Joe's Farm

Squash Bugs - Burn In Hell?

2014-08-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, squash bugs can burn in hell. They can all die and burn in the fourth circle of hell because their gluttonous ways have destroyed my squash plants, yet again. They are bad insects and I do not care for them. As you can see on this poorly shot but extremely exciting video below I have made the squash bugs pay the ultimate price. I do not apologize for these actions. We at Joe's Farm like to take swift and decisive action when it comes to squash bugs. If Joe's Farm cannot enjoy the finest squash this world has ever seen then neither can the squash bugs.

When dealing with squash bugs some people might use insecticides or organic insecticide soaps. Some people like to use a food grade diatomaceous earth that they sprinkle around the base of their plants and let their little microscopic razor blades cut up the stupid squash bug. We at Joe's Farm use a scorched earth policy followed up by a squish and smash campaign where we root the squash bug out of their hiding places after the squash plant has been ripped from the ground and set on fire.

Squash Bugs - Love Them or Hate Them?

2014-07-19T15:27:00.002-07:00

Squash Bugs - Love Them or Hate Them?

We at Joes Farm hate them. Why, you might ask? Because they are stupid bugs that kill my squash plants year after year. This year the joke is on the stupid squash bugs. The joke is a 2 part joke.

Part A: Jokes on them because we have already harvested enough squash that if we lined it up end to end it might go to the moon and back. We harvested so much squash that we had to give it away. This is a problem that we have never experienced on Joes Farm up until this year when we revolutionized farming with our never before seen irrigation system. Our squash harvest is nearly done for the summer, suckers.

Part B: Jokes on them because I am going to rain down fire upon the stupid squash bugs and they are going to die a fiery death at the hands of my flame throwing torch. I will post pictures of this at a later date. I have a BBQ to go to and I cannot tend to this right now.

Here are some pictures of the stupid squash bugs and their stupid family. They will pay the ultimate price for attacking Joes Farm.

If you love squash bugs or hate them, Joes Farm would love to hear why. Post a comment.

Beets

2014-06-05T21:51:00.001-07:00

Joes Farm is back to talk about something important. That something important is beets. Joes Farm grows the crap out of them. Our results speak for themselves.

This is Joes Farm Beet field in the beginning of the season.

This is the first harvest of the year. It was incredible! Beet farming in the desert.

These are the beet greens from the first harvest that was shown in the previous picture. Not only can we grow the finest vegetables around but we can cook them better than anyone, ever.

These are the beets and the beet greens on a plate on display ready to eat. The dark red are a detroit style beet and the light color are chiogga beets. Both are equally delicious. If you eat a lot of beets don't be concerned the next day when going to the bathroom. The beets make your poop and pee red.

This is a bag full of beets from our second harvest of beets. The beet greens were substantial, as you can clearly see.

These are the beets from the second harvest at Joes Farm. The beets were of many different sizes. I put a tennis ball in there as a reference. It is yellow.

These are beets from last year. they were part of a test run on beets. They were huge. I mean softball sized huge. They convinced us to double down on beets this year.

These are the beets from last year fresh from the old beet roaster. They were good.

Big Juicy Melons

2013-08-12T22:46:00.001-07:00

Joes Farms Loves Big Juicy Melons!

Lucky for us, we just happen to have a pair of big juicy succulent melons here on Joes Farm. To the long time Joes Farm readers you might remember the melon harvest of '09. The '09 melons were plentiful, juicy and the finest of fine tasting melons in the history of cultivated melons. We at Joes Farm have never tasted such a fine melon.

Since that record setting inaugural melon harvest of '09 we have been struggling in the juicy melon department. We had exploding watermelons in 2010. The damn melons exploded then they were eaten by ants.

In 2011 we were battling squash bugs. Those asshole bugs seem to target any kind of vine type plant. I hate squash bugs. 2012 I don't recall what the hell happened. This year, things are different, so far.

