Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a Happy and Fruitful New Year.

Merry Christmas

We want to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

MFMA Conference

We are all excited that the Cabool Area Farmers Market will be the meeting place for the MFMA annual meeting this year. This is a great honor for us to be the host city. This was the Cabool Farmers Market first year, and what a year it was. We made a lot of good friends this year and hope they will come back next season.

I am trying to get 5 PowerPoint presentations finished.
My dad (Wayne) will speaking at the Great Plains Vegetable Growers Conference on Jan 8. in St Joseph, Mo. Strawberries and Other Berries is the topic for that day, then he will be speaking on Jan 9 and that topic will be Growing Onions on Black Plastic.
Then they will be off to Nebraska for a conference there. The Mid America Fruit Growers Conference will be held in Nebraska City, Nebraska on Jan 13. The topic that day will be Strawberry Production Using Plasticulture, then on Jan 14 the topic will be Overview of Fruit and Vegetable Production and Marketing.

The MFMA annual meeting will be at Drury University Cabool Mo Jan 23, 2010. We are getting a PowerPoint ready for a presentation. We will give our presentation during lunch.
There will be lots of good information at all of these meetings.

On Thursday March 11, 2010 there will be a Food Safety Workshop at the Missouri State Fruit Experiment Station, Faurot Hall in Mtn. Grove, Mo. from 1:00 till 4:00 p.m.
Producing safe food for Farmers Market
Speakers; Russell Lilly, Springfield, Mo. Dept. of Health and Senior Services
John Avery; State Fruit Experiment Station Fruit Grower Advisor
Patrick Byers; Regional University of Missouri Extension Specialist.
This workshop is open to everyone.
For more info on the Food Safety Workshop contact
John Avery, Fruit Grower Advisor at JohnAvery@MissouriState.edu or417-547-7539.
This workshop is very informative. If you plan on vending at a Farmers market this is one workshop that you will not want to miss.

Row cover

We got the row cover on the strawberries today. I am glad that job is done. It always seems to be windy when we put them on. Hopefully we won't have to take them off till spring. It was an all day job covering 3 acres of strawberries.
Now we have to get ready for a meeting tonight. Never a dull moment.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Rock bags are made

We got the rock bags made today, now we are ready for when we have to put the row covers on the strawberries. That is a job that is fun. I will guarantee it will be windy that day.
I will spend the weekend getting my orders figured out for the upcoming planting season. There is always something to do.

Cabool Farmers Market

October 28 was the last day of the Cabool Farmers Market. This was the market's 1st year, and wow the people were just fantastic. Thanks to Roger Lindsey and Rita Bradshaw at the Cabool State Bank and Debbie Lemon and the Cabool Chamber of Commerce. Without there help and support we could not have had such a successful 1st year. We will see everyone next season.

End of the season

Well the season is over for this year, but there is no slowing down and resting for us. We have to start planning for next season. We have to figure out what we will be planting next year and get everything ordered.
We look forward to seeing everyone next season.
Keep smiling

No farm tour this year

We will not be having our fall farm tour this October. The corn maze and the pumpkins just did not grow. We are sorry for this, but all is out of our control. We hope that next year will be better.

Cabool Old Time Days

The Cabool Farmers Market was invited to set up at the Cabool Old Time Days on Saturday Sept 19. The weather was terrible, drizzling then turning to a light rain. At least there were no heavy downpours. We had a good time anyway.

Cabool Farmers Market Apple man

You never know who or what will show up at the Farmers Market in Cabool. Here is Jim in the apple costume. We all had a great day on Wednesday. We will be setting up at Cabool's Old Time Day on Sept. 19, 9:00 till 4:00 so be sure and stop by and see us and you may also get to see Mr. Apple Man.

strawberry tips

We got all the strawberries tipped yesterday. Here is the" CREW".

We set 95,300 tips. That's alot of tips. We tipped Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Our thanks to the crew Teressa, Tamara, Barbara, Taysha, Geri, Sarah, Janelle, Joe, Tim, Jon, Doug, and Jim (who came to see how we do our tipping).

After we get the tips in the tray we put them out on the mat for 28 days under the mist system and wait for them to get roots. After 28 days we plant them in the ground.

