Black Sheep Manor Gardens

Black Sheep Manor Gardens Homegrown, heirloom vegetables, flowers and herbs from little old Black Sheep Manor, just outside Easley, SC.

06/21/2020

Hope you guys are all staying safe! We are edging closer to fresh tomatoes! Cherry, paste and heirlooms - varieties declared some of the tastiest around, and by real experts not just me! Stay tuned and we'll figure out how to get them to you if you are interested.

04/30/2020

The Easley Farmers Market is off, at least for the foreseeable future, but Dan and I are still growing at BSM Gardens. We're tending seedlings of some of the tastiest tomato varieties along with other fresh produce, herbs and flowers. We're looking at ways to connect our customers with what we grow, and we'll try to keep you posted between chores! Stay safe out there.

Hey y'all: If you're interested on one of these lively, friendly, fat little puppies -- now about five weeks old -- they...
09/03/2019

Hey y'all: If you're interested on one of these lively, friendly, fat little puppies -- now about five weeks old -- they'll be available for adoption later this month. We've already found homes for several, but we do want to ensure these fosters get spayed and neutered, unlike their mother -- a stray who adopted us this spring. Gotta break that cycle.

08/09/2019

Hi y'all: There aren't enough quality tomatoes coming out of the garden this week to justify taking them to the Easley Farmers' Market, which means we're most likely done for the rest of the season.

I wanted to take a moment to thank Lisa Chapman for her leadership, and to thank all our fantastic customers. Y'all are some friendly, funny, interesting people, and we've looked forward to chatting with you each week.

Just because we're not at market doesn't mean we're entirely played out. Most of the garden is about to be turned under and replanted, but I'm gonna leave the Tappy's Heritage and "big ugly" heirloom tomatoes (Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple and Green Giant) in place until they stop producing . Atomic Grapes, too. Everything's on the small side and none of the vines are particularly productive at the moment, but we've just got so many vines out there that we're still harvesting a few more than we can eat.

Which means if you're looking for a few vine-ripe tomatoes during the week, we might just have some. Email us, call us, or message us here, and we'll let you know whether we've got what you're looking for. Hell, yesterday we sold $5 worthy of Tappys and Mortgage Lifters to a nice woman we'd never met before.

I'm also about to bring in the late legumes -- butter beans, limas, field peas. Not sure what we'll have, but I'm about to find out. And in a few weeks, if things go to plan, we'll have some fresh snaps, beets, turnips, etc.

But other than that, we look forward to seeing ya'll next spring. Thanks for a great 2019!

-- Danet

These are the Pickleworm Days of July: They come on quick, but the moment as they arrive, you start looking up squash re...
07/04/2019

These are the Pickleworm Days of July: They come on quick, but the moment as they arrive, you start looking up squash recipes.

Because you just know you're going to be eating lots of squash.

I spotted the year's first pickleworm damaged pattypan squash on Monday. Just one ugly little pinhole in an otherwise beautiful fruit.

The next day I had to set aside about a quarter to a third of the daily squash pick. By Wednesday it was up to about half the day's harvest. It was about the same today.

We don't bring squash to pickleworm-damaged squash to market, but that doesn't mean we just throw it away. As we learned last year, just because fresh-picked squash is damaged doesn't mean it isn't also delicious. You just have to make sure you're not eating any of the damaged sections... or, for that matter, any pickleworms.

The pickleworms are easy to deal with. I dump the daily harvest in a plastic tote filled with cool water, and when I come back the pickleworms are waiting for me atop their floating squash. Hasta la vista, pickleworms.

Then start chopping it up, slicing through the squash atop a pinhole. This usually reveals damage, and then I just cut slices in that direction until the damage stops. This leaves me with virgin squash, and makes sure I've removed any pickleworms that didn't surface while the squash was under water.

By the time I'm done, anywhere from half to a third of the squash bits are in the composting bowl, and the rest of the culled squash is ready to be cooked. And when you grow as much squash as we do, that means there's a lot of squash to eat or put up or both, every day.

If you're growing your own squash and you spot a pickleworm pinhole, don't despair. Just put squash on the menu and get to work in the kitchen.

What's looming on the horizon? Tomatoes.Way too many tomatoes. Be afraid. Be very afraid...
06/26/2019

What's looming on the horizon? Tomatoes.

Way too many tomatoes.

Be afraid. Be very afraid...

Address

189 Mossie Smith Road
Easley, SC
29642

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

+18434693467

Website

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About Black Sheep Manor

After raising approximately four moderately well-adjusted children together in Charleston, SC, Dan and Janet Conover decided they’d had it with the Lowcountry. The couple moved into a vacant trailer on Janet’s ancestral family farm in the summer of 2016, and promptly named their new home Black Sheep Manor.

In the spring of 2017 they began cultivating about half an acre of fallow field. Despite making all the usual mistakes (plus a few of their own invention), they wound up producing more food, flowers and herbs than they than they could eat, freeze, can or give away. Janet plants the flowers and herbs. Dan grows the vegetables, Southern peas and grains. Black Sheep Manor emphasizes heirloom varieties of classic Southern “kitchen garden” vegetables, and all BSM Gardens produce is raised without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers.

Since growing your own food is actually kinda fun, Janet and Dan decided they might as well plant a little more in 2018 and take the surplus to the Easley Farmers Market. That turned out well, so they planted more in 2019, returned to the Saturday Market and added mid-week deliveries to The Farmacy. Encouraged by those results, they planted more than ever in 2020 -- just in time for the pandemic.

With the global pandemic entering its second year, the 2021 Black Sheep Manor garden has no plans for market -- but new ventures in flowers, herbs and related products are underway.