I know what you are thinking, Joes Farm, what is different about this year. Well I will tell you. The difference is water. Turns out I was not watering fields 3 and 4 enough. I thought I was but I was not. I found out this spring when a wise gardener paid Joes Farm a visit in the early days of the 2013 growing season. When Joes Farm thought the water was adequate but it was not. Joes Farm took measures to increase the frequency of watering and we also used cutting edge technology to automate the task of irrigation.

Now, Check out the big juicy melons.

These are some older photos of the juicy melons that are growing as wee speak.

These are some current pictures of the big juicy melons. I like the way they look. The melon harvest of '09 produced the best tasting melon ever eaten. If these taste half as good we are going to be in good shape.

Happy Farming!

Love,

Joes Farm

Beet The Beets Up

2013-08-05T22:57:00.000-07:00

Joes Farm Is Back!!!

After a short hiatus Joes Farm returns. I have been receiving feed back from avid Joes Farm readers from all over the world to please bring Joes Farm to its former glory. While I put the blog on hold the farm has been moving full steam ahead. We are constantly growing, cultivating, and nurturing Joes Farm.

The most recent win for Joes Farm was our first beet harvest. We started cultivating these beets from seed many, many moons ago. The beets are a Detroit Deep Dark Red and super delicious. These were one of our new test crops and based on the performance of this initial harvest Joes Farm will be inserting the Detroit Deep Dark Red and super delicious into the regular planting rotation. Joes Farm has also acquired some more exotic forms of beet seeds to test out on Joes Farm.

Joes Farm made a recent visit to Whole Foods. We normally don't need to purchase produce from Whole Foods but we wanted to run a head to head competition with high grade commercially raised organic USA Grade A+++ Beets. It would be the Whole Foods high grade commercially raised organic USA Grade A+++ Beets VS. Joes Farm Detroit Deep Dark Red and super delicious Beets.

From the start Joes Farm was out number by the empire of Whole Foods. It was a real David and Goliath situation. We purchased 2 bundles of 3 beets from Whole Foods and we harvested both beets from Joes Farm.

You can see from the photographic evidence below that Joes Farm beets and Whole Foods Beets were different colors. That is also what I noticed first too.

Once we harvested and cleaned the beets from Joes Farm and the beets from Whole Foods we greased them up, salted them, wrapped them in foil, and roasted them at 425 for damn near 2 hours. Keep in mind that these were some gigantic beets. We don't mess with no little beets on Joes Farm.

For everyone out there who is less experienced with beets than we are at Joes Farm You can easily peel the skin off the beets once you let them cool. It is important that you let them cool because they are probably 425 degrees when you take the out of the oven. Joes Farm Detroit Deep Dark Red and super delicious Beets were not as easy to peel the skin off of probably because they were a higher quality beet. After peeling them we put them in Joes Farm Refrigerator in some of Joes Farm Tupperware. The next day we went ahead and cut the beets up and ate them on a beet salad. It was outstanding. It turns out that Joes Farm Beets were neck and neck with Whole Foods high grade commercially raised organic USA Grade A+++ Beets.

Free Sneaker Contest

2011-10-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

Joes Farmers, Go to http://www.tips4running.com/ follow the instructions to enter and possibly win a free pair of running shoes!!! Joes Farm was interviewed on this awesome and informative website http://www.tips4running.com/ . We talked about my competitive running and sustainable farming methods. So check it out if anyone still reads the Joes Farm Blog.

2011-06-08T11:36:00.001-07:00

Joes farm announces the launch of a new mobile site. Get breaking farm news on the go from anywhere in the world.

The Rapture

2011-05-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

The Rapture was big news for a few days and everyone said the crazy old man Harold Camping was wrong. Well, Joes Farm is here to tell you that he was right and there was a rapture. Although the rapture did not occur as Harold Camping had predicted on May 22nd, 2011, it did indeed happen. We at Joes Farm were able to witness and participate in the rapture one day late on May 23rd, 2011. The rapture did not involve people it involved demon squash bugs. It was not god that performed this rapture it was the hand of Joes Farm that reached down and raptured the hell out of these squash bugs. It was an joyous rapture to witness.