Strawberry tips are arriving

We got word this evening that our strawberry tips will be in here in the morning at 6:30 am, so I had to get my crew together on short notice. I had them ready to start tipping on Monday, and only 1 person couldn't make it on Friday. I have such a great crew, they will come in when we need them (even on short notice). We have 91,000 tips to set out. Hopefully we can get it done in about 2 1/2 days.

cabool farmers market

Yesterday was a slow day at the market, but we still had a good time. Most of the winners of the market bucks came in and got their certificates and used them. I always look forward to going to the Cabool Farmers Market because of the great people of Cabool and surrounding community and especially the fellow vendors. They are all just wonderful people and I am proud to have them as FRIENDS, Scott & Carolyn, Jim & Karen, Viola, Frank, Jack, Janelle, Rita (Cabool State Bank), Debbie (Cabool Chamber). We are so proud of the market.

Cabool Farmers Market Appreciation Day

We had a great turnout for our customer appriciation day at the Cabool Farmers Market.

Thanks to all the folks that came out to the market on Wednesday and a special thanks to Roger & Peggy Lindsey at the Cabool State Bank for their donation of the bottle water and the advertising. We have a great community.

Cabool Farmers Market Customer appreciation Day

The Cabool Farmers Market is having a Customer Appreciation Day on Aug 12, 2009.
Come out and join us












This is an article that ran in the Cabool Enterprise Newspaper on Wed Aug 5, 2009.

veggies

If anyone needs any peppers (sweet or hot) or sweet onions for your salsa and cucumbers for your pickles give us a call. We have them. While your checking that out, see what else we may have that you might need.
I guess the bees didn't like me mowing around them so they came after me. I got stung 4 or 5 times and they chased me all the way to the house. I guess I will put my suit on tomorrow and try to get the yard mowed.

Blackberries

The blackberries are ready. Starting Monday July 20th we will open Monday thru Friday 8:00 till 12:00 (while supplies last). Keep checking the blog or our web page www.simpsonsfamilyfarm.com for updates.

Cabool Farmers Market

We had a great day at the Cabool Area Farmers Market on Wed. We had about 2 hours left till we were to go home and it started pouring rain and the wind was terrible. It blew over a box of blackberries. It didn't last long. The people were slow to come around after the rain (I just wonder if they thought that we all went home). Hope it don't storm next Wed.

onions

On Monday June 30 we pulled our onions.

This is before we pull them.

Here they are after we pull them.

We have all different sizes.

After we get them pulled we lay them

in the rows to field dry for about 3 days

(unless they call for rain). After that

we take them in to the greenhouse to

finish curing for about 2 to 3 weeks.

Here is the "crew" that was picking the onions.

I would have been in the picture but someone

has to run the camera.

K-State Field Trip

On Thursday June 25 we had the opportunity to have a group from the Kansas State Extension Office to come and tour our farm.

It was great to have them come down and see how we run our farm. Hope everyone had a good time even though the temperature was rather HOT.

Everyone always enjoys a hayride.

Look what we found on the farm

You never know what you will see at the farm. David found this nest in the grape field. We never could get Momma in the picture. We just watched it then a few days later it hatched.

Here is one baby that has hatched. I guess that Momma takes it away when they hatch because it was not there the other day. Then a couple more hatched then they were gone, then all were hatched and gone. I didn't get a picture of the empty nest. I forgot to mention that this is a wild turkey.

Planting mums

Here we are getting the dirt ready for the mums. We had to fill 650 pots and 100 hanging baskets.We had the hanging baskets last year and they went over really good so we are going to do more this year.

Here they are after we got them

potted and put out on the mat. They

will be ready to go around the middle of Sept.

And here is the boss. This is Kiwi, the baby. She slept while we

worked. What a life she has.

Cabool Farmers Market

We had a great day on Wednesday at Cabool Area Farmers Market. We had a little slack time so between my mom and myself we were able to get the pictures. We had 6 vendors there. It was hot and humid.




We are located at the Gateway Park on Main Street in Cabool (under the gazebo), across the street form Cabool State Bank. We are there Wendesday 12:30 till 5:30. Come on out and see us.

