Happy 2022 to everyone! We hope you and yours are doing well with the little cold spell we’ve had lately. The new year is off and running at full speed now as the team got back from holidays. We have been confirming the market schedule for this new year and had promised to post an update here on the website. This is not the full list unfortunately since we are still getting details, but we will keep you posted as we nail it down. Here is the short list for January and February 2022 as of this morning.
We are hoping & praying that this year is a great one for us all! The team is excited about getting back out to the markets and festivals with you. Have an event you’d like us to attend? Please send an email with all the details to us and we’ll get it to Dorothy for scheduling. She is also glad to help tell other vendors about your event if you like. If you are a vendor who’d like to work at these events, please follow the links provided to apply directly with those organizers. We’ll keep adding details to this market schedule and on our Facebook page also.
Hope this helps everyone and we look forward to seeing you out there with us!
These past month has been very busy for us here in the TPC gardens, especially since we have so much time at home these days. We had let the weeds take over in the front garden box and we were running behind on starting some seeds this year so we made it a priority to get some work done. There were areas to clear, boxes to build, and the birds had started nesting nearby.
One of our natural bug killers in the TPC garden
In the front garden box, the borage and amaranth were growing quite well along with the flowers we had saved from prior years. Unfortunately, all the other seeds failed to sprout and we were pretty disappointed. We had been diligently weeding and keeping an eye out for any signs of growth after planting but had no luck. We honestly left it alone for awhile after realizing that and the weeds went absolutely nuts while we discussed what to do next. So there was quite a bit of weeding we had to do around the borage and amaranth to clean it all up. After we found some echinacea seedlings, we grabbed basils and sweet peppers from the back garden and happily planted those where the seeds failed. Now the front garden is still mostly herbs and edibles, happily growing and producing, but not quite how we envisioned it earlier in the year. Kind of like most of our lives right now, appropriately.
Seed starters and baby pepper plants
Blackberries growing in the yard
Gardenias blooming
We made a lot of progress in the back gardens but there is still so much to do. It’s just that time of year. We got the tomatoes, peas, and peppers all in the ground. Then we fenced and covered them in to protect from wildlife and neighborhood cats; the plants seem quite happy now. We are going to try a different method of staking and caging them this year; I’ll go into more details with that once we finish and I have more pictures to help explain it. The fruit trees all seem to be working hard but we have lost pretty much all of the plums and every single one of our nectarines. Blackberries are popping out left and right while peanuts are going nuts in their containers. We also got our seedlings into larger pots over the weekend in addition to starting more seeds of cilantro, beans, peas, cukes, melons, sage, watermelons. We also started almost a dozen trees. Not sure what will actually survive or not but we will keep pictures and share as the year goes on. All in all, we counted roughly 75 plants that got repotted, planted, or started over one weekend alone. Whew.
Roses blooming in the garden
Grace helping us in the garden 2020
An herbal garden in progress
You can see here that when we start seeds at this point in the year, they stay together in the shade of our oak tree to avoid the increasing heat here in Houston. Don’t worry, these babies are all labeled so we can keep track of what is and isn’t sprouting. We learned the hard way that we have to label our seeds! If they grow, we’ll start separating them when they reach four to six inches tall. They stay outside for their entire time so transplanting them later isn’t really a big deal. We all enjoy playing in the dirt around here (good thing we make soap!!) so they’ll probably get moved into the ground around that four to six inch size. Guess we better get to finishing those planter boxes over the next two weeks.
Hail at the house in April 2020
Figs growing on the tree in 2020
Garlic flowering and it looks like fireworks in the garden
Hope you enjoy the pictures of our little micro farm. It’s not perfect, is always a work in progress, but shows that even a little yard can bring something yummy into the kitchen with a little bit of work. We will gladly keep updating you on how everything is growing and going over the course of this year. Dorothy has been documenting our garden for a few years now so we are considering showing more of how we do this since people have been asking. What would you like to see more of on the blog? Drop us a line in the comments below or feel free to email her directly with your thoughts. We’ve been growing some of our ingredients for so long that we sometimes forget how many people are new to us and aren’t aware of the TPC garden. Make sure you subscribe to get alerts when we post again. You can also find our Facebook page here; make sure to like and follow it for updates too.
All work and no play…… not here! And we found pictures on Dorothy’s phone to prove it.
TPC playing at the Schulenburg Festival 2019
While we admit that we do work pretty hard around here and pull long hours as needed, we all love a good laugh and like to play around a little too. It’s good for the soul and makes life a little better. But part of the reality of our chosen path has us in the booth for a good part of our time. Schulenburg Festival, for example, is a three day show with multiple 12+ hour days. It can be especially tough to get down time when we’re working those kind of schedules. That’s another reason we love to go work events with a group of friends who also handcraft their products. You get someone to laugh with, help each other out, and actually get a lunch or potty break once in a while!
TPC and Artisan Woodworks of Magnolia staff taking a break to play at Schulenburg Festival 2019
We found a few pictures in our files from last year’s Schulenburg Festival. They were of our team having some game time fun with Artisan Woodworks of Magnolia. We had a great time playing off and on all weekend while we were there. There were contests between our own TPC team members, Texas Pioneer Creations vs. Artisan Woodworks of Magnolia, and our younger crew played with festival attendees too. It was a lot of fun for all of us and the pictures still make us smile. We had a few heated battles, spectacular crashes, and more than a few laughs. Not a single one of us could beat one young man’s high score that was set that weekend. He got 27 levels high! And as far as we’re aware, that’s still the high score to beat. We’ve enjoyed watching many people try to come close.
TPC Staff taking a break at Schulenburg Festival 2019
Once all of the COVID related situation is under control, we should get to have Artisan Woodworks of Magnolia join us at markets again. Make sure you stop by their booth and try out the game for yourself. It really was fun and the oversized blocks were great. Who knows, we might even get a break and have a chance to play with you too. If you want to contact Artisan Woodworks before they can come back to the market, feel free to send them a message through their Facebook page. Don’s been busy building and they’ve been good about trying to post pictures of what he’s been up to on their page. We understand they are open for delivery only until COVID restrictions change.
Until next time, keep washing your hands and make sure to get some sunshine! We’ll try to get more pictures of the garden up soon and a sneak peek of Dorothy’s liquid soap progress. She has two batches just about ready to go on the website and a third one started. If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe so you get notified when those blog posts go live. Have an idea or question you’d like us to discuss in a post? Drop us a comment below or send us an email and we’ll see what we can do for you.