For the seasoned Joes Farm reader you are familiar with the problems that we had last year with squash bugs. They decimated the squash harvest and we went with out last year. This year we were able to identify and deal with the squash bugs before they have became an issue. We are not in the clear just yet but things are looking good.

When the squash bugs were first identified the hand of Joes Farm struck down the squash bugs and their filthy offspring with a good old fashioned rapture. We then followed that up with some research on the squash bugs. The first thing that we found in our research is that they suck. The second thing that we found was that there are not many organic ways to deal with these filthy insects. The best information that we were able to find is that they need to be dealt with by hand. So we started to squash the squash bugs. We knew from last year that they also stink when you squish them.

After sending those squash bugs to hell we had to put an end to the vicious cycle and find the eggs. The squash bugs lay their eggs on the bottom of the leaves of the plant and they are pretty easy to see. The approach that we took on Joes Farm was to cut the leaves off that had eggs on them and then set them on fire. This may seem like a drastic measure but if you had suffered the loss that Joes Farm did last year you would understand. Joes Farm had a score to settle.

The battle has been won, but the war continues on. The squash bug is sneaky combatant. They hide towards the bottom of the plant and come out at night. They suck the juices from the squash plant and they inject poison. If you see one there are bound to be more so you must be vigilant in your squash bug defense.

Here are some photos of the rapture.

Dead Squash bugs

Squash bug eggs

Squash bugs and their eggs burning in grill hell

Celebrate Good Times

2011-05-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

May 14th will prove to be a great celebration at Joes Farm. Why? Because May 14th is naked gardening day. Joes Farm appreciates the human form and so should you. So why not celebrate with friends and family? Get naked and go do some farming. Here are some naked farming resources.

For naked farming information:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43018053/ns/today-today_people/t/not-dirty-play-dirt-world-naked-gardening-day?GT1=43001

For the Official Naked Farming website:

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK
http://www.wngd.org/

Amending Soils

2011-04-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

The questions are flowing in almost faster than we are able to handle these days on Joesfarm.blogspot.com. No need to worry, we will find a way to answer the questions in between harvests and crop cultivation. Our latest question was submitted to us from Jim OC who is representing the bitter cold northeastern United States of America.

Jim OC, The northeast of the United States of America is a region that I am all to familiar with. I am a little concerned for your farm this coming season. In a perfect world you would have turned that lawn over last fall and mixed in some manure or perhaps some leftover leaves and other organic materials and just mixed that into a big hot steaming pile of dirt and organics. This way you give it the winter to join together in the form of healthy, nutrient rich soil that will turn out some of the finest vegetables east of the Mississippi, north of the Mason Dixon line, south of Oswego, and northeast from Marcellus. Long story short, they would have been delicious, nutritious, and bountiful.

You are going to be alright. You are blessed with good soils in the northeast, so if you heed Joes Farm advice everything will come up aces.

At this late stage of the game Jim OC this is going to be my personalized game plan for your farm.

Step 1 - Just dig up that grass and maybe use that to start your compost pile.

Step 2 - OCRRA is the location http://www.ocrra.org/yardwaste_sites.asp and get as much compost as you can carry, wear cargo pants and put some in your pockets. If you have it available bring a wagon, or you could go to the local nursery and purchase some compost from them.

Step 3 - Extract the compost from your person and wagon from step 2 and till it into your field.

Step 4 - Stop! and let it sit for a few days to a week to settle in. while this is under way make sure to plan the farm layout.

Step 5 - Farm Time! - Plant your crops

Step 6 - And then eat your crops

Step 7 - Redistribute your crops. Your farm is so abundant that there is no possible way that you could ever eat that many vegetables.

Step 8 - MMM, Solve world hunger.

JimOC, if you ever get into a pinch and forget a step of the plan just think JoesFarm and you will remember. It is proven to work. Look at this carrot harvest from Joes Farm.

