Give a call to see what we have! Or check our page for availability.
Small small with 2 passive solar hoophouses and less than an acre of land for growing vegetables, lettuces, greens, herbs, rhubarb, a few berries. We use organic type methods and no chemical fertilizers or herbicides, and only OMRI approved sprays if absolutely necessary.
Operating as usual
At the Mill in Germansville now--carnation poppy plants that will have lovely salmon colored ruffled blooms this summer. Seeds can be used for baking, and this annual may self-sow for next year. The leaves are a pale green and look as though the poppy needs fertilizer, but that's just the foliage color.
This week the Red Cat Farm strawberry and asparagus plants will be arriving at the Mill in Germansville!
We will have an early and a later strawberry variety and asparagus plants ( There are male and female asparagus plants and the males are better producers. The female plants will have pretty red berries later in the season while the males usually have non-berried ferns. The male plants will produce thicker stalks and can send up stalks longer through the season. )
If you purchase strawberry plants and cannot plant them immediately, it’s best to actually put them into the refrigerator. That keeps them dormant until you can get them into the soil. Planting guides will be available with your purchase at the Mill.
This is true.
Plant sales at The Mill in Germansville starts today! The cole crops and hardy herbs, plus strawberry plants, asparagus roots, and onion plants are here!
It’s getting closer to garden time!
When your garden soil is dry enough to be worked, start getting it ready for planting. Get rid of any weeds, set up your rows, and plan what and where you want each vegetable to grow. Try to rotate plantings so your tomatoes and peppers, eggplants and potatoes are as far as possible from where they were last year. Taking a soil test now will help you to decide what fertilizer you need during the season. ( soil test kits are available at The Mill in Germansville or at your Extension office.)
Red Cat Farm cabbage family crops and hardy herbs will appear on the loading dock at the Mill in Germansville by April 17 this year, weather permitting!
Tomatoes and peppers and other tender plants will be offered around May 15, which is our official frost free date.
This year the Mill will be selling wire hoops and spun row cover so you can protect your early plants and extend the growing season in the fall.
Hope to see you there!
Part One of our discussion on seeds!
We’re back with the rest of our live!
The sunflower field just up the road from us in Germansville was planted by Bill Dietrich in honor of his wife Imogene. While Red Cat Farm and Bill are friends, Red Cat is not involved with the sunflower plantings. They are lovely this year!
Get your free pot of German thyme at the Mill!
Today at the Mill in Germansville all plants are $1.00, tax included. ( except sweet potato plants which are lookin’ good and are $5.00 a bunch)
Come on by for Customer Appreciation Day at the Mill—food truck, pony rides, Sargents Metalworks, and more!
It’s May 1st! Less than 2 weeks before our tomatoes and peppers will be available at the Mill in Germansville!
Patience in gardening pays off, so if you get your garden all ready, then plant closer to the middle of May, your plants will most likely take off and surpass those tomatoes and peppers planted in cold soil.
Red Cat Farm grows all plants in an un heated high tunnel, so our tomatoes and peppers have experienced both hot and controlled chilly temperatures, and they will be ready to be planted.
Right now check out the cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, lettuces, chard, and hardy herbs at the Mill! These babies are ready to be planted anytime!
These are photos of dead nettle and Persian speedwell.
There are lots of little blue and purple flowers out in lawns, fields, and gardens right now. Ever wonder what they are called?
The brilliant clear blue tiny flower, low growing, often in patches in gardens as well as lawns at this time of the year is called Persian speedwell.
The dusty looking leaf, purple flowered plant that can blanket bare fields or pop up in lawns and gardens is called dead nettle. These flowers and plants are somewhat upright and larger than speedwell.
A third early blooming plant with small purple flowers is called henbit. You can identify it by the fact that the stems of the plant go right through the leaves. Henbit persists through the summer but usually is not found in profusion. This photo is of henbit.
Lots of plants are growing and flourishing in the high tunnel at Red Cat Farm, and are going out for sale at the Mill in Germansville as the temperatures allow and as the plants are ready!
Hope you are enjoying a lovely if not different Easter Sunday.
On Wednesday, April 15 (thank goodness not tax day this year!) we will be putting out the first batch of brassicas, or cole crops at the Mill in Germansville. We'll have cabbages, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower plants was well as more herbs.
It's going to be cold at night for this next week, so be careful if you plant in your garden that the little seedlings are protected if it goes down to 32 or if there are high winds.
We have more strawberry plants coming by Wednesday, I hope, so look for them if you're anticipating planting a strawberry bed this year!
We're in for a shot of cold nighttime weather now, so for all of you who have not planted anything yet, except cold hardy plants, you'll be happy you waited!
Between rain showers, it's a great time to get that garden prepared for planting, so next week, your first little plants can just pop into the ground and get started growing.
At the Mill in Germansville, Red Cat has parsley, spearmint plants, and rhubarb plants, asparagus roots, and bunches of small onion plants that will grow into beautiful storage and summer onions.
Next Wednesday you will be able to chose from assorted cabbages, broccoli, and kale plants, as well as more hardy herbs.
The Mill in Germansville is kind enough again this year to allow Red Cat Farm to sell plants their location in Germansville. This year, look for plants on the loading dock instead of in front of the Mill house- that's on the other side of the Mill.
The cabbage family, or cole, crops will be available on April 15 at the Mill, and also hardy herbs that can handle the temperatures at this time of the year.
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, tender herbs are going to be ready early to mid-May, depending on the temperatures.
Following those, and again if it is warm enough, we'll offer the squash, cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini plants, ready to go into the garden and take off!
