This year our annual flowers highlight the spectrum of warm tropical colors.  So prepare to shake off winter with these wonderful beach like additions.

French Vanilla Marigolds, Orange and Yellow Marigolds, Zinnias, Nasturtiums, Wave Petunias- pink, purple, red and starfish (a variety of colors), and Up-right Elephant ears

Wave petunias will be available in hanging baskets as well as the traditional 4″ pots.

 We are very excited about this year’s perennials.  A few like red  yarrow and the hellebores (or Lenten rose) are new to us while others like red hot poker and large hostas are staples for any flower garden. 

Red Yarrow, Hellebores- mixed colors, Astillbe, Delphinium, Dianthus, Fox glove, Coral bells, Large Hostas, Pink Hydrangea, Red hot Poker, 2 kinds of Lavender, 7 Kinds of Asiatic and Oriental Lilies, Phlox, Rubeckia, Bi-color butterfly bush and Blue Butterfly Bush

Just an aside, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a blue butterfly bush- and the pink hydrangea bushes we have are gorgeous!

New plants have been arriving all last week – so we have begun transplanting them into larger pots.  This process is a full fledged family affair as everyone from the smallest to the biggest has a role to play – from the mixing potting soil (the boys’ job) to taking the pictures (one of Vanessa’s girls)  even the sweeping up afterward (she’s three, and she is great at it!) – good times spent with family and a great place to learn and then practice real life skills. 

Some new items we are particularly excited about this year are the hellebores, lime green coral bells, pink hydrangea and caladium as well as more of the gorgeous oriental lilies!

New greens we are excited to be planting this spring include cress and bordeaux red stemmed spinach.  We know these will be a welcome addition to the wonderful blue kale, spinach and red leafed lettuce we love.

April is just a month away so check out the plant sale dates posted on the Spring Sale and Produce Page!  Have a great week.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Sometimes starting plants from seed can be a daunting and rather costly experience.  Because good soil and great seeds truly are essential – His Glories Farm always reuses as many of the seed trays, pots and other containers as we can.  (We’re always pleased when our customers return pots or trays )

But I was particularly impressed with my husband’s genius yesterday as he found a plastic box I had purchased spinach in – added moist warm soil, seeds and the lid.  He placed it in the south living room window.  Now all we have to do is wait.

Bottom line:  Don’t think you have to buy the fancy black trays with lids.  You can spend your seed dollars on the best seeds then use something you already have!

Wondering which seeds we started this past week?

Italian Basil, Night Shadow Eggplant, Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers, Large Red Cherry Tomato, Talladega Cucumber, Early Girl Tomato and Parsley

This past week we began planting cabbage and preparing for Valentine’s Day.

I am not quite sure how to create a connection between cabbage and the infamous cupid, but surely one does exist?  Perhaps cabbage is incredibly heart healthy -

Cabbage usually takes seven to ten days to sprout depending on the amount of sunlight and heat.

While you are starting those new plants, challenge yourself to do something special this week for those you love.  If you are at a loss for what to buy (inexpensive) for the men in your life, think duct tape.  It comes in pink and red!  (I bought red at WalMart) and believe me, they’ll be impressed! While in the electrical tape area (a topic I know nothing about) there was also a package of amazing double sized tape in red that says it can hold over 100#!  Awesome, Gary will be thrilled.

Have a great week and Valentine’s Day.  Enjoy those in your life, keep thinking Spring- while we watch the snowflakes.

We met on Friday, New Years Day, to begin sifting through the mountains of seed catalogs we’ve received and decide what to offer this year from His Glories Farm.  It’s a fun, but sometimes overwhelming job.  There’s just so much good stuff!   Be sure to note the food.  Decisions like these can only be made after a great meal!

controlled chaos

Top of the list for 2010 are the fingerling potatoes.  We plan to offer both the French fingerling and Russian Banana varieties.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to try these delicacies, you are truly in for a treat this summer.

Another potato that we have ordered is called All Blue.  Combining Kennebec, Pontaic and the All Blue with fresh green beans will make your 4th of July celebration something special indeed.

New herbs that we will offer this summer include:  French tarragon, large leaf Italian basil, Italian parsley and sage.

And don’t forget our edible soybeans!  Gary and Vanessa promise that we will quadruple production in that area.

Thanks for checking in.  Have a great week and stay warm!

Where does the time go?

Not so long ago we were digging potatoes, tilling and fertilizing the daylilies while planting turnips (a cover crop) and anticipating a few days of fall colors before tucking the garden in for a short winter nap…

And now Christmas has arrived.   Shalom.

Our prayer for each of your families during this busy, hectic time of the year is peace.  A peace that passes all understanding.

God’s continued blessings you to each of you and your families this Christmas season.  May the celebration of Christ’s birth fill your hearts and lives with peace.

From all of us at The Farm,

Merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in 2010!

Join us Saturday, November 14 at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on Route 32 on the south end of Strasburg, IL from 6 am to 11 am to celebrate the city of Strasburg’s first Governor’s Home Town Award.

His Glories Farm will be one of the many vendors set up in the gymnasium of the church.  Fresh lettuce, potatoes, scallions and popcorn will be available for purchase.

SCAN (which stands for Strasburg Community Action Network) has been very active this past year, and the pancake and sausage community breakfast held from 6 am to 11 am is a great opportunity to come see all that has been accomplished!

Hope to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who visited our Fall Produce and Plant Sale.  We were so glad to share your summer garden successes and look forward to sharing next season with you too!  In the meantime, enjoy the pictures and keep eating the last of the summer tomatoes, and we will keep you posted on our preparations for winter and what is growing in the high tunnel too.

Pictures from the Fall Sale…

The fried eggplant was wonderful!  A big thank you to our cooks!

Gracious!  What a wonderful summer it has been.  We have so enjoyed meeting and getting to know so many great people!  We are truly blessed to share our passion for gardening with all of you.

You are invited…

This Friday, September 11 (Patriots’ Day) we will be hosting our Fall Sale and “Fancy Fixins’” at Vanessa’s.  (For directions, please see the “Fall Plant and Produce Sale” tab).  Our Junior Foodie (with some assistance from the rest of us) will be serving some of our favorites from this past summer.  Fried eggplant – and it really is incredible, Onion Curls – wonderfully sweet, they melt in your mouth! and for something amazingly different, we will have Stevia for you to taste too.

We will, of course, be open on Saturday, September 12 from 8 to noon, but we could only book our gourmet cook once so if you aren’t able to make the Friday event – we will gladly hand out the recipes (and I will post them here too).

Aside from the Fall Sale (and food fun), this weekend saw the harvesting of over a hundred pumpkins, broom corn, Indian corn, etc.  Our kids decided that hunting pumpkins beats Easter eggs hands down!  As you can see, the rewards are just tremendous!

This is just one truck load!  Broom corn with pumpkins.

The green “gourd” is actually an heirloom watermelon called “Moon and Stars.”  It will turn blue and have a host of large and small yellow spots.  Delicious!

Harvesting broom corn that is over 12 feet tall!

The Indian corn is simply breathtaking this year.

The variety and depth of colors always amazes us.

We look forward to seeing you.  Make plans to attend and bring a friend!

This time of year is particularly crazy as it seems the long hot days of summer bring the garden to a crescendo of flavorful delights that you just cannot eat enough of fast enough.  Would it be wonderful if just some of these tomatoes ripened in December? 

New to the Email Produce Route this week are Mushroom Peppers.  Ours are still green, but we would like to offer them now as the cute peppers are very hot – so enjoy with your favorite salsa, as a garnish, for pickling or drying!

Happy Birthday to H. this week too!  Enjoy your day!!