Joes Farm Carrot Spokes Model of the Year 2011

Congratulations Susan!!!

Joes Farm Fans

2011-03-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this time and valuable web page real estate to spend some time answering a user submitted question. The question is from Larson & Sons Farm in Baltimore Maryland. Larson & Sons Farm asked about the different varieties of wood that was used in the construction of Joes Farm. Larson & Sons Farm has been a supporter of Joes Farm from Joes Farms inception. While Larson & Sons Farm is thousands if not millions of miles away from Joes Farm they have been there every step of the way.

For those who have been following Joes Farm from the early days know, we (Joes Farm) built our first field out of cinder blocks. We chose cinder block because it was inexpensive and easy to use. After the first season of farming, Joes Farm knew that cinder block was not going to cut it. The reasons for that are the lack of soil depth and the overwhelming heat that the cinder blocks absorbed. Joes Farm then scoured the world looking for alternatives. We found that there are some affordable options available for field construction. Pressure treated lumber was recommended by the Home Depot but the fact that it is laden with chemicals it was crossed off the list.

Through Joes farm research we were able to decide on Premium Douglas Fir. It comes in a variety of sizes and did not have the pressure treated chemical after taste. It is more affordable that the finer woods like cedar and redwood. I would also recommend a pine or a maple. They come in untreated planks like the premium Doug fir and are in the same price range. There are options available in composites but Joes Farm wanted to stay one with nature. What we give up by choosing untreated wood and non-composite wood is longevity. Joes Farm is starting to see some deterioration on the older fields after one year. That is the trade off that has to be made.

Just thinking out loud right now, I think another option would be to head on over to Patterson Park and chop down a Horse Chestnut or a Babylon Weeping Willow. That might present some logistical issues and I don't imagine you have access to a saw mill. Good brain storm. Any how, my suggestion to you would be to look into some Premium Douglas Fir, Pine, or Maple from the local hardware store.

Happy farming to Larson & Sons Farm and all of the other Joes Farm Fans.

Spring 2011 Outlook

2011-03-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

Joes Farm is once again going full steam ahead and plowing through spring 2011. Warm weather has returned and we have big bold plans for Joes Farm again. Due to the incredible performance of Joes Farm over the past several seasons we have recently received approval from our land trustee to more than double the size of Joes Farm. Needless to say we (Joes Farm) are delighted.

The construction of the additional fields is nearly complete. Our last and most important step is the creation of the world famous Joes Farm soil. This is no easy task. We are awaiting the delivery of the aggregate to complete this mixture.The aggregate is only a small part of Joes Farm world famous soil mixture. The most important portion of this mixture comes from the i care organics composting/vermicomposting facility that is operated by Joes Farm. Joes Farm i care oragnics compost and vermicompost is proudly made by Americans for Americans. Upon completion of the soil creation Joes Farm is going to begin planting crops in the new fields. We (Joes Farm) already have crops growing in the older more established fields. Winter crops are nearing harvest, spring time crops are growing by leaps and bounds, and Summer Crops are in the Joes Farm incubator.

Here are the new fields as they are being built. Please Enjoy.

STORM WATCH 2011

2011-01-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Joes Farm brings you good tidings for the new year. We had a monstrously successful year on the farm in 2010 and there is no doubt that 2011 will bring another record breaking harvest. Although we have the highest hopes for 2011 it has had a rough beginning.

Much like the rest of the country, Joes Farm has been under the grips of STORM WATCH 2011. We have been receiving arctic blasts of cold air and blizzards of biblical proportions. With temperatures plummeting as low as 30 degrees. While the farm is still thriving we did have our concerns. Our fans and followers have also had their concerns. I wanted to assure everyone in the world that Joes Farm not only survived STORM WATCH 2011 but that we thrived in during STORM WATCH 2011. Thank you all for your concern. Below is a picture of the damage and destruction from the winter storm that ravaged the las vegas valley.

