Freedom Valley Farm

08/29/2026

Good evening everyone. We will be at Broad Ripple Farmers Market and Carmel Farmers Markets tomorrow. We'll have tomatoes, basil, mushrooms, and yes, some greens! While we're still struggling with lettuce, we harvested quite a bit of baby garlic-kale this week and some spicy greens mix. We also have radishes!

August has been quite the rough month for us, and quite honestly this entire Summer is one of the roughest ones in my memory on the farm. We're battling unprecedented pressure from pests, disease, and relentless humidity. Many times lately, I have felt like we're learning how to farm in a whole different climate this year. Pest cycles are all out of whack, our normal pest control methods are not working, and it's hard to fend off plant diseases when we've barely had a day that stayed below 80% humidity all summer. With all of these factors combined, it's been incredibly difficult to get new crops started; I can't even count how many times I've seeded and re-seeded lettuce and beets this month alone. Army worms and cucumber beetles get them the second they get put in the ground, something we've never had so much of an issue with before.
On top of all of this we're also facing staffing issues, which is why we weren't able to come to Carmel last week. August is a hard month to get through short-handed, but we're almost there! I'm counting down the number of Fall/Winter plots that must be prepped and planted before we can take a nice big sigh of relief. Despite the extra hardships this year, we still love what we do, and we are taking extra long notes about how to come into next year more prepared for these new growing conditions.
What all this means for us, is that we are failing to meet our demand by a long-shot this year. We appreciate all of the support and patience we've been shown, and we thank everyone who has bought everything we've been able to offer this year. Our goal is to get past this season and get back on track with a productive Winter season, and hopefully a much more fruitful 2027.

08/16/2026

Good evening everyone. I'm checking in to fill you all in on what has been a hectic 48 hours for us, and to direct you to where you can currently find our produce.
On Saturday, we unfortunately had to leave the farmers markets due to heavy storms and flash flooding in Broad Ripple and Carmel. In the 8 years that I have personally been at the farm, we've never had this happen. We had every bit of our harvests (aka our income) at those 2 markets this weekend, so it was a very difficult day to accept. We basically spent 3 hours driving to market and setting up, only to have to pack it all back up and leave. We had maybe an hour's worth of sales at Broad Ripple, where the weather didn't hit quite as hard right at opening. But at Carmel, we were hit before the market even opened, and so I made all of 3 sales before I had to pack up and leave.
This of course comes after we have already had SO many rainy markets this summer. Although we never close down just for rain, it obviously affects our sales. I do have to point out that we are still feeling incredibly lucky, however, since our farm hasn't faced any of the devastating flooding that has hit much of Indiana. We may be working through swamp weather these past several weeks, but at least our crops aren't underwater. We also have a lot of gratitude for the market volunteers who make these markets happen, rain or shine, and for our dedicated customers who show up to support us.

If you're missing out on your farm fresh produce and mushrooms this week, I've been scrambling to get them available to you. For our Broad Ripple and Carmel customers, I'm currently listing everything I can on MarketWagon. If you've never tried Market Wagon, this is a great opportunity to do so, and you'll even find some of your favorite meat, egg, and bread vendors on there too. Cutoff for orders is Tuesday night, and delivery (to your door!) is on Thursday. Make sure to select Thursday delivery to see our products.
For our Bloomington customers, I made a big delivery to Bethel Lane Farm Stop this morning. You can check out their website to see everything we have in stock there on any day you would like to visit. I dropped off LOTS of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, and more. You can find an incredible deal of our chestnut mushrooms for $7/half pound, and our big basil bunches for $3, while they last.

Thank you so much to everyone who makes it possible for us to farm for our local communities. It means the world to us, especially when times get tough

08/10/2026

Get your MarketWagon orders in for the week! We have celebrity tomatoes, new this week, oyster mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and more. Cutoff is 1am Wednesday for a Thursday delivery to your door.

Shop MarketWagon.com, Online Farmers Markets & Local Food Delivery

08/08/2026

Its tomato tiiiiime 🥰

Broad Ripple Farmers Market
Carmel Farmers Markets

08/07/2026

Happy Friday! Its looking like a clear, rain-free market for tomorrow! Come on out and see us to fill your bags with tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers and more! We have small amount of lettuce and kale this week too.

