We’ve made a lot of progress on our new high tunnel over the past month.
Almost all done except the plastic. It takes a dead-calm day at a crew of people to get the plastic on.
We’ve had a lot of help …. 🙂
Now to open the seed catalogs to decide what delicious things to plant in it this spring.
Well, they aren’t beautiful, but these jalapeños are the last of our summer produce. Getting ready to sort through them in order to turn the good ones into delicious blackberry jalapeño jam.
I’m a little sad that the summer growing season is over, but also a tad relieved. Ready for a little R ‘n’ R this winter!
December 19, 2017 Update: We have had TREMENDOUS support for our holiday gift packages this year! We want to thank everyone who has helped make this Christmas sales season a huge success for our farm. We are no longer accepting orders for Christmas 2017. We look forward to serving our customers in the new year!
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Last year, we had so much fun launching our first Christmas gift packages! We have been working to make some tweaks to the products and process this year to make things even BETTER. Our local flower shop, Timber Creek Floral and Gifts has been awesome at helping us prepare the packaging, and we are really proud of the way they look AND taste!
We have two basic packages we are offering this year, but we can customize a package for you if these aren’t exactlywhat you want.
Our Large Holiday Gift Package includes: one 2 pound local, raw honey, one pint local salsa, two local fruit jams/jellies, and one beeswax lip balm from our bees, all in a cute buffalo plaid crate. Cost for the large basket is $36.
The small package includes: a 1 pound jar of local, raw honey, one pint local salsa, and one jar of local fruit jam/jelly for $18. Increase the 1 pound honey to 2 pound to make the price $24.
In each gift basket, you can specify the following:
Salsa:
Mild, Medium, or Hot
Jams and Jellies:
Spiced Tomato Jam (sounds gross, tastes amazing! trust me!)
Elderberry Jelly
Blackberry Jam
Blackberry Jelly
Blackberry Jalapeno Jam
Apple/Grape Jelly
Grape Jelly
Aronia Jelly
Mixed Fruit Jelly
Point of clarification – jelly is made from fruit juice, so is therefor smooth and with no pulp. Jam is made from the whole fruit, so it will contain chunks of fruit and seeds. All of our jams and jellies are made with produce from our farm, or from our friends’ farms nearby.
We can also change the gift tags to say Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays or whatever message you choose.
To streamline things this year, we have an online order form here –
Werner Creek Farm Holiday Gift Basket Order Form
We would also love to sell individual products, if that is more your style. We have three sizes of honey – 2 pound for $12, 1 pound for $6, and half pound for $3.50.
Pint jars of salsa are $7
Quart jars of salsa (mild only) for $12
Half pints of jam or jelly are $4.50.
Beeswax lip balm is $3
We also have 1/4 pint jars of beeswax hand balm available for $10.
The individual items aren’t on the order form, but just make a note in the instructions if you want to add on any of these items.
Please contact us with any questions you might have! My email is slwerner8@yahoo.com and my cell is 620-222-5821.
It’s official. Tomato season has begun!
We picked our first ripe tomato on June 2. JUNE SECOND. The earliest by far that we have every had tomatoes. This is thanks to converting our useless greenhouse into a highly productive high tunnel. The little bit of extra heat from the wood stove heater in the greenhouse/new high tunnel allowed us to plant tomatoes in late February.
And here they are now:
The kiddos in the “greenhouse” about three weeks ago. Yeah, it’s a little tight in there. It may or may not be a jungle at this point. Let’s just say, I won’t be posting any more pictures. I will also say, we will most likely rethink our spacing in the greenhouse next year.
The old high tunnel is looking good, too. Especially since this is the fifth year for tomatoes in the high tunnel. Yikes. That’s too long to have tomatoes in one spot. These are all determinants, meaning we will get a big crop off of them, and then yank them out. After this year, we have plans to rest a replenish the soil in this high tunnel, and then decide what crops to plant in it next spring. We also have plans to put in another this fall.
Look closely and you will see that we have wire along the sides of the high tunnels. That’s to keep critters out. Last year, we had terrible trouble with possums, raccoons, and skunks sneaking in and eating big bites out of each ripe tomato. It was disgusting. This year, we’ve outsmarted them. We hope.
The field tomatoes are looking good, as well. Tilled, mulched, caged, and irrigated – it’s been a busy week in the garden!
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