Joe's Farm Gives Thanks

2010-11-25T14:42:00.000-08:00

We have so much to be thankful at Joes Farm. We are healthy, wealthy, and wise over here at Joes Farm. I credit most of that health, wealth, and wisdom to the high quality produce that is jam packed with vitamins and minerals that we grow at Joes Farm.

I am taking a quick break away from the kitchen and the farm to write this update. We had a bit of a disaster last night that was caused by the freezing temperatures that have rolled into Las Vegas. The tomato and pepper plants that were turning out natures bounty have died as a result of the freezing cold temperatures.

As we always do on Joes Farm, we look at the positive side of things. We had a thanksgiving miracle today with a record harvest of green bell peppers. We also bagged a few tomatoes and jalapeno peppers.

This is what we are thankful for today at Joes Farm.
Feel free to share with us what you are thankful for today by writing a comment below.

Deal of a Lifetime

2010-08-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have never done anything like this on the Joes Farm blog and I am a little concerned that I am opening Pandora's box. But, I found one heck of a deal today on http://www.woot.com/ and I would not be able to live with myself if I did not pass on this steal of a deal on to all the faithful Joes farm blog readers. They are giving away ecomposters with a spider base. If you love sustainable "organic" micro farming like I do then you need to make your own compost and with deals like this how can you not get one. I would buy one but I already have a state of the art ecomposter with a 120 gallon capacity.

So if you don't have a composting facility already, take a look at this. Composting is good for the planet, good for the farm, and it is fun for the whole family. Act now! They probably will sell out soon after this is posted.

The Dog Days of August

2010-08-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

We are back to the farm after a long hot July. This July was the hottest July in the history of the world. That is science. The temperatures in Las Vegas have never been hotter. The farm took a beating but kept on producing. I could not be happier.

Due to the overwhelming power of the Las Vegas sun in the hottest month in the history of the world I was forced to install a state of the art sun shade to help protect my crops against the destructive solar rays. The crops did sustain some damage over the past several weeks. I did my best to help the crops pull through. I had two beautiful watermelons growing before the onset of heatwave 2010. I do not exactly what happened to them but I can only blame their demise on the heat. One day when I was inspecting the melons I felt around to the backside and they both had gaping cracks in them. I turned them around and found that they had both split open and had become infested with little garden critters. It was like the ants and beetles were having dinner at the Bellagio buffet, only it wasn't the Bellagio buffet it was my watermelons. When I saw this I became enraged with anger and I broke them off and smashed them on the ground. In hindsight I should have taken some photos, but this time the anger won.

Some positive notes from the farm.

we harvested out first potato

The watermelon plants are going full steam ahead and there is a new watermelon that is growing at an alarming rate.

There are some bell peppers that are doing pretty well. you can see that some of them are sustaining damage from the suns harmful rays.

This is a wide shot of the garden. The Watermelon plants are taking over the garden right now. latching on to the tomato plants. They have plenty of blossoms and I have bees cruising around everyday. The watermelon outlook is good.

Here you can see the zucchini plants. I have been dealing with an infestation of what I believe to be squash bugs. I have dealt with them in the harshest way I know how, but they keep coming back.

I have some big things planned for the farm and on how to make this blog even more interesting and educational. Stay tuned and thank you for your continued support and interest.

Return To Joes Farm

2010-06-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

After a long absence I have returned to Joes Farm. I left the farm in the capable hands of my brother. He nurtured and cared for the farm as he cares for his baby, Toots, that is growing inside of his wife's stomach right now. I came home to a lush jungle of tomatoes, watermelon, peppers, zucchini, and corn to name few. Since the creation of Joes Farm I now understand what it feels like to be a parent that births, nurtures, cares for, and loves their child. I now have a mature full grown garden that has made me so very proud.

Today marked the first successful tomato harvest in the history of Joes Farm. It was a momentous occasion and we celebrated on the farm by eating some of those tomatoes. Which I might add were the most delicious tomatoes ever grown or eaten. The tomatoes harvested today were the heatwave variety. Last year we did harvest tomatoes but as a self respecting farmer I can't say that that I was successful. They were not big, beautiful, red, ripe, and delicious. Here at Joes Farm we demand excellence in our produce production.

