Our Old Farm stand’s Home Page

I thought it would be nice to preserve a little piece of our farm’s history. This is the homepage from our farm stand’s old site. We used to have updates on it about what was growing, which larger markets we were attending, and pictures!

Do You Like to Eat?

We sure do!

Here at Almosta Farm Stand, we know a thing or two about fresh, local food. Heck, we’ve been gardening (and eating) our whole lives! We started selling our extra produce in the Spring of 2014.

Generally, our family shares our garden bounty. We freeze, can, and eat our veggies. When we think we’ve preserved enough for the year (or are tired of preserving!), we will share the rest with our church friends. While we were planning our garden for the Spring of 2014, we decided to let our acreage provide some of our family income with a farm stand.

When Spring rolled around, we planted a few extra tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, and peas. Viola! Almosta Farm Stand was open for business. We also decided to make extra jelly, pickles, and bread to sell.

Okay, confession time: We planted slightly more than a few extra peas. In fact, John (my wonderful husband) planted over a mile and a half of peas and beans! He ran out of pea seed in my Dad’s garden, so Dad and I had an impromptu freezer cleaning party to find any saved seed. It’s just against our nature to leave tilled rows empty.

We hit the jackpot with five pounds of Mississippi Silverskin Crowder pea seed. Plus, some locally bred Kelley pea seed. Awesome! Off the top of my head, between Dad’s farm and our farm stand, we planted 14 different types of beans and peas last year. (Ahem…GasX, anyone?!)

Although we didn’t sell all those varieties at the farm stand, it’s safe to say we had plenty to eat and sell!

You may be wondering who picks all those peas and beans. Well, we do! My dad and my family picked the majority. We did hire a few local kids to help us. It was mostly John, actually. He’s the one who planted them, after all 😉

Besides an abundance of veggies and melons, our little farm stand sold an assortment of homemade jellies, pickles, seasoning mixes, and bread.

Operating a family farm is certainly hard work. However, it’s rewarding work. Making new friends, renewing old friendships, trading recipes and gardening tips…I enjoyed it all!

One of the BEST things that happened: A customer recognized a beautiful purple bean growing up a trellis beside the farm stand. She shared some information about the heirloom that her family had grown for years. My new friend clearly enjoyed reminiscing. I was proud to tell her the seed was passed down from my late father-in-law. Mr Wiemers had labeled the seed with the name of who shared them. She knew her! In fact, she and the lady’s family had often shared seeds through the years. How cool is that?!

As I’m writing this, it’s a cold and rainy January. I leaf through seed magazines. I circle page numbers and make notes of how many seeds to order and which can be purchased locally. I can’t wait to start preparing and planting for this year’s farm stand season!

Until next time, take care of the people you love and don’t forget to make a few memories worth telling.