Simpson's Market Garden

Simpson's Market Garden Your neighborhood farmer feeding Charles County. I grow fresh, flavorful produce without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. I work with nature, not against it!

Come taste the difference! Find me at SimpsonsMarketGarden.com

This Saturday I'll have fresh broccoli, kohlrabi, baby cabbages, beautiful carrots, beets, and plenty more available at ...
06/19/2026

This Saturday I'll have fresh broccoli, kohlrabi, baby cabbages, beautiful carrots, beets, and plenty more available at the La Plata Farmers Market

Everything is grown right here in Port To***co. I don't use synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, and every crop is planted, tended, and harvested by me.

When you buy from a local farm, you're helping support the people who are actually growing your food.

See you at the market!

Things are moving along nicely on the farm. I am starting to harvest the first of our summer brassica rotation, and the ...
06/19/2026

Things are moving along nicely on the farm. I am starting to harvest the first of our summer brassica rotation, and the tomatoes are coming in. Kale, collards, cabbage and my summer kohlrabi are sizing up, as well as my peppers and potatoes.

Soon enough I'll be getting in my late summer and fall cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussel sprouts... Ain't that something. You are always working a season or two ahead when farming. I'm even working out my plantings for the winter!

Farm Updates: My potatoes are getting close, and I'll soon be digging some as new potatoes. Between the heat and drought...
06/18/2026

Farm Updates:
My potatoes are getting close, and I'll soon be digging some as new potatoes. Between the heat and drought, they're a little behind where they were last year, but I still think we're going to have a great harvest.

My heirloom celery is also getting close (2 weeks???) to its first light harvest, which I know a lot of you have been excited about.

The onions are looking fantastic too. Some are already baseball-sized, and it's shaping up to be a great year for onions.

As harvest approaches for my full size onions and storage potatoes, I'll be offering bulk boxes at my wholesale pricing if you reserve them. I have red, sweet, yellow, white and cipollini onions, and I'll offer them and my potatoes (red, russet, waxy yellow) by the 25-pound boxes, and it'll be at my wholesale pricing (to be determined).

If you're interested in bulk potatoes or onions, send me a message and I'll add you to the list.

Harvest season is almost here!

Huge congratulations to my brother on graduating from University of Maryland with a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Sc...
06/17/2026

Huge congratulations to my brother on graduating from University of Maryland with a Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science!

First being Valedictorian at St. Charles High School and then earning the prestigious Banneker/Key Scholarship and graduating from the Honors College, you've accomplished so much through your hard work. You've never forgotten what got you here.

It's sometimes surprising we are brothers.
Different paths, same work ethic.

06/16/2026

A lot of people assume that because I farm, I must have grown up on a family farm. Some use the lack of a "family farm" to discredit me. Neither are true.

Farming is in my family history, but it skipped generations. My great-grandparents on one side were tenant farmers, and on the other they operated a small farm on Rosewick Road. On my mother's side, my family tenant farmed around Chapel Point. Those farms and that way of life were gone long before I was born. The land that was once owned by my family changed hands years ago. We don't have any "family land" anymore.

My mother is a homemaker. My father works construction. I wasn't raised on a farm, and I didn't inherit one. The "family land" and "family farms" are long gone.

I went to school for plant science with plans to pursue landscape design. I've always been drawn to plants, ecology, and the environment. Over time I realized that farming felt like the natural extension of those beliefs, and that ecological landscape design was a little too niche for this area.

I've said it a thousand times and I'll keep saying it: I believe Charles County needs real local farmers. We need local businesses, including farms, helping feed the local community. I believe that's good for the environment, good for the local economy, and good for the people who live here.

While I may be relatively new to farming professionally, I am far from new to plants. The love of plants and the environment has always been part of who I am. I feel a deep connection to the land I stand on and a responsibility to care for it.

Maybe one day I'll be able to bring a farm back into my family's hands and keep that connection alive for future generations. Until then, I'm grateful for every person who supports what I'm building here, one season at a time.

06/16/2026

You aren't finding Silver Queen sweet corn.

This might be my most controversial post to date. If you know, you know. Let's get into it.

I don't sell sweet corn, but every year I get asked where to find Silver Queen or Peaches & Cream sweet corn. Usually someone has some story about someone they knew who grew it, off a back road, over a creek, past the rusted old pontiac...

" It is so hard to find!!!". Let me break some bad news to you.

Those are sweet corn varieties that were developed decades ago. Silver Queen dates to the 1960s, and Peaches & Cream became popular in the 1970s and 80s. While you may still find seed sold under some of those names, many of today's versions are not necessarily the exact same genetics that farmers were growing 40 years ago. Seed producers cannot even agree on what "Peaches and Cream" sweet corn ever was! Today you'll find 20 different varieties all called Peaches and Cream!

Could there be a few holdouts still growing the original sweet corns for sale? Sure. But I'd want to see the seed bag before I believed it. Honestly, shout them out below if you *know* someone who actually is growing Silver Queen for sale.

The funny thing is that if most people actually ate the sweet corn that was common in the 1970s and 80s, they'd probably be disappointed. Modern sweet corn breeding has come a long way. Today's "sugary enhanced" and "supersweet" varieties are sweeter, hold their sweetness longer after harvest, and generally have a better mouthfeel. They aren't starchy or mealy. They are juicy like people want. They are more consistent too. They will almost always be good if fresh!

If you spend any time in farming and market garden groups online during corn season, you'll see my same story over and over.

Customers ask for Silver Queen because that's what they remember, a farmer grows it, then they don't buy it when they taste it because they're used to modern sweet corn. They say how bad it tastes. That its almost like eating field corn!