Unfortunately we will not be at Bloomington Community Farmers' Market again this week. Each of our markets have their own quirks and over the years we get to know what to send to which market and in what quantities. At this moment, we are not able to bring the variety of items that let's us see success in Bloomington in the summer. We hope to return soon, and I will try to bring another round of produce to Bethel Lane Farm Stop this coming Monday!

Despite lacking the specific variety that we feel we need for Bloomington, don't fret, because we have SO much fresh, local produce to put on our tables tomorrow--including our biggest tomato harvest so far this year! So come see us tomorrow and let's make up for all those rainy Saturday mornings we've had lately :)

Broad Ripple Farmers Market
Carmel Farmers Markets

08/01/2026

It looks like hopefully this bout of rain will be moving out of the Indy area just in time for the markets to open! Then it looks like we'll get a dry spell from about 8-10. Fingers crossed! Come support all your local farmers and get some fresh air for the morning :)

Broad Ripple Farmers Market
Carmel Farmers Markets

07/31/2026

Happy Friday y'all! Idk about you, but after another long hot week, I'm actually looking forward to a cloudy rainy weekend 😅 Come join us at market tomorrow, because as our regulars know, a little bit of rain in the forecast usually means no lines, and the absolute BEST pickings on tomatoes!

Unfortunately, we were feeling a bit short on product to spread it across all 3 markets, so we will be absent from Bloomington this week. I'm hoping to do a restock at Bethel Lane in Bloomington early next week if I can!

On the farm this week, we have fully transitioned into Fall planting mode. We have several beds of Fall crops seeded and we're starting dozens of trays for transplanting too. We have half of our winter carrot beds composted (a notoriously big job for us every year!) And we have our sights set on doing the other half next week.
Of course during all the Fall prep, there are the summer crops to continue caring for and harvesting from. While many people begin to think Summer is almost over, year-around farms such as ours are only just starting the busiest season of all: when Summer, Fall, and Winter crops all overlap!
We also added woodchip mulch to 14 beds of our later season tomatoes this week. We built a giant shadecloth tent over 20 pepper beds that are struggling with sunscald this year. We're battling black rot and powdery mildew thanks to the insane amount of humidity we've had all summer. Just add mowing, and weedeating, and weeding, and harvesting to that list and you'll begin to understand the chaos that is late Summer on the farm 😆

We're excited to see you all at Broad Ripple Farmers Market and Carmel Farmers Markets tomorrow, rain or shine! Again, we will be regrettably absent from Bloomington Community Farmers' Market this week.

07/28/2026

Get your last minute MarketWagon orders in! Cutoff for Thursday delivery is 1am tonight. Plenty of Shiitake mushrooms and cherry tomatoes left! :)

https://marketwagon.com/collections?vendor=15967&trk=pj111780j

07/24/2026

Its been a loooong busy week, but boy have we enjoyed the cooler weather! 😍 It'd be a darn shame if you didn't come join us for market tomorrow morning, given this beautiful forecast 😌

Broad Ripple Farmers Market
Carmel Farmers Markets
Bloomington Community Farmers' Market

Newly restocked on MarketWagon and don't forget to check us out at Bethel Lane Farm Stop!

07/17/2026

Haaaappy Friday everyone! Its July, and right on schedule, our lives have been taken over by tomatoes! (And sweat 🥵) Our first big haul of beautiful heirloom tomatoes are heading to all 3 markets tomorrow! Our basil is really running on the light side this year, so this week our small harvest will go to Carmel.
We have zucchini, cucumbers galore, onions, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, carrots and more!
We've spent this week prepping some Fall beds, waging a full-on war on weeds, and pruning and trellising tomatoes. We have roughly 1,100 tomato plants residing on the farm right now, all in various stages of development. Carefully timed successions is how we keep you supplied with tomatoes all the way through October, but they certainly take alot of work!
Come see us tomorrow for what looks like a rain-free market, finally! Fingers crossed 🤞

Broad Ripple Farmers Market
Bloomington Community Farmers' Market
Carmel Farmers Markets

Don't forget to check us out on MarketWagon and at Bethel Lane Farm Stop :)