Flowers, Squash, Tomatoes, Oh My! 

Wow! Each week, we are harvesting so much! We have an abundance of kale, lettuce, arugula, peppers, eggplants, herbs, okra, and tomatoes. Our watermelon plot is also doing exceptionally well; we have so many small watermelons, and so many larger ones that are slowly ripening. We are so incredibly grateful for the abundance of produce that Big Farma is producing; the vegetables nourish our bodies and minds. It is amazing how much such a small plot of land can produce!

Here is a video of our sunflowers blooming: 

Our sunflowers are tough! Our sunflowers grew fast this fall so we have been lucky enough to have a little bit of sunshine all season. Sunflowers are good for attracting pollinators and even pests so they avoid cash crops on the farm. The bees, wasps, and flies that help pollinate our garden loved having these flowers around for so long. Sunflowers do more than just attract birds and bugs, you can also harvest the seeds to roast and eat! We have yet to harvest any seeds, but we look forward to the possibility this term!

Our first baby tomato has ripened! We got to taste it, and it was so incredibly delicious. Our tomatoes will continue ripening for the next few days. Honestly, these tomatoes taste good just by themselves; we just eat them like that, and they are amazing. The tomatoes did very well this season; we did not find any tomato hornworms, and we did not have many pest problems. A reason for this could be that we intercropped it with marigolds and planted basil close to them, which deters pests. We love tomatoes!

Teamwork makes the dream work! Here is a time-lapse of the Big Farma crew planting our chamomile, lemon balm, and lemongrass transplants. We waited for the seeds to grow big enough before we planted them into our bare beds. We added mycorrhizae, a beneficial fungus that forms a symbiotic relationship with plants to improve nutrient and water uptake within the roots, to our new transplants to see if it would help our new plants flourish! So far, the lemongrass has yielded many leaves, and the chamomile has been getting bigger and bigger every day.

She may be just one ear, but she’s absolutely our pride and joy. From a tiny seedling to a full-grown superstar, this first corn harvest feels like such a milestone for our little farm. We’ve watered, worried, waited, and hoped, and seeing this golden ear finally ready makes every second worth it. Our girl really ate… literally and figuratively. Here’s to many more harvests ahead!

This is truly peak incubator-farm energy, and we’re absolutely here for it. Eva showing up with her shirt completely full of fresh tomatoes and veggies is the exact kind of dedication, creativity, and chaos-in-the-best-way that makes this team so great. It’s not just a harvest, it’s a whole personality at this point. Moments like this remind us how hard everyone has worked and how much joy comes from growing something together. Go Eva!

Shout out to the pollinators that keep our garden thriving and producing! Wasps, flies, bees, moths, and butterflies all help keep our flowers blooming and our crops growing throughout the season. Without pollinators we wouldn't have had such a successful growing season! We are so lucky to have so many beneficial insects on our Incubator Farm!

Look at this beautiful bouquet Naomi put together! It has pink zinnias, beautiful big orange marigolds, and our unique sunflowers. She even utilized some of the buckwheat flowers that we planted as a cover crop and some of the nightshade weeds to compliment the other flowers. We love flowers on our farm and wanted to make sure we had plenty of varieties for a beautiful farm!