I want to wish all the family and friends of Adkins Farms a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. Even though Mother Nature showed us just who was boss this year, we hope that she will be better to us in 2010. Christmas day is upon us and the New Year will soon be here. We hope you are surrounded by family and friends this joyous Christmas 2009!
It is that time of year that families get together and indulge or over indulge in feasts fit for kings! Gathering together and giving thanks for all that we are blessed to receive. We wanted to Give Thanks for all the friends that we have made through opening our farm to so many. Even though we closed for this 2009 Season due to excessive rain damage, the many calls expressing regrets that we were not open were precious to us. We want to take this time to wish you all a blessed Thanks Giving.
This has been the wettest October that I can ever remember. We made the decision to close for this fall 2009 season, and I know now we made the best decision, as the rain just hasn’t let up. Makes you want to sing that old diddy: Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again Some Other Day! This to will pass and we will more than likely be praying for Rain! Are we ever satisfied?
I regret that with all my heart that we have to cancel all fall festivities for the 2009 season due to Mother Nature. Everything was fine on the farm a little over two weeks ago, but then the rains set in. If anyone got rain, we did, and lots of it. Which can be a good thing at times, but to our dismay the past two weeks of almost constant rain and recent winds, have destroyed our corn maze (laid the corn down) and the pumpkins are rotting on the vine in the fields. It was heartbreaking to walk over the fields between rains ( and getting your shoes stuck in the mud ) and seeing all those beautiful pumpkins just going to mush. We will till all this under as soon as the fields are able to be worked, and prepare for the 2010 season. See you next year at the farm.
The weather has been just fantastic, so a lot of outside work has been accomplished. The Sorghum Sudan didn’t come up, but the corn planted after it, came up along with massive amounts of morning glories, so our maze is a mixture. The Sorghum was to be the main structure of the maze and the corn was just to help strengthen the stand (hopefully against winds). The morning glories are only weeds when they are not where you want them to be, and our maze is not where we want them to be!So we have a spot in the maze called Morning Glory Valley. The pumpkins are looking great! Tried some new varieties this year and are excited to see the reactions to the newbies. We can hardly wait to open up Oct. 3rd. So bring your family and have some great fun down on the farm! Hope to see you soon, oh and feel free to take some morning glories with you when you leave!
We are starting a new gourd patch on June 20th, 2009 at the Adkins Farms. The Smiling Gourders will meet at 10 am and the first class will be taught by Madge Smith. Everyone is invited, everyone that signed our guest book at the farm wanting a newsletter or wanting to come to a class will be getting a letter in the mail. Hope to see you there for education, good fellowship and most of all FUN! Each month another class with hands on with you designing your own gourd.
Our 2nd Annual Gourd Festival was May 9th, 2009. It was a good festival. Over 157 folks signed in at the festival among all the rain that we had. It was soggy, but Garry put down hay to walk on through the yard. Thirteen (13) people join the Mississippi Gourd Society, that day. The Gourd Society was here and had demonstrations and plants for sale. Great Job Society!!! Looking forward to next year’s festival, which is already in the planning stages.
Our weather has been strange to say the least. Severe thunderstorms rumbled through Friday and tornado’s were lurking. We escaped the tornado’s wrath, but the hail from the thunderstorms were huge! Assessing the damage, the strawberries, cabbage etc. had holes in their leaves, the onions looked pitiful all bent over. Easter Sunday was also Garry’s birthday 61. He decided he wanted to work in his garden on his birthday, (a true farmer), he planted beans, purple hull peas, some tomato plants, pepper plants, purple cabbage, along with a few marigolds in his garden. He hoed around his potato plants. His garden is beautiful! He has pine needles around all his blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, muscadine and scepinine vines. Not sure if I spelled those last two right. Anyhow, maybe the weather will be nicer and we will receive no more holes.
I cut all the white blooming iris’ and some wisteria with their glorious perfume and put in a vase to enjoy, in preparation of the freeze coming. I figured the freeze would probably destroy the beautiful display in my yard. Garry was busy covering everything. He brought all the tomato plants he had popped up back into the basement. The temperatures being in the 70′s and then dipping down to freezing, will put everything that produces fruit at risk. The strawberries were the plants that we were most concerned about as they have blooms and small strawberries. Most helpful to our fruit trees are that they are planted on the south east side of the hill we live on. Covering plants and the breeze throughout the first night will hopefully keep them safe. The second night there wasn’t a breeze to keep the air moving around the plants, so the freeze might have done it’s damage. As of this posting, everything seems to have made it through the freeze, but as the month progresses we will know more, whether the fruit continue to grow, or if the freeze did indeed do damage to our crops.
A great fall or Thanksgiving dessert. Best served warm with whipped cream topping and a cup of coffee.
* 4 cups milk
* 1/2 cup finely ground cornmeal
* 1/3 – 1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/3 – 1/2 cup brown sugar
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1 teaspoon ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon Alspice
* 2 beaten eggs
* 1/2 cup raisins
* 2 teaspoons finely chopped pecans (optional)
1. Bring milk & butter to a rolling simmer.
2. Dribble cornmeal in VERY SLOWLY *DO NOT ALLOW TO CLUMP*, stir continuously.
3. Cook, still stirring, until meal is softened, about 15 minutes.
4. Slowly stir in molasses, then remove from heat.
5. Grease a 1-1/2 quart baking dish. Heat oven to 300 degrees F. set aside.
6. Stir remaining ingredients into milk mixture.
7. Pour mixture into baking dish.
8. Bake until pudding is set and top is browned, about 2 hours.
9. Serve hot, topped with whipped cream (optional).
Yield: 8 servings
