Golden hour.

Hi, farm fam! Brenton here for a little summertime update. I just got back from a road trip/boat trip with Ada and Jimmy, two of my kiddos. We made the 13-hour drive to Alabama to see my 92-year-old grandmother, Mama Nell, and my pops. They both live in Dothan which is located in the Southeastern corner of the state. Fun fact: Dothan is the self-proclaimed “Peanut Capital of the World” (though residents of Sylvester, GA would say otherwise), because a fourth of the US peanut crop is produced nearby. That being said, we obviously had to stock up on boiled peanuts, an Alabama staple.

Boiled peanuts.

Once we had some quality time with Mama Nell, we headed down to the Florida Panhandle for some serious boat exploration. We took my dad’s sailboat out in Saint Joseph Bay for three days and two nights. Talk about a time! We fished, slept on the boat, snorkeled, and swam our hearts out. We caught two mackerel and Jimmy caught a stingray that was five feet across. It jumped out of the water and unhooked itself, but man, what a sight.

Mackerel catch.

The beaches on the panhandle are glorious. White sand as far as the eye can see. The area around Port St. Joe isn’t super developed, so we got to enjoy relatively empty beaches when we were ashore. Saint Joseph Bay is notorious for its delicious scallops, so you can imagine we definitely grubbed down on some insanely good seafood. The oysters were my favorite.

YUM.

Swim time.

It was an incredible trip, but I’m excited to be back in scorchin’ hot Texas, especially during this transitional phase at the farm. We are finishing up with tomatoes and starting to plant fall crops. This week we are seeding parsley, we already planted some broccoli, and cabbage, collards, and kale won’t be far behind in the planting schedule.

Have you had one of our watermelons yet? We tried two new varieties and they are exceptional. This has been JBG’s best watermelon crop yet, and we are elated! The cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes have been wonderful crops, too. Spaghetti squash will be showing up in your CSA boxes soon! So get those recipes ready.

In other news, we are finally starting the construction of a new barn which means that all of the JBG operations will be moving out to River Road in Garfield! Currently, our distribution center and office are in a separate location (what we refer to as Hergotz) from the 200-acre Garfield farm, where the growing and harvesting happens. So, this means that all the office staff, delivery drivers, and packing crew will finally all be at the farm with us. This is going to be a huge and exciting change! Yeehaw! Can’t wait. That’s all I got for y’all this week. See you at the markets this weekend? Stay cool!

One more beach pic for the road.