Blackberries

The blackberries are looking good. I took This picture in May with all the blooms and just now getting it on the blog, boy am I slow! We hope they will be ready around the 4th of July. Give us a call for more information.

strawberries are done

The strawberries are done for this year. Wish we would have had more but with the weather the way it was, well we are lucky to have the crop we had. No time to rest. We have to get ready for our mums. They will be here next week. So get the pots out and get them sterilized and filled with dirt so I will be ready to pot them. The next thing to come on will be the blackberries. Stay tuned, I will have the picking schedule posted as the time gets closer.

strawberries picked out

We picked out the strawberry patch today so we will close Tuesday and Wednesday. Check back Wednesday to see if enough ripen to open Thursday.

Strawberry picking update

We will open the strawberry patch Monday 6-1-09 at 8:00 and pick while supplies last. The season is winding down so get them while they last. It is strictly u-pick.

Chocolate covered strawberries

My mom made some chocolate covered strawberries the other day. They sure were good.

strawberry patch update

We will close the strawberry patch Friday, Saturday and Sunday to let more ripen. We will re-open Monday at 8:00 and pick till they are picked out. It is getting toward the end of the season and the berries are getting smaller.

strawberry patch update

We will open the strawberry patch Thursday at 8:00 and pick till we pick out. It is getting toward the end of the season and the berries are getting smaller and the weeds are getting bigger.

strawberries picked out

We picked out the strawberry patch today. We will close Tue and Wed to let them ripen. Check back Wed evening for an update on the picking schedule.

strawberries

We will open the strawberry patch Monday at 8:00 a.m and pick while supplies last.

We picked out the patch friday so we will be closed Saturday and Sunday so more can ripen.

Cabool Farmers Market

We had a great day at the Cabool Farmers Market today. There was a good turnout. I am really impressed at how well it is doing and this is the first year. Great vendors and a town that is behind the farmers, that is what it takes for a successful market and we have them both.
The market day is Wednesday from 1:00 till 6:00 pm. Come out and see us. We are under the gazebo, across for the Cabool State Bank.

Strawberry picking date

We picked out the strawberry patch Tuesday. We will be closed Wednesday and Thursday to let more ripen. We will open Friday at 8:00 am and pick while supplies last.

strawberry patch update

We picked out the strawberry patch today. We will be closed Wensday to let more ripen. Check back to see when the next picking day will be.

We will open the strawberry patch Monday May 18, 2009 at 8:00 am.
We will pick while supplies last.

Strawberries are ready

Well the day is finally here. The strawberries are ready and we will open tomorrow May 15th at 8:00 am for picking, then the next picking day will be Monday May 18. No need to bring containers, we supply the boxes. We still have lots of beautiful hanging baskets. Come on out and see us.

Hanging baskets

The greenhouse is full of color. The hanging baskets are beautiful. We have a hummingbird that loves to come in to the greenhouse.

The little greenhouse is full of vegetable plants, just waiting for someone to come out and buy them.

Cabool Area Farmers Market

We went to Cabool Area Farmers Market on Wednesday. There was a good turnout for it. This is the first year for the market in Cabool. It is on Wednesday from 1:00 til 6:00 pm on Main Street at the Gazebo, Across the street from Cabool State Bank. Drop on by and see us.

Another bee tree

Saturday April 11, 2009 we spent the afternoon getting bees from a tree in Cabool, Mo. I thought I would put a few pictures on the blog .

Photo's by Jeanne Hauschild

On with the row covers

Well here we go again. This is the time of year that we have to watch the weather and when it gets cold with a chance of frost we have to put the row covers on the strawberries. Here we are getting ready to pull them.

Its always good to have as many people as you can when you start pulling row covers. Generally when you start putting the row covers on the wind will pick up. Now that always fun. It's kinda like parasailing.

Now when it goes good that is great, 2 people can pull the covers, but you know all good things must come to an end well this is what happens when things go bad.

Now it takes all five of us to pull them. Dad was pulling but I had him taking this picture. The covers were wet and was hard to pull. We got one field done before it started raining. If it stops raining we will finish them today, and if not we will do them tomorrow.

peaches look ok

Well it looks like the cold weather over the weekend did not hurt the peach trees. I checked them out tonight. I am so glad. The temperature got down to 30 degree here and the wind helped as well. Lets hope that was it for the cold and bad weather.

peach tree blooms

I took this picture on Friday March27, 2009 with all the blooms on our peach trees. Well after tonight all the blooms will probably be gone. Lets hope it don't get that cold.