We have some good growth in progress on our pepper plants and we were able to harvest a few cucumbers upon returning to the farm. There were not any pictures taken of the cucumbers because they were not around long enough for pictures to be taken. I can attest that they were some wonderful tasting cucumbers. Below are pictures of the peppers in the process of growing and the cucumber plant that produced the aforementioned cucumbers.

Next up we have a photo that shows cases the second field where you will able to see zucchini, corn, and some tomatoes. What you probably cannot see are the cantaloupe and watermelon that are growing in the back of the field. I am also including a close up of the zucchini plants that are growing like gang busters but have yet to produce any zucchini's. You will also see the corn stalks popping up around the edges.

April Update

2010-05-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

April was a good and bad month on the farm. Things have been pretty busy so I have not been able to update the blog lately. These photos were taken a couple weeks ago, so they don't fully convey the prolific growth of the crops at joes farm. I will be updating again soon so that you can see with you own eyes what happens on joes farm. Below are a few photos to get you caught up. The bad things that have happened on the farm have been caused by the winds. We had a few days with extreme winds. One day we had gusts around 70 mph. The beans did not like that and got a little beat up. One of the cucumber plants took a real beat down and may not pull through. We will just have to wait and see.

Pictures:

1. this is a potato plant that I got started in the pantry.

2. This is a tomato plant that is growing out of the main composter at the i care organics composting facility

3. these are all the containers that I am working with tomatoes, cucs, beans, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

4. These are the beans that I am growing.

5. This is the main field. If you saw it now you would not recognize it. Tommie's in the back. Peppers and watermelon up front.

6. Here is a close up of some blossoms on the tomato plant. I only have a few tomatoes forming right now. i did some research and apparently it is too cool at night for fruit to set yet. That is science.

7.This is field #2. These are some flowers, corn, and other varieties of tomatoes. I got the flowers to try and attract some more bees to the fields. the marigolds are also supposed to keep some pests away from the tomato plants but i don't know what pests. there are a couple cantaloupe and watermelon plants in the rear of field #2.

Guess This Plant

2010-04-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

Out here on Joes Farm in the the heart of the mojave desert in Las Vegas, Nevada we seem to have a mystery plant. I thought it might have been a brussel sprout plant. Then I looked up pictures of the brussel sprout on the internet and found that it infact was not. So I have decided to hold a fun and educational contest here on Joes Farm.

Guess this plant!
Please leave a comment on what the hell this thing is.

The Farm at Night

2010-04-06T23:02:00.000-07:00

Things have been progressing very nicely on Joes Farm. We have almost completed the phase II of the farm remodel. The last step will be to harvest the existing crops and plant some new ones once the new high quality nutrient rich Joes Farm custom mixed farming soil is prepared. We have some tomatos, peppers, beans, watermelon, cucumbers, and melon working right now. Everything is progressing pretty nicely. We have a few tomato blossoms that are opening themsleves up to the world. Below are a few night time photos of the farm. I decided that i wanted to show a different side of the farm to all the loyal followers out there.

This is a a close up of a couple of brandywine heirloom tomato plants the one nearest to the camera is showing a big, beautiful blossom.

This next photo is a picture of field #1 this field is planted with tomatos, peppers, watermelon, and beans.

This is Field #2. This construction is still in process. this has some holdover crops.

Joe's Farm Cares

2010-03-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed weeks ago that we were raising money on Joe's Farm to help Red Cross disaster relief in Haiti. The amount of money raised was probably very large based on the traffic that Joe's Farm generates. Even though money is tight in these difficullt times Joe's Farm does not stop caring. Let me be very clear, we still care about Haiti, but after a long vetting process and scores of applicants we have decided to start caring about children with cancer. Since we don't know anything about curing children with cancer we are going to help someone who is raising money for people who know about curing childhood cancer. If they wanted to raise money to build a thriving and productive farm in the middle of the damn desert they would contact us but that is not what they are trying to do.

