Sparkle Farms Delaware

04/04/2026

Good morning, first asparagus cutting of the season. Now I have to get out there and w**d the patch. Karen said the couple of spears I cut before the frost a week ago were sweet. I guess I'll cut some for the salads I take to work for lunch. I went back to work Wednesday 5 weeks after 3 bypass surgery. Feeling great until I sneeze, bad timing with the pollen season coming.

03/21/2026

Good Morning, I figured out a way to get wood down to the basement so I could cut it on the table saw to keep the stove burning for the plants. I don't cut little wood until I need it because it takes so much more time to cut. I don't think I'm suppose to use the chainsaw or split wood for awhile. Next year I guess I should cut little wood when cutting firewood for house. We burnt 4 cords this year.

03/18/2026

Today I ground apples to make some apple butter. Tomorrow I do some more to try to fill the pan, it takes about a week to cook down to butter. I will be going back to work on April 1. Feeling good all the doctors are happy with the way I am healing up.

03/12/2026

Glad I was able to figure out a way to keep making pots for transplanting. Since my procedure I didn't feel safe pushing hard down on the bottom of a glass and twisting. Yesterday I found a old sump pump float to modified to use cordless drill. I did about 50 yesterday used them all up this morning.

03/10/2026

Just transplanted the Big Beef tomatoes. Next trip down I will transplant Better Boys tomatoes

03/09/2026

Hello everyone, I'm sorrry that I forgot to take camera to the basement with me. Karen did a wonderful job taking care of the plants for a week and a half while I dealt with an issuse. She is really everything to me. She went out to store, so I shuck down stairs to see plants and water them.Maybe I'll get some pictures tommorrow. Yes I'm on the road to recovery.

Send a message to learn more

02/17/2026

02/12/2026

First seedlings transplanted from starting tray San Marzano Gigante, they were not available for a couple of years. Karen found them this year. They are a big paste tomato that is still a good fresh eatting, she makes her pizza with no sauce just sliced tomatoes. Matt makes this style at work and calls it Mom's pizza, and it's usually and good seller. Karen got 10 seeds I got 12 out of 15 seeds, and she ordered more 30 is what they had so we bought them all. We need to get alot of sauce tomatoes this year because we didn't can any pizza or tomato sauces last year. We are down to just over 3 cases of Matt's Pizza sauce.

02/09/2026

Plantted 4 more trays of seeds, Better Boy, Big Beef, Jeresy Devil, and Jalapeno pepper and tomatoes. Karen got 21 quarts of spiced apples.

02/07/2026

I went to Fifer's Orchard Wedesday and bought 6 bushels of apples for Karen to can spiced apples. She makes what I call apple turn-overs, with puff pastery and canned fruit. We have been out of apples for awhile, she has pears that canned. I like the apples better. The seedlings are getting their first ture leafs time to start them on some fertizer.

01/31/2026

When the wood stove is burning it helps the seeds get started. Tomatoes popping out of the starting soil. I see a few unwanted things also came up, so I'm cooking the rest of the start mix before using.

01/27/2026

Today I stated 4 trays of seeds in the basement. 2 tomatoes, 1 green pepper, and 1 dill. also fired up wood stove to help with warmth. The heat mats only get about 15 degrees above ambeint, I've found that 78 to 82 degrees is where about 10 days germination. I hope to get some gardening in this year because we did not can anything our sluppies are going down. Karen made Chili today with some whole tomatoes we had canned from 2 years ago. I'll take some to work tomorrow in a thermos first day back this week. This was the first bigger snow that I did not go out in Karen was happy, but I did our driveway and 5 neighbors with the backhoe.

Send a message to learn more