Greetings!
The farm is keeping us plenty busy now. Planting is in full swing. As a result, we will be posting more information about the goings on at Magicland Farms than we do during the winter months.
There are three ways to update yourself on what is going on at the farm: - Our website - We launched our brand new website earlier this year. There is still much more information we want to put on the website so it is a work in progress. All of the basic information about Magicland Farms can be found there.
- Our blog - The blog is updated several times a week with recipes, information about the goings on at the farm, photos and much more. If you want the latest information about the farm, the blog is the best place to find it. Subscribe to the blog via a reader or get updates in your email box. Information regarding subscription methods can be found on the right sidebar of the blog.
- Our newsletter - During the time when the stand is open for sales, this newsletter will be published once a week, usually on Sunday, giving you a head up on what crops are being harvested as well as any specials and recipes. Rounding out the newsletter is a weekly column from the Boss giving his perspective on the season and the crops. Please forward this newsletter to any of your family and friends who might be interested in Magicland Farms. They can subscribe using the link in the box above.
We try to have different content on all three sources but occasionally there will be some overlap. Feel free to email us with any questions or comments you may have. We love to hear from our customers!
The folks at Magicland Farms
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The Boss's Corner
After a mild winter (low temp -5F, which takes us into Zone
6b on the USDA's Plant Hardiness Zone Map) spring started earlier than I ever
remember and about 2-1/2 weeks earlier than normal. Everything was going fine until the Mothers
Day Freeze. It got down to 29-30F at the
farm and about 34 at lake. According to
the charts, little if any damage should have occurred to fruit but we did have
significant damage to apples, pawpaws and at least moderate damage to peaches. The only reason the strawberries weren't
damaged was because we left sprinklers on both freezing nights. By the way, at the lake there was no damage
at all noticed. Even the pawpaw flowers
were untouched. No damage of tomatoes in
the high tunnel and some damage to the tomatoes in the low tunnels. Minor damage to the first corn and early
potatoes. The hardy stuff like peas,
onions, garlic, broccoli etc. did fine.
An early spring and a May frost sounds like 1955 again. While I was just a tiny tyke back then I still
remember the heat that summer. That was
also the last year I spent all summer at the cottage (we lived in Chicago)
which my family did to try to keep us away from the Chicago
polio epidemic which hit primarily during the summers. That summer, like several summers before
that, my dad commuted from Chicago,
mostly by train. Like 1954, the summer
of 1955 was stifling although I, and my family, spent lots of time splashing in
the lake so we didn't mind it-it's a lot cooler in the lake than in the middle
of a sweet corn field. Trust me here!
Despite one computer model that shows the
center of the country will be cool this summer, just about everybody else in
the know expects a hot one. I do
too. The primary reason is that Canada
is heating up quite a bit-it was in the mid 80s through much of central Canada
yesterday while it was only near 70 here and you had to go down to central
Alabama to find it that warm. The heat,
this year, might just come here through central Canada
instead of the south-which because it is dry should make the heat more
bearable. Anyway, the watermelons and
sweet potatoes should thrive!
It looks like many of our
crops will be early this year-especially the beans and tomatoes. Our corn looks to be nearly two weeks earlier
than last year-which ain't saying much because last year we didn't start
getting into corn until about July 25th, which was a record for
being so late for us. I really am not
sure yet about the apples-one day they look poor and the next OK. I will get more info out about the fruit in
the next newsletter. It does look right
now we will have some apples and our peach crop will be bigger than last year primarily
because more of our peach trees are coming into bearing.
Nashle
Tom
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