Happy Friday!

A few quick housekeeping notes before we dive into this week's post. CSA Members: we have had closed citrus orders until further notice. If you already ordered citrus, we will be honoring those orders, but we are unable to offer additional orders. Like JBG, G&S Groves (where we source the citrus from) is reeling from the recent effects of the winter storm, and their availability of fruit has significantly decreased. Second note for the week: Some of you may have noticed that the online transplant sale is closed. If you already placed an order, it will be delivered to market as planned! If you missed the online ordering, just come on out to the sale and get the full-farm experience! And now onto the post!

Last weekend’s transplant sale was such a success, and we’re so excited for another Saturday of sunshine, community, and lots of eager gardeners. Spring fever is a real thing, and we’ve got it. Do you? The sale is happening on Saturdays from 9 am-1pm at our Garfield, Texas greenhouses: 4008 River Road, 78612. Mask up, and come to the farm!



Many of you have been asking about the varieties of plants we’ll have at our spring transplant sale. There are many! In fact, we seeded over 100 different vegetables marked specifically for our transplant sale. This includes all the summer favorites like different varieties of slicing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and paste tomatoes - perfect for making sauce or canning. On the pepper front, there are a plethora of sweet varieties and a bounty of hot ones… as well as plenty of peppers packing medium spice and lots of flavor. There are other summer stalwarts like melons, cucumbers, squash, and eggplant, as well as endless aisles of herbs - both annual and perennial. If you scroll to the bottom of this page we’ve published a pretty long list of specific varieties that we planted for this year. *This list, however, is just to give you an idea of the types of plants we have - we may sell out of a specific variety, and won’t necessarily be able to keep the page updated… so don’t hold us to it! But! The good thing about our sale is that we truly have a bounty of options. If you had your heart set on growing big, juicy, slicing tomatoes this summer, we’ve got several options for you. We planted over 31 different varieties of tomatoes alone... and that was us practicing restraint! You see, there are many varieties that are near and dear to our farmer-hearts, but that isn’t necessarily suitable for commercial production. In some senses, we live vicariously through your interesting, colorful, and dynamic summer gardens. If you’ve ever flipped through a seed catalog, you know how dazzling the hundreds of pages of thousands of vegetables can be. Lucky for you, Brenton and other farmers at JBG have years of combined experience in variety selection, and we promise you we’re only selling plants we think are well-suited for life in Central Texas.

Without further adieu, here are 5 of our favorite vegetables we think you should grow this spring:

1. Lunchbox Pepper: Part of the joy of a backyard garden is being able to pluck a fruit, right off a plant, and eat it. Lunchbox peppers, and their indubitable snackability, fit this profile. They are sweet and crunchy, with loads of beta-carotene. Plants tend to give high yields. If planting in a windy location, consider staking with a tomato cage to prevent the stems from breaking. This plant is perfect for a large, 18-inch pot, as well!

2. Cherokee Purple: It’s our favorite heirloom tomato, plain and simple. Originating from Tenessee, this variety is thought to have been passed down from Native Americans of the Cherokee tribe. The ripe fruit is a beautiful dark dusty pink, with a deep, rich-red interior. The flavor is rich with an unmatched sweetness, perfect for salads or a BLT.

3. Eureka Pickling Cucumber: Uniform, crip fruits that are very green from the earliest stages which makes this cucumber great for pickling when they are 2-5 inches long. Or, you let these fruits grow to maturity (about 7 inches) for an incredible slicing cucumber. We like Eurekas because they’re easy to grow and virtually trouble-free; they’re incredibly disease resistant. These cukes would be happy to climb a trellis or fence for easy harvest and vertical appeal.

Serranos are the red and green peppers pictured in columns two and 4. If you're looking for a little less heat, try a poblano (green pepper pictured) and if you want the full-shebang, go for a habanero (orange).

4. Serrano Hot Pepper: If you’re not a fan of spice, maybe skip this recommendation, but if you fancy yourself a hot zing to most dishes, the serrano is for you. Serranos are easy to grow in Texas, and can offer high yields of dark green, finger-sized glossy fruits. Leave the fruit on the vine for a red pepper, if you’d like. Serranos are perfect for all-season enjoyment, and the plants can be very prolific. To boot, the fruit has a long shelf life, making this an ideal plant to save your harvest, and then make a hot sauce, salsa, or fermented pepper mash. They are easy to harvest, and have less sprawl than other peppers, making them more efficient for use in a garden space.

5. Genovese Basil: No summer garden is complete with basil. Genovese is the classic variety, with delicate smooth leaves and a punchy aroma. Basil loves hot weather and does well in a pot, or nestled between tomato plants as a companion. Harvest a few leaves as you needed, or harvest a bunch for a batch of pesto. When grown into maturity, a basil plant will become delightfully bushy, providing an herbal component to meals throughout the summer. And as the summer looms to a close, basil flower will be a wonderful gift for friendly pollinators… or a wonderful sprinkle for a bowl of sliced tomatoes.

A bunch of Genovese basil.

Other resources: We will be selling farm-grade organic compost at our sale, but if you’re needing mulch, native perennials, flowers, or just some outdoor inspiration we suggest you pay a visit to The Natural Gardener, Tillery Street Plant Co., or The Great Outdoors. If you’re interested in upping your tool-game this season, we recently got a glimpse of our neighbor, Farmshare Austin’s, new hand tools from Easy Digging ... perfect for small-scale farming or committed backyard gardening. If you’re brand new to gardening and feel like you need some support, there are local services like Austin Edible Gardens that can help you plant, plan, and maintain your space. The Wildflower Center usually hosts wonderful classes, and if that doesn’t work for you, Youtube is your friend. Sun, soil, water, and some time. These are all it takes to grow vegetables, and we hope you’ll take the plunge. The rewards are plenty!

Ennie, meenie, miney, mo. You can't really go wrong with any of the varieties in our greenhouse. We planted them all, just for you!