Delli Carpini Farm

05/06/2026

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04/20/2026

When I farmed commercially, nights like this used to strike fear in my heart. I usually waited until May 1st to set out tomatoes (peppers, eggplant and basil even later). The old rose expert at the Great Big Greenhouse (Joyce Goggin) used to say Mother's Day was the frost date.

Don't be too hasty (you might get burned). A hard freeze can stunt Nightshades. One year a hard freeze in May burned all my potato vines down to the ground, never to recover.

02/13/2026

Big Daddy's Farm Foraged Elderberry Syrup wasn't a big hit. I made about 2 gallons of the stuff and only sold a pint. When the elderberry bushes started dying off at the farm, I took it as a sign to move on.

Do you consider elderberry a fad or is it still going strong?

02/13/2026

At the peak of the h**p craze in 2021, I grew h**p at my farm (legally). These plants cost me $120. The yield was about 8 lbs. I sold about $90 worth (the rest went to waste, or molded). So much for the h**p craze.

12/03/2025

Memory from 2018: I was still full bore with cover crops. Later I decided the benefit was not worth the cost. It takes a lot of time and considerable expense to plant, manage and terminate cover crops. In a wet year, you might miss the termination window and it would go to seed. Then you'd have cereal rye or crimson clover coming up everywhere.

I think my two favorites were buckwheat and blue tansy.

11/17/2025

I had very good luck with Jerusalem artichokes a few seasons. They contain inulin, a type of indigestible starch, which makes them a good food for diabetics. Adding them to your diet can improve gut health, aid in weight management, may support bone health by increasing absorption of potassium and magnesium, and may have an anti-inflammatory effect.

They are the tuberous roots of Helianthus tuberosus, They are also known as Canadian truffles or earth apples. Native Americans cultivated them. Known to be invasive, (but I never had a problem with that at the farm). In fact, I had to replant every year to maintain good yields.

10/15/2025

In October of 2023 I traveled to Tropea and got to see the real Cipolla di Tropea in the flesh. Amazing. One of my favorite onions to grow. They do well in central Virginia.

07/19/2025

Honey bee invasion: A growing threat to native pollinators - Earth.com https://share.google/BhVDRPRK6eZygjH02

At Earth.com, our goal is to provide the internet with a homepage for anything and everything about our planet Earth and the environment.

07/14/2025

2017 was a good year for carrots.

05/07/2025

These photos show the power and advantage of the high tunnel vs. field grown crops. The high tunnel tomatoes are already flowering. The field-grown are spindly little transplants. From my friend in PA who raises tomatoes and garlic. Photos probably taken the same day.

My farm fields were plastic-free for nine years, although I did start transplants in a small greenhouse and hoop house off-site.

I was glad I never used high tunnels, but you may get a sense of the disadvantage from these images. I got hung-up on the microplastics.