The lucky winner of our support is actually a part of the Joes's Farm family. He is the unofficial head of Joe's Farm legal council. Go to this website http://www.firstgiving.com/jit2010 and donate money. It does not matter how much money you donate, just that you do. This is safe and secure. I know this because Joe's Farm has been donating for years.

So unless you hate children or love cancer go to http://www.firstgiving.com/jit2010 and give some money.

Questions

2010-03-10T00:24:00.000-08:00

I decided to take time away from the farm to address some questions that were submitted by huge, HUGE fans of Joes Farm.

Question #1 was submitted by Scheuer79 who is a monster fan of the farm and asked about the free gallon of compost offer that is available to followers of the Joes Farm blog that take a free tour of the farm. Scheuer79 asked, "Hi Joe's Farm. Is it possible to maybe sign up twice in order to receive two gallons of that stuff?"
The answer to that is yes. You will get 1 gallon of compost for every follower after taking a free tour of the farm, this of course, is all based on availablity.

Question #2 was submitted by ihaveuc who is a die hard fan of the farm and asked, "What the heck are you growing in the jar, looks like a dinosaur doodie? Could you mail one of those out this way or is that a Las Vegas specialty?" on our spring is upon us entry on Feb 3rd.
The answer to that is that it is in fact not a piece of dinosaur doodie it is a sweet potato that i had bought at the local supermarket and while it was sitting on the counter it started to sprout some eyes. So we had the bright idea at Joes Farm to prop that up in some water and watch it grow. This is something that is available anywhere that sweet potatos are available not just in Las Vegas.

Question #3 was submitted by Big J who has followed Joes Farm from Day one, His question was on our latest post Big J asked, "Joes Farm, what type of plants are growing on the wooden poles shown in the picture?"

The answer to that question is several varities of tomatoes. I have planted Hawaiian, cherokee purples, beefsteak, and the brandywine. I put the bamboo poles in place so that I can attach the tomoato plants to the pole for support when they start to grow.

Joes Farm Version 2.0

2010-03-06T21:30:00.001-08:00

We have had some major changes at Joes Farm this past week. In these trying times when many farms are burying their head in the sand Joes Farm has decided to stay the course and continue improving on the its already outstanding farm infrastructure. This past week we have undertaken several capital expenditures to improve and upgrade our main plots.

The planning for this upgrade has been going on for several months. The land was surveyed, the blue prints were drawn up, and materials were purchased. This past week construction began. We started by harvesting crops on the southside of the plot. It was painful to harvest these crops before they had the chance to reach their full potential but we knew that it was what needed to be done to move Joes Farm to the fore front of Las Vegas farming. Several onions, carrots, lettuce, spinach, and radishes were harvested. Much of the spinach and lettuce was donated to a local realtor who is a huge fan of Joes Farm.

Step 2 was to begin deconstructing the old beds. The old infrastructure was removed and we had to bring in an earth mover to clear space for the new struture. The lumber was brought in and we decided to use premium douglas fir because we demand the best for Joes Farm.

Step 3 was to bring in our aggregate to create our soil. We blend our own soils here at Joes Farm. We can't disclose the propotions of our blend or any of our secrets but I can tell you that we use the highest quality compost created here on property by the I Care Organics division of Joes Farm in the E-Composter. We take this high quality compost and blend it with the other aggregates to form the perfect blend of nutrient rich, porous, yet moisture and nutrient rich soil in the world.

Step 4 was to add some worms. We have been doing a great deal of research on the benefits of worms on the farm and when the opportunity came along to purchase some hard working worms we jumped at the chance. The list of benefits is too long to list here on Joesfarm.blogspot.com but lets just say it is a big W for Joes Farm. We also took some of those worms and put them in the E-Composter. The addition of these hard working worms is going to take I Care Organics to the next level. In the coming weeks and months we will have some vermicompost that is ging to be a big benefit to the crops at Joes Farm.

