Burlington Farmer's Market

Rain, rain go away, at least by 5 o'clock today!

That's market time at the Riverfront in Burlington. We'd think about staying home today, but we've promised people we'd pick up some of Inechens fabulous tomatoes. They grow them in dirt in a greenhouse near the Quad Cities and pick them when they are ripe on the vine. Burlington is as far south as they go, but we think people in Nauvoo, Hamilton and Keokuk deserve this incredible early crop too.

We'll have to take the tent sides and pull the tables inside. There won't be to many people there tonight, but thankfully there are some really faithful people who will come to the market no matter what the weather.

Here's the menu for tonight!

Lettuce

Herbs - Fresh & Dried

Radishes

Onions

Whole Wheat All Natural Muffins

Grandma Whitson's Addictive Cookies

Crispy Rice Treats

All Natural Egg Noodles

Grama Sue's Rainbow Eggs

God Bless! ~Grama Sue

Hamilton Farmer's Market

Grampa Tom will be at the Hamilton City Park from 3-5pm today.

Menu:

Greenhouse tomatoes grown in dirt.

Lettuce

Spinach

Herbs - Fresh & Dried

Radishes

Onions

Whole Wheat All Natural Muffins

Grandma Whitson's Addictive Cookies

Crispy Rice Treats

All Natural Egg Noodles

Grama Sue's Rainbow Eggs

Theif

We had a leghorn that kept getting into our garden. Yesterday she tore up a bunch of our peas. I stalked her until I caught her and now she's in my pressure cooker.

Here's a couple of the eggs I found inside of her. There were a few more tiny tiny yolks, but they broke when I tried to pick them out. Thought you might like to see them.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Farmer's Market Schedule for the Remainder of May

We are back at the markets! For the rest of May we plan to be at:

Tuesdays - Nauvoo Bounty Farmer's Market

4-7pm at the State Park on Hwy 96

Thursdays - Burlington Riverfront Farmer's Market

5-7:30m at the Port by the bridge

Saturdays - Keokuk Farmer's Market

6:30-11am at the mall

We also might show up at the Hamilton Farmer's Market at the city park on Wednesdays from 3-5pm if we have enough stuff.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Herbs

Got to go play in the dirt this morning! When I was a teen, I absolutely hated garden work, but now weeding is such a joy. Who woulda thunk? I weeded all my herb beds this morning and planted some cilantro and marjoram. I really need to plant some more basil and dill, just need to find a place! This is my perennial bed with a few self re-seeders and a few annuals to fill in the empty spaces till the perennials take over.

This year I should have:

Parsley

Thyme

Lemon Balm

Cilantro

Sage

Basil

Dill

Rosemary

Marjoram

Oregano

Spearmint

Garlic

And probably one or more that I am forgetting.

That's all for now folks!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Apple Trees A-Blooming!

Well, it doesn't look like I'll be making it to the Hamilton market today. Been down for a couple of weeks now. Doc says it's nothing to serious. Got some meds yesterday to try to get me going, but I just have to take it easy for a while longer. Next week, I start working for the Census. It's a flexible hours type job, but the first week is training that isn't flexible, so I won't be able to make the market then either. I am hoping to feel enough better by tonight that I can put out my garage sale signs. I haven't put stuff away yet from a couple of weeks ago so that shouldn't be to much work.

Here's my apple trees. Aren't they pretty?

My bees would love them, but they didn't make it through the winter. That's OK. I wasn't crazy about them anyway. Anyone want to buy some hives? We have 4 for sale.

At least the chickens are happy! Hope you can see this micro length video! It's proof that roosters don't crow only at dawn.

God Bless You All! ~Grama Sue

Farmer's Markets Starting Soon!

We are gearing up! The Hamilton Farmer's Market sign is up. I'm going to try to get there this week. Will have spinach, fresh chives, lemon balm, noodles, eggs and muffins at least. Might get Mom to bake a pie or two and some cookies, who knows! The Burlington Market starts May 4th so we will be sure to be there!

We have most of the raised bed gardens planted. We built two more this spring. Grampa planted onions, kohlrabi, spinach, swiss chard, beets, peas, cucumbers, turnips, kale, lettuce, zucchini and probably a few things I'm forgetting about.

We were surprised with spinach in one of the raised beds when the snow melted. We planted it late last summer hoping for a fall crop, but it didn't do anything. When we took the plastic off, it was ready and raring to go! Our strawberries are looking pretty good too. No blooms yet, but the apple trees are covered with flowers.

I've been thinking I ought to try to take a picture and post at least one sentence 3 or 4 times a week. Maybe I'll take a picture of the apple trees later this week.

We have all kinds of new baby chicks! There's 200 in this building that are about 3 weeks old.

Our new farm hand's job is to love on them! This is my granddaughter. She is coming over a couple of times a week while her folks work. Her mom and I are starting to homeschool her. I've missed having kids around!

The hens are having lots of fun with all this green grass! Their yolks are getting darker again too.

Last weekend I had a garage sale. I put out my egg yolk demonstration and added one of my white eggs to the display. Both days I cracked one of our white eggs, one of our brown eggs and of course a typical store bought egg. Both days the darkest yolk was from a white egg! Pretty cool to see. I'm going to continue to do that at the farmer's markets this summer. Come by and see!

These are some of our Cornish Cross chickens out sunbathing. They don't have a lot of feathers and they seem to be somewhat sun burnt, but it doesn't seem to bother them.

Our dogs have been working hard all night every night chasing off coyotes. They laze around all day.

If'n ya got a hankering for fresh spinach, herbs or noodles, come to the Hamilton city park Wednesday afternoon or just give me a call and swing by my place! 309-221-0785

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue