselves! More importantly, we believe that life should be a never ending educational experience and for that reason we are constantly studying, reading, talking, and trying to learn about agriculture. Every year is a chance to do things better, maybe different, maybe try new ideas - it takes time, money and labor and love for the land and what it can produce. We only get one chance each year to see how something we're trying works, and then we have to regroup for next year.
Square foot gardening - We are just putting the square foot gardens in.We found some old miniblinds and are using those as the cross section dividers and getting ready to plant a fall garden this way. We're already put the mix of 50% compost, 25% perlite and 25% peat moss in the bed and cultivated it in. If you're interested in helping or maintaining it to learn, just let us know. We will be putting a coldframe over these this winter and plan on growing spinach and some other small crops there. As a farm member you are welcome to come learn with us. If you aren't a current farm member but would like to attend a workshop we will be offering those to the people on the waiting list membership also.
Update - I gave up on the mini blind thing because the ones I salvaged from the trash were wide and took up too much space - went to some bailing twine and then some pink twine from Home Depot and see how that works. The two smaller ones are 4 x 8 ' and I would have prefered that I not raise them as I did her but they're there now so it's what I have now. The poles are for some fall beans I am going to put in along with peppers, tomatoes and a host of squash. We're also putting in some low beds for later in the year and next spring.
We have developed less than 4 of the 10 acres we have here so what you see is going to change - possibly by the next time you log onto the web site! Even if you can't see the changes externally they are going on inside.
Our goal is to provides a delicious, healthy product, grown with organic methods to the local community. The local community is defined as the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
When we pick up a package of berries in the store that comes from the north east, west coast or even South America, we recognize not only how long ago that fruit was picked, but what it cost to bring it to our table. The fuel, the labor and the time. The farmer sees very little of what you may have paid for that product and family farms are on the decline in this country. More importantly, the fruit cannot be picked fully ripe and still sustain the shipping/delivery process with the same firmness and flavor that Mother Nature provides right off the plant. For that reason we are growing what we love.
Although we love berries, we are also grow stone fruits. We have a small existing orchard of 15-20 peach and plum trees and have just added another 70 trees this last winter. Some of those just added are very young pomegranate cuttings, several year old apricot trees and the remainder are young peach trees.The new trees will take another 2-3 years before they are producing well.
We have close to 1000 thorned and thornless blackberries. We overplanted 1000 roots this spring and did not have the capability to manage that expansion, so sometimes things don't work out as we had planned. Trying to grow faster than we can accommodate is a learning experience.
We are working hard at providing fabulous raspberries! We have several hundred red and yellow raspberries, as well as black raspberries and wyeberries (blackberry and raspberry cross). Some of these are new and we are experimenting however, once you taste a freshly picked ripe raspberry you wil have difficulty with the store bought varieties! New in 2009 are a northern fall variety that have taken off and we hope can sustain our summers with sufficient mulch and drip irrigation. We chose these because they grow on current year growth, meaning there is no pruning of the vines for next year - they are mowed over once production has ceased saving hours of labor.
We almost left off the asparagus! We planted 400+ crowns in in January and they are UP!!! Can't wait til next year to harvest some of these. Pictures of these are on the pictures tab!
When we thought of what to grow, we decided to grow something we love, so everything you see growing here is what we enjoy ourselves! More importantly, we believe that life should be a never ending educational experience and for that reason we are constantly studying, reading, talking, and trying to learn about agriculture. Every year is a chance to do things better, maybe different, maybe try new ideas - it takes time, money and labor and love for the land and what it can produce. We only get one chance each year to see how something we're trying works, and then we have to regroup for next year.
Square foot gardening - We are just putting the square foot gardens in.We found some old miniblinds and are using those as the cross section dividers and getting ready to plant a fall garden this way. We're already put the mix of 50% compost, 25% perlite and 25% peat moss in the bed and cultivated it in. If you're interested in helping or maintaining it to learn, just let us know. We will be putting a coldframe over these this winter and plan on growing spinach and some other small crops there. As a farm member you are welcome to come learn with us. If you aren't a current farm member but would like to attend a workshop we will be offering those to the people on the waiting list membership also.
Update - I gave up on the mini blind thing because the ones I salvaged from the trash were wide and took up too much space - went to some bailing twine and then some pink twine from Home Depot and see how that works. The two smaller ones are 4 x 8 ' and I would have prefered that I not raise them as I did her but they're there now so it's what I have now. The poles are for some fall beans I am going to put in along with peppers, tomatoes and a host of squash. We're also putting in some low beds for later in the year and next spring.