Step 5 was to water and plant some crops. For the crops that were planted today we purchased these plants at the local nursery. We are still in the early phases at Joes Farm and I wanted to experiement with some plants that were not grown from seed here at the farm. We also started the pilot Topsy Turvey project. The Topsy Turvesy have taken the farm world by storm and these 2 Topsy Turveys are going to be given to the loving household of Mr and Mrs Andrew Walczak. The Topsy Turveys were provide by Mr and Mrs Walczak and once the plants get settled in they will be transfered back to the walczaks for the duration of the season.

I Care Organics Compost - First batch

The business end of the E-Composter provided by Richard and Susan Walczak

The new plot on Joes Farm. 8'x4'x2'

The side view of the new plot

from the inside

Watering the new plot

These are after the crops were planted. Several varieties of tomatos, beans, and carrots.

The Topsy Turveys with a couple tomato plants.

Salad Harvest

2010-02-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

I had a couple recent harvests of the fall crops. The first of the two harvests consisted of radishes, sugar snap peas, lettuce, and a carrot. I went ahead and used a store bought cucumber and made myself a salad with all of that. It was the best tasting salad in the history of the world. The heads of lettuce that we turn out on Joes Farm are not very large but they are organically grown, jam packed with vitamins and nutrients, and best of all they are delicious. The radishes that we have been harvesting at Joes Farm are bigger than golf balls and they are they most delicious radishes that I have ever tasted. They are a sweet and they have a little heat. Pretty much they are the perfect radish.

Today at Joes Farm we had our first spinach harvest. I just want to make it clear that this was no spinach harvest like they would have at Botto's spinach farm in Malone, NY, But it was pretty substantial as far as Joes Farm harvest's go. I went out to the field with a large mixing bowl and all i did was cut and pinch the leaves of some of the plants so they can keep producing. I was very surprised and overwhelmed with the amount that was harvested and it was not even half of the available spinach. I used half of it in a recipe to feed the farm staff this week and I half half of it left to do what ever I want to do with it. I can say with out a doubt in my mind that we have truly been blessed on Joes Farm today.

This is the first harvest mentioned above. A couple heads of lettuce and radishes.

This is a picture of the salad that I made. It was pretty delicious. You can also see my TV remote.

This is a bird's eye view of the colander of spinach.

This is a view from the side of the colander of spinach.

Spring is upon us

2010-02-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

Spring has sprung over here at Joes Farm. There is so much activity on the farm I don't quite know where to begin. The new crop has been started. The winter crop is being harvested as needed. I just decided that I am going to cover the new crop in this post. I am going to discuss the latest harvests in a future post.

90% of the crop was started on January 26th and January 27th. A couple of tomato plants were started earlier. The list is pretty long. I went with a few different types of cucumbers. One is for eating and one is designed for pickling. The tomatoes, I hope, are going to be the crowning jewel of the farm this year. I have several different varieties this year. I have several heirloom varieties and several hybrid type tommies. I also, just hours ago, received a shipment from the good people over at totallytomatoes.com.

The seed shipment from totallytomatoes.com included some lilac hybrid peppers, strawberries, Christmas grape tomatoes and Bulgarian triumph tomatoes. The Bulgarian tomatoes came highly recommend from an actual Bulgarian. The are alleged by this Bulgarian to be the best tasting tomatoes in the world. Only time will tell. The good people at totallytomatoes.com also included two packages of free trial offer seeds. They contained the red alert tomato and the numex sunrise hot chili type pepper.

The crops that are already started include bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, Kentucky style green beans on the pole, Carolina cross watermelons that could weigh up to 200lbs, poblano peppers, cantaloupe, and broccoli.

This is some of the new crop on the window sill of the green house.

More of the crops in the green house on the table.

This is a birds eye view of the tomatoes that were started first.

This experiment right here is a sweet potato that started growing on the counter and I chopped and put in the water. we will just have to wait and see what happens with this science project.