Category: Uncategorized
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Sunny Sentinels
When aiming to introduce as many species as possible into your food system, it’s important to consider climbing/vining plants in order to take advantage of vertical space. A fence that encloses your growing space is a no-brainer trellis structure that should be utilized whenever possible. Unfortunately, when growing in an urban/suburban setting, your fence line…
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Will Work For Food
The more I learn about the farming industry & American “food,” the more affirmed I am in my decision to grow the food I eat. Since, of course, I can’t grow everything, I’ll accept sourcing food from other natural growers. As you might imagine, finding clean food can be challenging at first, but once you…
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If Ever There Was a Time To Spray Chemicals, This Would Have Been It!
I was toiling on the farm one cool April morning, when something moving in my right periphery caught my eye. Even once I put my full attention on it, I had no idea what I was looking at. What I knew was there was some sort of deadly looking bug (being black with a neon…
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The Season of Papaya
Last August, I excitedly potted up several papaya seedlings that had taken root in my compost pile. Less than a year later & those “trash trees” are ready to soon offer their versatile fruit🤲🏾 Papaya is at the top of my growing list of trees that fruit in under a year in the subtropics. It’s…
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Summer Wardrobe Upgrade
Summer growing just got a lot more tolerable💁🏾 The net won’t stop mosquitoes from biting me through my clothes😖, but they can no longer have my face & neck😠 I FULLY understand why most people in the South take a break from growing in the Summer, but that’s not something I’m comfortable doing since I…
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Tree Peas
I already knew I was strange. I love harvesting legumes. I love eating them even more😋! Every time someone asks, “🤔If you don’t eat dead animals, how do you get protein?” I know they haven’t even begun to explore the expansive legume family. One of my new favorites- both for taste & ease of cultivation-…
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One Year to Fruit
Last Summer I shared my first season of successful jocote air layering. Less than one year later & that same jocote tree has begun to grow fruit🤲🏾 When you start learning to grow food, one of the first things you’ll hear is that it takes SO long before your first harvest from fruit trees. It’s…
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Edible Groundcover
I professed my appreciation for sweet potato plants a couple years ago (https://mahabafarms.us/2023/10/02/sweet-potato-summers-hero/). Since then, I’ve only become more convinced of the wonders of sweet potato growing. Now that temperatures are warmer, I am aggressively propagating sweet potato plants & spreading them all over the farm. They’re not just excellent ground cover- actively smothering the…
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“You Can’t Grow Figs Here!”
It’s no surprise that my contrarian nature also applies to my style of farming😝 Though it didn’t start out this way, part of Mahaba Farms’s mission has become to reintroduce diversity to my little patch of Earth. When I started the farm mid-2023, I quickly became bored by the local nursery offerings- each with the…
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Local Dragonfruit Cultivation With Indigenous Guidance
Local practice would dictate I grow dragonfruit (a.k.a. pitaya) on a trellis constructed of wood & cemented into the ground. I believe that even if one removes the burden of labor, this cultivation method has several shortcomings, but to each their own. For me, building a structure to RESEMBLE a tree for the naturally epiphytic…
Mahaba Farms 