Welcome to Ball Town Bee Farm Bryson City NC

Spotlight customer!

Sheryl Rudd

June 7- June 28, 2010

The shop and rabbitry are coming along beautifully. The guys who are building for us have taken off to work another job for a couple of weeks, then will come back to finish. We plan on doing the exterior ourselves. When all is complete, we'll hold an open house one weekend ... if you need construction done, call us for their names and contact info. They've done great!

This is a great time of year for the garden. We've had radishes, carrots, beets, salad, chard, kale broccoli and herbs. The shiitakes are also really coming on. The bush beans are blooming, so we should have those soon, as well.

We might not get a lot of spring (dark) honey this year. We missed the window a bit - didn't have the bees quite as built up as we needed - and the poplar bloom was not that terrific. Rain also didn't help. That said, we are hoping for a big sourwood bloom. Hey, that's what farming is about, right? You win some and lose some.

Quintin's niece, Daisy, went back home to Colorado. She was a huge, and fun, help at the markets. We miss her already - it was nice to have a kid playing again in the creek and woods. Quintin and Daisy's father, Bert, did the same when they were her age.

The real reason we are building the shop. Just to keep Argo dry.

Local dollars

If anyone needs any lumber, just give Ralph Morgan a call. He's out on Old Settlement road by the river - a super nice guy with a great lumber mill! 586-9717. Remember to spend your money locally!

Weekly at Balltown Bee Farm:

Kelley has some problems with honey in the beeyard

Quintin's blog on the garden ...

And Quintin's two new Rural Notes column on the right tool for the job and being sick in the middle of the season.

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See a slideshow of the yurt.

Tink hard at work with the shiitakes

Need a recipe for grits or cornbread? check out our recipe page!

This is a yearlong calendar of our seed-starting and planting dates.

Events

Friday, June 11: We will be at the Swain County Farmers Market. It will be on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot next to Fred's. Swing on by and say "hey"!
Saturday, June 12: Jackson County Farmers Market. We are there from 9 a.m. to noon.
Wednesday, June 16: We will be at the Cashiers farmers market at the rec park from noon 'til 5 p.m..
Friday, June 18: We will be back in Bryson City at the Swain County Farmers Market.
Saturday, June 19: Jackson County Farmers Market. We are there from 9 a.m. to noon. Tink will be batching it- so stop by and say "hey".

Tink busy harvesting.

Our friend and budding new beekeeper, Krista Robb, wrote a very insightful paper on bees- it's really worth a read! click here to check it out.