Its very common to find people saying they sell modern sweet corn varieties and just call it silver queen or peaches and cream... That no one knows its not.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. I wonder if the people looking for silver queen are just looking for the feeling of being 10 years old again, eating sweet corn at their grandparents' house.

06/16/2026

What's the deal with Determinate and Indeterminate Tomatoes?

Determinate tomatoes grow to a certain size, set most of their fruit over a short 2-4 week period, and then they're done. This is caused by a gene farmers and seed producers have selected for. This gene causes the plant to change from focusing on vegetative (leaf) and reproductive (fruit) growth and to entirely focus on reproductive (fruiting) growth, ripening all its fruit in a shorter window of time.

Indeterminate tomatoes keep growing long vines and producing until frost. They do not have this gene, which is why they keep growing. They put out much less tomatoes per week, but for the entire season. In Southern Maryland this can be over 16 weeks long!

Most of the tomatoes I grow are indeterminate varieties. I mostly grow heirloom tomatoes and some open pollinated varieties, and heirlooms are almost always indeterminate.

That said, I do grow a few determinate hybrid tomatoes for some reasons:
🍅 They are easier to manage in the field as they grow into a bush and need no pruning.
🍅 Trellising is easier because they are compact.
🍅 If they catch a plant disease or get attacked by insects, it doesn't matter as much once the fruit begin to ripen
🍅 Some customers want a tomato that is red, round and without any blemishes.

When they aren't a priority on my farm (heirlooms are), hybrid determinate tomatoes are easier to manage if I plant a couple successions. I can trellis them once and wait until I have tomatoes to harvest!

Most of my tomatoes are indeterminate heirlooms, but not everyone is looking for a more rustic or unique tomato. Indeterminates need constant pruning and constant trellising to have productive plants! Its a lot of labor handling 400 tomato plants, and I work solo!

To summarize: Determinate vs. indeterminate tells you how a tomato plant grows and how you might need to manage it.

06/16/2026

By request from Brower House and Homestead
The unabridged tomato talk. What are indeterminate, determinate, heirloom, hybrid, and open pollinated tomatoes and why should you care

Let's hope it works this time...

With tomato season right around the corner and tomatoes for sale very soon, here's a quick tomato lesson.One of the ques...
06/15/2026

With tomato season right around the corner and tomatoes for sale very soon, here's a quick tomato lesson.

One of the questions I get a lot, especially from older customers, is whether my tomatoes are "hothouse."

People think hothouse tomatoes taste bad.

A hothouse is a heated greenhouse. I don't have a heated greenhouse because I ain't that fancy.

Some of my tomatoes are grown in a high tunnel, which is not the same thing. A high tunnel is an unheated greenhouse like structure. It's a form of "protected culture" that keeps rain off the plants and lets us get them in the ground a week or two earlier in our climate. It also lets me grow my tall vining tomatoes up high into the trusses. I do not grow hydroponically. Plants are grown right in the soil.

A few tomato terms:

🍅 Hothouse = grown in a heated greenhouse, often hydroponically these days

🍅 Hydroponic = grown without soil, with water and nutrients delivered directly to the roots

🍅 High tunnel = an unheated greenhouse like structure

What matters more than any of those labels is the variety. A great tomato variety coming out of a hothouse will have better flavor and texture than a lousy field tomato. Hands down.

I grow mostly indeterminate heirloom tomatoes, along with some open-pollinated and hybrid varieties. And I'll always tell you which is which.

The reason older customers ask about if I use a "hothouse" is because hot house tomatoes used to be the standard for a mealy, unflavorful tomato. Honestly, that has more to do with how they are grown and what varieties they grow than anything.

Now all tomatoes in the store are mealy and unflavorful 🤣

Ill keep everyone updated as I beg these cherry tomatoes to ripen quicker...

06/14/2026

Since my last watermelon post, alot of people have asked me, "Why does it matter where the watermelon came from as long as it tastes good?"

The issue was never the watermelon or where it came from.

If someone tells you a watermelon came from Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, or anywhere else, and it's a good watermelon, buy it if it's a fair price. I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, I support honest businesses that tell customers exactly where their produce came from.

The problem starts when someone lies about it, or won't tell you where it's from, hoping you believe it's local. At this point, about half the people selling watermelon are doing that.

Think about it this way:

Imagine you walk into a restaurant and order a cheeseburger for $15. It looks great. It tastes good. You're happy with it. L

Then you look into the kitchen and see them taking a cheeseburger from McDonald's, removing the wrapper, putting it on a plate, and serving it as their own creation.

Would you still be happy? Would you say "wow, I am glad I spent $15 for this and I am okay being lied to". Some people are arguing they would be glad paying the same. I don't believe you. Anyone would be furious!

The issue isn't whether McDonald's makes a decent cheeseburger. You could like the burger, but still get scammed!

The issue isn't where the melon came from. The issue is that they charged you more, pretending it was local, so that you will pay more.

If someone buys watermelons from another state and openly tells you that's where they came from, great. That's an honest transaction. They are probably charging a fair price for that melon. Support them, I MEAN THAT!

But if they tell you those same watermelons were grown in St. Mary's County, Charles County, or "by a local farmer down the road" when they weren't, they're trying to use that story to make the sale. They're taking credit for work they didn't do and trying to get you to pay more than you should. to justify a higher price or gain your trust.

Consumers deserve to know where their food comes from.

Do not settle for being lied to.

So buy Georgia watermelons. Buy South Carolina watermelons. Buy whatever watermelon you want.

Just make sure the person selling it is telling you the truth.

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White Plains, MD

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