Bee tree

This is a tree that had bees in it. We cut the tree in half to expose the bees and the honey comb. We put a white sheet down to work on as it makes it easier to see the bees. You have to watch where you step so you don't step on the bees.

We put the comb from the tree into our empty hive bodies.

We put another hive body with frames in it on top of the other hive body and let the bees go to their new home. Now you hope that you got the queen in the box. Go back in a few days and check to make sure they are doing good.

We will be doing this a couple more times in the next few weeks as we have 2 more trees to get the bees out of plus we have 4 packages of bees coming the first week of April. Right now we have Italian bees and I wanted to try the Buck fast bees.

Bees on the crocus

This is such a pretty picture I just had to put it on the blog. The bees were really working this crocus. I just love to watch the bees work.

Cabool Area Farmers Market

The Cabool Area Farmers Market will open April 15, 2009. This is the first year for the market and it is going to be a good one. The market will be open from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m on Wednesday. The location is 603 Main St. in downtown Cabool, Mo, Across from Cabool State Bank. We hope that everyone will come out and visit the market. We are looking forward to making new friends at the market. I would like to thank Debbie & Rita for getting this market off the ground. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the market.

What we are doing now

I have gotten behind in my blogging so I thought I better get you all up to date. A few of our geraniums are blooming. They are looking good.







We moved the hanging baskets out of the small greenhouse over to the big greenhouse. Now as they grow we can spread them out so that they can have a lot of room to grow.

We have a few hanging baskets left in the small greenhouse. We will get them moved next week so that Dave and Teressa can have their greenhouse back for their bedding plants.

The cole crops and the tomatoes are coming up. It wont be long till the little greenhouse will be full of bedding plants.

Here we are planting onions. It was cold and windy when we were planting them.

Here is the onion field. We put the row cover over them to keep the plants from blowing away. We planted a bunch of yellow jumbo super sweet onions. We also planted some red onions and also some white ones and they are all sweet.

Here is the strawberry patch. Not alot going on with them right now. We took the row cover off a while back. Now we have to watch the temperature and if it drops down too low we will have to put them back on.

Workshop

We went to the Farmers Market Workshop today in Springfield. It was very good and informative, and the turnout was great. We had a excellent time. There was a wealth of information. We always enjoy these meetings. Lane does a great job at putting these workshops together. It was good to meet up with friends and to make new friends as well.

Small Fruit Conference

We all had a good time at the Small Fruit Conference. There were alot of good speakers there. We always look forward to the conference. We meet up with old friends and made some new friends too. I would like to thank Lane for a wonderful job on her presentation. Way to go Lane. Also thanks for the plug at the meeting. I was shocked when my blog page came up on the big screen. Lane, Lane's mom, Tammy, Jim & CC, Eileen, Morgan and myself all met up at T G I Fridays for dinner on Tue. We had a great time.

Hanging Baskets

Well we finally started making our hanging baskets today. Would have started sooner but had to wait on the dirt to arrive. We still have several more days of planting to do. I hope we can get them done before Monday as we will be attending the Small Fruit Conference in Springfield
Mon. - Wed. We always have a good time at these meetings and they are very informative.

They're here

Well we got our flower plugs yesterday, so now the work begins. We have the greenhouse washed and sterilized so now we get to start filling pots and figure out what different kinds and colors of plants we will put together. That's so much fun to watch them grow from little bitty plugs into big beautiful hanging baskets.

Workshop Food Safety - from field to market

We (Wayne, Lavond, Deb, Morgan & Dave all attended a workshop in Mount Vernon that was sponsored by several area Farmers Markets. We had a great time and was full of information. There was a great turnout for this workshop. Hats off to Eileen Nichols for getting this togather. There will be lots more meeting and workshops to attend over the next couple of months.

What we are doing

Well its about time to get geared up for the upcomming season. We are in the process of getting the greenhouse ready for our spring hanging baskets. The plugs will be here soon and then we will be potting them and taking care of them so that they will be ready to go the first part of May. We will also be starting our vegitable bedding plants.