Farm Tours Come To A Close For The Year On A Soggy Note

Van Burnette tags a monarch butterfly

The past two weeks have been very busy for the farm and were a great way to end the 2012 tour season.  On Sept. 22 and 23 we hosted the ASAP Family Farm tour.  Around 120 people visited the farm where non stop tours were given by Van for both days.  It is rather grueling but hopefully people learned a lot about what all we do here on the farm.

Hops, as always, seemed to demand the most attention for the Farm Tour.  We also seemed to raise awareness for the importance of creating and maintaining native bee pollinator habitats and with our native blueberry study.  We also tagged a couple of monarch butterflies that were passing through.

The major tagging event for the monarch butterflies was reserved for the next weekend, Sept. 29 and our last official tour of the season.  Around 60 people showed up for this free event.  Folks started gathering early and so did the clouds.

The rain started during the release

 I managed to tag three monarchs and let the kids and adults release them after we taught the butterflies a few crucial words in Spanish.  Not all of the butterflies we eager to fly off as the one seen below seemed to wanted to stay on this young ladies hair.

All in all it was a good year, but we hope next year will be even better and hope to sponsor many fun events and have great Saturday tours with lots of folks.  The last shot seems to be a good ending for this blog.  You can just make out a monarch flying south after being tagged, saying goodbye to the farm.

Three New Events To Talk About!

Yes folks, we welcome the Hop Rod to our marketing campaign. Thanks to a matching grant from ASAP and initial design from my nephew Charlie Cort with final design and assembly by Precision Graphics in Black Mountain, we proudly unveiled the creation today on my vintage 1960 Volvo 544 that originally belonged to my Grandmother with 53.000 actual miles.
This vehicle is as unique as our farm is, no question about it.

The sleek design and Swedish integrity made this America's first truly compact car for the market. It's own marketing featured this car as the best floating car on the market if it fell into a lake or the ocean (go figure)! More pictures will follow.

The second thing I wanted to talk about was ASAP's Family Farm Tour. This seemed to be a great success to our farm. We increase visitation by about 30% from last year. Most of the time it was non stop and I was able to get the point across about our farm to about 130 people. Exhausting, but most beneficial.

Here is a quote for Beth who emailed just after her visit. She bought one of my native blueberries and wanted to know how to care for it.

"Your tour was great! I LOVE the butterfly house, and I knew absolutely nothing about hops before yesterday. What an operation! We only went to 2 other farms yesterday & none were as good as yours....Anyway I really admire your trying to preserve your families farm land as well as taking some really big risks while working really hard, I'm sure, & even maintaining a great sense of humor! Hang in there!"

Now that was the only email that I have gotten so far from the tour, but she said post it by all means. How could I not!

The third and final thing on the farm is our first hop harvest coming up next week. I have been in contact with Pisgah Brewing and they are ready as well. My harvest will not be as bountiful as last year, but the "wet hop" beer will happen again with this organic and locally active brewery.

Don't miss their wet hop beer, "Burnette's Brew", named after me of course. Coming later this month.

Very Busy Time On The Farm

I have recently declared all out war here on the farm against all predators. Seems I have all kinds of problems, least of which are weeds! I have been on constant weed pulling patrol lately, tending each plant separately. Lets see, that's 250 blueberries, and 140 hop plants, and, 500 feet of butterfly nectar plants! My hands and knees are never without dirt on them.

I recently noticed a new problem with my new blueberry starts that I rooted from soft stems last year. They were whacked off at the base. I quickly contacted both Bill Cline, NCSU Blueberry Expert, and our very own Sue Collucci, dual Ag Extension agent for Henderson and Buncombe counties and small fruits and disease expert. Now these are people we can be proud to have as part of our agricultural community. Contact your state representatives to keep these jobs from being lost!

Yep, both agreed that varmints were to blame. Rabbits in particular. I got tons of rabbits. Seems that they just love to chew on soft hardwood tissue, just to piss you off it seems, cause it appears that they even leave the leaves? The incriminating evidence is the angular cuts on the stem as these two photos show.

Now, I will have to either cage the plants as they are put into the field, or, it's rabbit stew at the farm!!

My next varmint seems to be my neighbors now. They have increased traffic on my property and have diverted water breaks that lead to my irrigation system without my permission. It has caused me much headache and damage. They are city folk that don't realize what farming is all about or respect private property. I now have to repair my system and seek some retribution from these irresponsible actions. If I don't already have enough to do!!!

My first school group arrives this week. I will post the news from that later this week. Then the farm is booked for the most of June during the weekend, which is a good thing. I will have my annual family reunion, followed by a booked party, then the Family Farm Tour at the end of the month sponsored by ASAP.

Whooo, if you read all of this, think of how I must feel!