“Having a passion farm is really a blessing,” says Jess Nestor, who runs the Our Wren’s Nest Farm in Ohio together with her circle of relatives. Having at all times discovered herself interested in a “easy way of life and the entirety old skool,” Nestor was once ready to satisfy her self-sustainable goals after “a possibility assembly with any person who’s now our very expensive buddy and the most productive farming mentor.”
That individual wound up serving to the Nestors the danger to safe their very own land. “Now lets develop a lawn on a bigger scale, elevate our personal chickens, construct a small cabin and really reside out our passion farming goals,” says Nestor. “So we jumped in with each ft, even quitting my day process for a brand new occupation that allowed me to farm complete time!”
Taking a wreck from tending to the passion farm, Nestor spoke to us about the advantages of completely revamping the lawn and the annoyance of cucumber beetles. We additionally were given the news on ghost squash.
Move Forward & Revamp the Lawn
“This yr we made a function to totally revamp how we lawn,” says Nestor when requested about how this yr’s produce haul grew to become out. “[We] spent lots of the iciness researching and making plans. Within the spring we constructed totally new develop beds, added irrigation and most effective planted crops we knew we might consume—no experimenting.”
Nestor provides that embracing the sq. foot gardening manner additionally allowed them to “develop produce extra successfully in a space this is simple to regulate.”
Pesky Cucumber Beetles
Nestor calls this yr’s lawn “the most productive we’ve ever grown” and is delighted by means of how “the produce helps to keep piling up!” However sadly the cucumbers didn’t cross rather in keeping with plan.
“We skilled cucumber beetles for the primary time!” says Nestor. “We now understand how to maintain them and, even if they didn’t figure out, we received a ton of information for subsequent yr!”
Introducing Ghost Squash!
If you happen to benefit from the Our Wren’s Nest Farm Instagram account, you’ll come throughout somewhat one thing tagged ghost squash.
However what precisely are ghost squash?
“I’m an enormous fan of the entirety summer season and iciness squash, one in every of my favourite meals, and I develop a just right quantity of it yearly,” explains Nestor. “From zucchini to spaghetti squash, it’s all so just right! I love to have several types of squash, and the White Scallop squash added a a laugh contact to the lawn.”
It seems that the unique White Scallop crops are rather prolific. “I feel if I used to be going to make use of it in a Halloween recipe, I might sparsely carve out some eyes and a mouth on the most sensible after which steam the squash,” says Nestor, coming into early Halloween mode. “You could undoubtedly get a spooky, a laugh addition in your meal that manner.”
Coping with Potatoes
Having dallied with making an attempt to develop potatoes for numerous years, Nestor finds that they after all got here just right this time round.
“Oh, potatoes! What a studying revel in the ones were,” she says. “I believe like each and every farmer has that one plant that checks them yearly, and potatoes were that for us. This yr, despite the fact that, was once the primary yr we had a large harvest. Even supposing it wasn’t up to we needed, we discovered such a lot!”
In relation to potato-growing guidelines, Nestor says to at all times you’ll want to have enough room, use a just right high quality seed and be affected person. “Don’t pull the crops too early—which I’ve been in charge of up to now!”
Accomplishments & Rewards
In relation to the advantages of working a passion farm, Nestor issues to “the sensation of feat and the rewards of your arduous paintings.”
“You raised the ones chickens and geese, and know the place the eggs are coming from,” she continues. “A pantry stuffed with canned items is a dinner party to the eyes and the tummy which might be freed from preservatives. It is only this type of sense of delight for us. The most productive feeling is solely sitting again with my husband, observing the flock roam the backyard and seeing how a long way we’ve come.”
Apply Our Wren’s Nest Farm on Instagram.