Growing Veggies on Our Farm and You Can Too

My husband and I have always been around growing vegetables. Growing up, my mom always had a good size garden that we ate off of all summer long and even enjoyed homegrown produce after gardening season with stuff she had canned. My husband grandparents and uncle also did the same. There is a long history of growing vegetables in both of our families.

Being on the farm has always been a way of life for us, as we are both come from farm families. In our dating years, we had a small garden that we tended too. After college I was working at a local floral shop and the owner was interested in some straw, and corn shocks for her Fall display. We were able to provide those to her. This was the beginning of Walker Farms where we thought the next year we would grow pumpkins to supply garden shops and retail places with pumpkins to sell. With this we also decided to grow some produce. I don't remember what we started out growing for our first season of produce but this was when we also started selling at the local farmers market.
This was in 2006.

2013 Farmers Market Season

We started with just a small section of land and are now up to 15 acres. We seem to add a little more every year. We grow 8 acres of pumpkins and 7 of produce. We are not a large farm by any means but at a good size right now that we can handle. We sell at the local farmers market and some that are about an hour away. It is so rewarding to hear how people enjoyed the produce they purchased from you and interacting with the public with their questions. It is neat to see people comment "Oh I didn't know on onion grew that way with green stuff coming out the top" or "I didn't know pak choi could be grown around here."

2013 Green Beans

Having a CSA is a large part of our business. We enjoy providing our members with produce they are familiar with and some that they may have not tried before. The following week, I love to hear what they did with their eggplant or kohlrabi, etc. It is nice to share recipes!

2013 Kale

Don't be afraid to grow your own produce if you have space that allows. If not you can even try growing a patio tomato! There's nothing like a fresh tomato right off the vine! I love them!! If you have more than you will eat before they start going bad, can or freeze them. It is a lot of work for some of the vegetables, but you wont regret that you did it when you are enjoying sweet corn, green beans, homemade salsa, and beets in the winter time. The list goes on as to what you can freeze and can. The planting season is just starting or hasn't even in a lot of places, why not give gardening a shot?!

Canning pickles 2013

This is part 3 of a 3 part blog series. Read part 1 here and part 2 here.