Merry Christmas from the Garden

Merry Christmas from the Backyard Garden!

Today we picked peppers and kiwis and both were delicious. We feel fortunate that we can eat from our garden on December 25 with subfreezing temperatures.

 

 Results of the Winter Fruit Harvest.

Thank you Daddy for taking care of the lemon trees and sharing with all of us the bounty!

Thank you Raisin' Cane and Grower Network of Lake Park for Satsumas. If anyone is traveling near Valdosta during the Thanksgiving or Christmas Season you need to visit Raisin' Cane to pick your own Satsumas, enjoy a nice lunch, and shop in their garden center for holiday gift giving.

Seasonal Season Greetings

Traditions for the Backyard Garden are numerous, but some of our favorites occur during this season.

While our garden is in winter mode and giving us Mustard, Collard, and Turnip  Greens alongside the peppers from our greenhouse, we are fortunate to have a family that loves to share and contribute to this garden journey. This week during our annual Thanksgiving visit to South Georgia, we were lucky enough to bring home over 300 lemons and a bushel of Satsuma Mandarin Oranges. So thankful for these.  We are busy today restocking our supply of Satsuma Jelly and Lemon Jelly.

Don't forget, we'll be at the Monticello Small Business Saturday.

Stop by and stock up for your gift-giving and holiday meals. 

Holiday Season

The holiday season has started with a rush of customers. Thanks to all of you who support Backyard Garden Creations. We are definitely open for business.

Check out the pics of beautiful peppers and kiwi we picked ahead of the cold weather this week. 

We will be participating in the Monticello Saturday Small Business Market the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Hope to see you there.

Festival and beyond

 We finished our market season last Saturday with the Deer Festival in Monticello. Huge crowds all day and they loved all of our products. Just a great yearly event we look forward to each year.

We will take part in one other event in November, the Small Business market, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We look forward to meeting your holiday needs. Stocking stuffers, and unique gifts for friends and family, we are here to ease the stress.

Of course, you can always email us and we'll be more than happy to deliver it to you if that's more convenient.

Hope to see you or hear from you soon.

Eat Local!!

Last market of the season

 This is the last weekend of the Forsyth market for us. We have attended since May 1st and despite the few weather cancellations, it has been a great season!

Stock up Friday or use our email address to keep in touch throughout the winter.

Eat Local!

Garden to table!

The season is changing

The season has definitely changed from the hot, humid days of summer to the cool, breezy days of Fall.

The season change also reminds us that it's planting time again for winter vegetables. Last week we planted beds of broccoli (started from seed using Hydroponics), collards, mustard greens, and turnip greens. Of course, the peppers are thriving in this cooler weather too.

Hope to see you at the Forsyth market on Fridays. Remember you can special order from us all throughout the coming months too. 

Just email me and we can make it happen.

gkosater@gmail.com  

A bushel of Jalapenos

 Check out the bushel basket full of jalapenos picked from the backyard. Great weather, great markets this weekend and great harvest too.

Remember next weekend is the last Saturday market in Monticello. No worries though, you can preorder now to guarantee we'll have what you need

Hope to see you soon. Eat Local garden to table..

Muscadine Grapes have arrived

 The muscadines have arrived and we anticipate many jars of the popular Lake House Muscadine Jelly. We picked three bushels from Rebecca and John's vines in our Labor Day tradition of relaxing at the lake.

We look forward to seeing you Friday and Saturday. Remember preorder for guaranteed availability.

Pears have arrived

The pears have finally arrived this week. 

We are busy making pear preserves and will have them ready for the markets this weekend.

Eat Local!! Hope to see you this weekend!

 

Okra and Jalapeno time

This past weekend the markets were hot and humid but we still had a wonderful time serving our customers. Preorders are increasing too. Just email us what you want by Wednesday of market week and we'll make sure your items will be waiting on you when you arrive. Less time in the heat and no more missing out on your favorites.

Even though our  tomatoes are in short supply and figs are in abundance, we do have other vegetables that are just now entering their peak seasons. Two of those are peppers especially jalapenos and the old southern favorite okra. They arrived at the markets last weekend and immediately became a customer favorite.

Garden to table! Eat local!

The Figs have arrived!!

 At Backyard Garden Creations we look forward to certain milestones for our garden.

Planting, the arrival of zucchini, squash, and green beans. Definitely the first tomato sandwich!  Finally, the last one for the summer is the arrival of our figs. We are excited to offer you whole fig preserves just like your mother used to make, strawberry fig jam and fig jelly. Tasty treats which are homegrown and handmade.

Hope to see you at the markets. Come visit as these items do not stay on the table for a long length of time.

Hot Weather, Tomatoes and great times at the markets

The intense heat finally broke a bit this past week from the consistent 100's to the mid 80's. We actually had showers last Monday which was the first rainfall in over three weeks. Our plants finally had a week without heat stress and are actually in the process of rejuvenating for the coming months.