Spring will be early this year, it appears, unless we get that snow storm yet that dumps a foot of wet stuff that melts really quickly.
The fields are drying out enough between rains to get out there and prep for planting. Plowing first, then disking to break up the soil clumps, then harrowing, and finally planting.
So what's happening at Red Cat these days?
Winter is the time to catch up on things put aside during the hectic season. Organize, arrange, clean up, rebuild, plus order seeds, get the compost heated bunker ready for seed germination in the high tunnel, clean equipment, and...
replace parts on our wood boiler, paint the sunporch, refinish some furniture, do taxes, clean out the barn, and more. Chances of getting everything done? 0% But I'll work on it!
Wow, what a great time at the Easton Public Market yesterday! Met some old friends and also finally connected faces with email friends !
We gave out over 225 Red Cat Farm baked goods and wheat berry salad samples to the wonderful market goers from 11:00 until about 1:30.
The wheatberry salad and the 100% whole wheat chocolate cake were the favorites, although many loved our peanut butter and our pumpkin spice baked oatmeal samples also. We’re waiting to hear whether pooches liked the 100% whole wheat - cornmeal-oatmeal-peanut butter dog biscuits we tried making for the first time. Next will have to be catnip flavored cat treats!
This is the season for pancakes-- cold mornings, the need for something substantial and delicious to keep you going for the day. Our 100% whole wheat pancake mix whips up quick in just a couple of minutes. While they are light in texture, they offer satisfying hours of nutrition, and can be made with either milk and butter or soy or nut beverage and oil.
This summer my husband Michael grew a couple of rows of heirloom wheat and barley (from just a handful of seeds each) to see whether these varieties would be worthwhile growing here for flour production. The bundles of grain stalks are drying in the high tunnel and we will attempt to thresh them using our small Howe thresher that has been a challenge to use in the past. The handsful of seeds will produce a few pounds, and we will try them to see how they taste as grain. Growing out a variety from such a small number of seeds takes time, but it might give us the next delicious variety of heirloom grain we can offer to our customers. Stay tuned for the results!
Oh my, have I ever been absent in the last few months! So much going on in my farming life that I have been remiss in keeping up.
Well, of course the grain is harvested, the h**p is dried, the remaining herbs here and there are probably going dormant with the cold snaps over the past week, and I went to the Trexlertown Market on Saturday as a guest vendor to catch up with former customers and friends, and had a wonderful time! It was cold but folks came out anyway.
This next Saturday, Red Cat will be at the Easton Public Market Farmstand giving out samples of baked goods and salad made with our own grains from 11-1:00, so if you have never visited the Market, please do treat yourself and stop by. There are incredible vendors, delicious prepared foods, and an amazing display of organic vegetables at the Farmstand that will make you want to buy some of each.
Hello everyone!
We are still here but have not taken a moment to post anything for ages--so sorry for the lapse in communication. The grains are in, the wheat is going to the mill tomorrow for new flour, and the h**p is growing nicely and near harvest time. The weeds have also been growing nicely, and it is my challenge to get them pulled out or cut off before the seeds are mature.
Hope your gardens were good this year-- not much watering needed until about now. Let me know how things were for you!
Harvest season for grains is in full swing right now. Pretty intense covering all aspects of the process— preparing the combine and storage containers (either gravity wagons or large sacks/ totes on pallets), harvesting, hauling, cleaning before the grain goes into storage, and then making sure the crop is dry enough to store properly.
We’ll have some photos and maybe a video or two when this is done!
Oats are so beautiful.
We were fortunate to receive about 15 lbs of purple hull less barley seed from our friend Elizabeth Dyck of OGRIN in NY state and planted it and it's doing nicely. Hull less barley is great because it can be harvested and then eaten after threshing without having to go through the de-hulling process. Don't know much about this grain, but I have seen purple Egyptian hull less barley out there so I must find out if this does have Egyptian heritage.
Purple grain sounds really interesting--high in those blue-purple antioxidants, I bet.
June 23 is the last day Red Cat Farm will be at the Mill in Germansville with vegetable and herb starter plants.
Thank you to all the wonderful folks this year who stopped by to purchase plants, to chat, to say hello. Over the years I see many new faces and many I recognize, and all of you are truly appreciated ! Be in touch with questions and comments-- and complaints if you have them--I'm growing these plants for you, and want you to be satisfied with them.
The last days are here! Today (Saturday) and tomorrow are the last two days to pick up a couple of plants to fill in the garden, or try a few herbs in ground or in pots.
ALL PLANTS AT THE MILL IN GERMANSVILLE ARE $1.00 no matter what size or pot size, all tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.
The h**p is growing nicely and will be planted this weekend out into the field, on landscape cloth with drip tape and an organic fertilizer boost. We're going to try covering the plants with a spun row cover at night to discourage the deer from taking nips from the plants while they are still small.
Working the fields on Wednesday and Thursday before the rain. The soil was broken up and smoothed down, ready for a cover crop of buckwheat seed. By this Sunday, the buckwheat may be germinating and I am counting on it to suppress weeds and thistles, and add green organic matter when we till it in.
The chickens love sitting on the branch of the old apple tree. That branch gets in the way when Michael cuts the grass but we'd never think of cutting it off--what would the chickens do without their perch!
Over the weekend I saw the tractors sniffing noses, so it's a good sign they're accepting each other.
Tractors, like greenhouses, are rarely found alone. Somehow they proliferate. We got the Ford 3910, 47 hp (on the right) tractor a few years ago, and about a month ago found the 6610, 75 hp model to join our lonely little one. They seem to get along just great and are happy for the company.
6113 Memorial Road
Germansville, PA
18053
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