Sutherland Farms Happenings

Fall is officially here and mother nature surprised us with an early freeze.  That ended our vegetable season a few weeks earlier than we had hoped, but not a lot we can do about that.  Every few years our season gets cut short by an early freeze and we move from summer to fall very quickly.  We still had tomatoes, chile and corn left in the field to be picked but that wasn’t to be.

The full moon and the weather cooperated fully on Sat. Oct 3rd for our Harvest Moon Dinner and Hayride.  What an absolute perfect evening under the bright full moon.  Dinner, music and a tasty dinner was enjoyed by all. 

So, now on to fall!  We have beautiful pumpkins, ornamental corn, corn stalks, gourds and more all for your fall decorating.  Every Saturday and Sunday we host families for our festival with hayrides, corn maze, pumpkin shooters and we can’t forget the corn pit. The most popular activity on the farm is our pit of shelled corn that the kids can play in.  It is a common sight to see parents dragging their crying children from the corn pit crying because they are not ready to get out!  They absolutely love it.

At this time of year we start wondering what happened to the summer?  Seems like last week we were planting, irrigating and keeping our fingers crossed for good crops and just like that it is fall and our season is coming to an end.  It is a beautiful season and we are already making plans for next year!

We have been very busy harvesting! The few showers we have had were wonderful.  The crops look beautiful.  Roasting green chile has been going strong.  The chile plants are loaded.  We just hold our breath this time of year as it gets cooler that the frost holds off for a few more weeks. We have corn, tomatoes, squash, green beans, okra and more that can still be harvested.

This weekend, Sept. 19 & 20, is the Green Chile Festival on the farm.  We will be roasting chile and celebrating the harvest with live music both days, craft vendors and wine tasting from our friends at Wines of the San Juan.  Green chile menu items at the Purple Cow Kafe.  We are all excited to share our farm.

Also gearing up for pumpkins!!  School children will begin visiting the farm and there will be lots of yellow school busses in the parking lot.  Weekends will be for families to visit and pick their pumpkin.

This is such a beautiful time on the farm.  Trees on the river begin to show some fall color and the weather is perfect!

We are so thankful for everyone that makes the trip to our farm.  People are having to make choices these days and we are glad they choose to buy local.  We also appreciate our loyal farmer’s market customers and look forward to our weekly visits.

Have a happy autumn equinox on Sept 22nd!   The Sutherlands

Well, it is finally here….SWEET CORN!  Everyone is so anxious for the sweet corn season to begin and it is time. We are picking corn at least once every day and sometimes every hour.  Our customers wait patiently, and some not so patiently :-), for this time of the year.  When it is time to pick corn we know the season is in full swing.

We are picking most everything except green chile, bell peppers and melons right now.  We have had a very warm July with the temperature hanging right around 97-100 and all the plants love it.  Really, it is the warm nights that help them grow just as much as the warm day time.

This year the tomatoes are ready a little early.  We have been picking tomatoes for the past week and boy are they wonderful.  Nothing like a tomato right off the vine. No comparison to those store bought tomatoes. 

It has been wonderful to have all our friends visit the farm again this year.  We are seeing many new faces as well.  Seems folks are getting that “better to buy produce from the farmer” message because they like to know where their vegetables come from.   

We are gearing up for a good green chile season as well.  That will start around the 15th of August and go until frost.  The Green Chile Festival will be Sept 19 & 20 and what fun that is!  Live music both days and Kirk James will be on hand Sun 20th 1-4 to play some blues.  We have Wines of the San Juan both days and lots of food, crafts, face painting and train rides for the kids.

Please send us your comments.  Until next time,  enjoy the season.  The Sutherlands

The week of July 4th we started harvesting all varieties of summer squash, new potatoes, onions, and sugar snap peas.  Will begin picking green beans this week.

The retail market opened on July 6th so the season is getting into full swing!  The weather has been hot, upper 90’s and dry.  The nights are warm so things are growing nicely.  All the family is busy on the farm.  There are 10 of us from age 6 and up so you are bound to see us at the farm or one of the farmers markets listed below.

We will be at the Durango Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays 4:30 pm at the La Plata County Fair Grounds and Saturdays 8:00 am at Wells Fargo Bank Parking Lot; Farmington Growers’ Market on Saturday 8:00 am and Tuesdays 4:30 pm beginning July 28 both at Animas River Park off Browning Parkway; Aztec Market Wednesdays at 4:30 pm in Westside Plaza. 

Farm market hours are Mon-Sat 9-6 and Sun 10-5.

The Purple Cow Kafe on the farm will be open beginning July 17th to kick off the season.

All the transplanting is taking place on the farm.  We set out transplants as the growing season here in the four corners is too short to grow chile from seed.  We use a mechanical transplanter but it still takes a week to put out chile, tomato and bell pepper plants.  There is 5 varieties of chile: mild, medium, hot, xhot and xxxhot.  We will start harvesting and roasting chile around the 15th of August.

Peas will be ready around June 20th as will the summer squash, new potatoes and onions. 

The weather the past 2 weeks has been cool and we have had rain!  Rain is very welcome this time of year as we probably won’t see it again until August.

The farm market will be open July 6th.  Cleaning up after the winter takes some work but we are excited for another season and we always keep our fingers crossed that mother nature doesn’t have any surprises up her sleeve!

Enjoy the spring,

The Sutherland Family