Tomatoes are in abundance as are zucchini, eggplant, cherry tomatoes and variety of sweet and hot peppers.

The markets have been awesome! The Market on the Square in Monticello has been averaging 35-40 vendors every Saturday. Definitely makes for an interesting day!

Hope to see you soon! Find us in Forsyth on Friday and Monticello on Saturday.

Eat local!

Ready for the heat

 Temperatures will be close to 100 but we'll be there at both markets ready to satisfy that jam and  jelly feeling. As the weather has warmed up, our produce has increased too. Look for lemon cucumbers, Shishito peppers, eggplant and zucchini and much, much more.

Be smart! Stay hydrated and shop with us early before it heats up. We're ready to go every market day at 7:30 AM. Check out the harvest from this morning!

See you soon!!

Prepping for the markets

 Here's the produce we will bring to the markets this weekend, certainly an increase from last week.

Lemon Cucumbers,  small sweet peppers, eggplant, a zillion zucchinis, squash, regular cucumbers, colorful carrots and our favorite jellies and finishing salts for you to purchase.

Hope to see you this weekend. Eat Local!!

Back to back harvests

 IT'S ON!!

Picking time has officially arrived as you can see from the pictures below. Squash, zucchini, eggplant and cucumbers are in abundance. Sunday, we picked another 15 beautiful zucchini (think Zucchini Bread) and 12 squash. Today, there were 9 more zukes and 6 more squash along with our first eggplants and lemon cucumbers. 

Definitely will have this produce at next week's markets.

But during the week we will enjoy roasted vegetables, vegetable frittata, and of course our favorite homemade vegetable pizza. 

Eat Local!

Waiting patiently

That's the name of the game for the next week or two.

Our vegetables and produce look great and are growing at a fast pace but we must keep reminding ourselves to be patient. The cucumbers, zucchini  and peppers should be ready next week but then we are optimists. Radishes and carrots are ready now though.

Eat Local Garden to Table.

Interesting first market

 We had an interesting first market weather wise in Forsyth Friday. Started out with a chance of severe weather after lunch but it arrived much earlier. Rain from 9:30-11:00 but at least it was only rain nothing severe. Still time for a great market. However, the winds picked up and stayed with us the remainder of the day. It made for an interesting day, selling product and holding  on to the tent to prevent it from blowing away. We were also excited to see so many of our regular customers come by to check out our products.

We are looking forward to next Friday and hopefully a calmer weather pattern.

Zucchini pizza for supper- YUMMY!

Market season has arrived

With the onset of warmer temperatures, it's a sure sign market season has arrived. 

The Main street market in Forsyth opens Friday, May 6 from 9AM-5PM.

This will be our fourth year participating in the market and Backyard Garden Creations is looking forward to a great season. We have many new items from our small batch garden to share with our clientele and we hope to see you this Friday.

Oh by the way our tomato count is at 420!

Eat Local!!

Getting Ready

The Monticello Market on the Square is less than a month away.  We are looking forward to seeing our market friends again. The garden is in process of being planted and will be ready for the market in May. 

The tomato count today is 300 with the goal of at least 400 by start of the season.

Eat local! Garden to table!

Let the planting begin

The weather has finally turned nice and that means it's time to start digging in the dirt. We began planting peppers, zucchini and tomatoes this past weekend and are looking forward to more planting in the coming days.

The tomato count is at 26. We are excited.....The final count will be 400!  

Alapahoochee Tractor Show

Honored to participate in the Alapahoochee Tractor Show this past weekend in South Georgia, Echols County.  It was wonderful to catch up with old friends, relatives, and new friends. I spent a lot of time shopping the antiques and rusty metal!  You need to put this event on your calendar. This event will have another round the last weekend in October and we plan to be there. Shopping the various vendors and selling our jams, jellies.

Look closely at the Suzie Scarecrows blowing in the wind. My sister makes those so if you are interested let me know and I will bring one to you.  The frame is solid so you can dress them seasonally...they are so much fun in your flower garden. 

Decorative Coasters

What do we do during the Winter Months? Prepare new planting beds, order seeds for the upcoming season. But, because we love to keep our hands busy we made these for an upcoming Tractor Show in South Georgia. These are drink coasters in sets of six. Excited to share these with our friends and family in South Georgia, but also wanted to share these with our friends from our summer Forsyth and Monticello farmers markets. These handmade decorative coasters on sale at $10 for a pack of 6.

Stay busy, stay warm!

Winter is here

Winter is surely upon us at BYGC forcing us inside with subfreezing temperatures and wind chills in the teens. However, we turned that adversity into a positive seed starting and transplanting opportunity.

We planted Basil seeds, Tomato seeds and rooted Rosemary plants and put them under the Grow Light. In a few weeks, we'll move them to bigger pots and the cycle repeats itself over and over.