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Firefly Hill Farm

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Cincinnati, OH
Firefly Hill Farm

Firefly Hill Farm is a small organic farm using regenerative practices. We don’t have a public store.
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Our weekly newsletters are available here

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Wg_HQqmMe7pPoOg8I0fNdYJ5SBNn-dw7

10/19/2024

Done. Looks the same as when we started! But there’s a treasure under there.

10/19/2024

Garlic planting weekend at Firefly Hill Farm!

09/11/2024

Making compost! Now that we have time to catch up we got over 200 gallons of compost sifted for next year!

Plus cleaned out the goat stalls for the current compost pile.

09/05/2024

Hi everybody. The tomato plants didn’t get the memo that the season was done!

So we have more tomatoes than we can eat. They are available to any of you who wants to make the trip over. (To your right as you come up the driveway.)

09/01/2024

Wow. Wow. Wow. Just like that, it’s the last bag o’ veggies of the season. Even with the challenges of a pretty persistent heat wave, it’s been a great season for us. And we’re so happy for it to end with a bang! It’s always a challenge to have things wrap up at just the right time and this year it worked out perfectly.

The last bag is full with 12 items weighing in at about 14.5 pounds.

It’s been a pleasure to share our bounty with you this season. Here’s the last list of 2024.

1. Tomatoes - can’t believe we still have enough to include a few
2. Cherry tomatoes - still producing!
3. WATERMELON 🍉 - We hoped our little personal size watermelons would ripen in time and enough of them did to give folks some!
4. Onions
5. Lettuce mix - a nice big bag to keep you going for awhile
6. Tomatillos
7. Green beans
8. Hot peppers
9. Sweet peppers
10. Carrots
11. Potatoes
12. Your very own garlic bouquet

Plus grab some basil!

Subscribers can hold their spot for 2025 - so let me know if you want to hold your spot when you pick up.

I look forward to seeing you and thank you again for all your support and encouragement.

08/29/2024

Finally got all the garlic cleaned off and bundled. Just in time for all our bag friends to finish off the season with a garlic bouquet

08/25/2024

It’s the 2nd to last bag this weekend. So even though it doesn’t feel like fall anymore, things are wrapping up. That means this is the last week for some things and others are on their way out.

The good news is that cool spell we had really helped our late lettuce plantings grow and so we have even more lettuce than last week! I haven’t had a salad with lettuce for weeks!

There are 12 veggies this week plus some optionals. Here’s the list.
1. Lettuce mix is back!!
2. Carrots
3. Beets - this is the last of these this year
4. Potatoes
5. Napa cabbage- the last of cabbage for the year
6. Onions
7. Garlic
8. Tomatoes
9. Cherry tomatoes
10. Peppers
11. Hot peppers
12. The very last cuke, zuke or yellow squash

Plus more basil if you want it - regular Genovese and the purple kind - what a year for basil!
Plus dill if you want (while it lasts)
Plus …we still have free “uglier” tomatoes for sauce, salsa, juice etc

After this week, one more bag to go?!?! Can you believe it?

Happy eating.

08/18/2024

The veggies this week are a back to school celebration! Lettuce is back! Green beans won’t stop! And you can make salsa again if you want - either tomatillos or tomatoes!

Even with things winding down there’s still a lot of summer left to eat!

This week we have 12 things at about 12 pounds.

1. Lettuce - is back - a taste this week and more the last two weeks! Yay!!
2. Radishes
3. Cucumber- probably the last of this favorite
4. Tomatoes- still plenty this week but they’re winding down fast
5. Cherry tomatoes
6. Peppers - no stopping them!
7. Jalapeños
8. Green beans
9. Tomatillos- remember great for salsas and sauces
10. Onions
11. Garlic
12. Potatoes

PLUS: lots and lots of “uglier” tomatoes- this is your chance to make sauce, salsa, soup - they’re dropping off fast
PLUS: some not ugly tomatoes for sale $2 a pound
PLUS: optional basil - regular and purple
PLUS: last zucchini and yellow squash available. We didn’t have enough for the bags but I picked all the remaining fruits before we pull up the plants. Just ask … first come first serve

Have a great week.

08/11/2024

The cooler temperatures this weekend and a pre-season Bengals game and the neighbor kids talking about school has it feeling like fall. But it’s still summer! And this bag proves it! So many fresh tastes you can only get together in the height of summer.

My favorite thing about this bag is how the red / purple spectrum is so well represented. Remember those early bags which were every shade of green? Now the rainbow has shifted pretty dramatically!

That said as soon as the garden reaches its summer height it starts scaling back. A number of things are starting to wane - and even be done. So let’s enjoy it all while we have it. Summers not over yet!!

Here’s what’s in this rainbow bag. 11 things weighing over 18 pounds.
1. Corn! Our last corn … this variety is white and called Illusion. It got knocked over by one of those storms we had so not quite as prolific but really nice flavor.
2. Cucumbers
3. Zucchini and yellow squash- this is one of those crops that is done - the bugs won this week and I don’t think we’ll have any more. In fact, a lot this week are bug scarred so you may have to peel them.
4. Cherry tomatoes
5. Peppers - so excited to finally be able to ripen some of our peppers from green to red. We may have figured it out! We’ll see if we can do it again - then I’ll know we cracked the code.
6. Carrots
7. Tomatoes- we’ve hit the zenith with the tomatoes and now they’ll start to scale back but we’re still in abundance mode this week
8. Beets
9. Purple beans - just like green beans but purple 🙂
10. Red cabbage
11. Purple potatoes

Plus lots of “ugly” tomatoes for free (from here on they all will be a bit ugly!)
Plus optional herbs - basil and dill - just ask
Plus extra tomatoes at $2 a pound

Have fun eating your rainbow this week!

08/06/2024

Look at these perfect fried green tomatoes Mary made from the ones we had available Sunday!

She’s been perfecting her recipe and technique- and it looks like she nailed it!

08/04/2024

Hello August! Summer in southeast Ohio is a garden’s dream! All that heat and humidity has a lot of things growing almost faster than we can pick them.

This week’s bag is another summer extravaganza - 13 things at about 22 pounds (plus all the optional extras). Here’s the list … start planning your meals now!

1. Green beans are back!
2. Corn - again! This variety is a bicolor, Essence - it grew well and tastes great
3. Tomatillos - new this week! Here’s a link if you are unfamiliar with this unique vegetable https://www.bonappetit.com/story/what-are-tomatillos
4. Peppers - some are turning red! I tried to give everyone at least one that’s turned or turning
5. Hot peppers - mostly beautiful lipstick red Fresno peppers (& a few poblano too)
6. Green cabbage
7. Onions
8. Garlic
9. Zucchini and yellow squash
10. Cucumbers
11. Tomatoes
12. Cherry tomatoes
13. Potatoes- this week a yellow Yukon gold type - called Satina - I really love a good yellow potato

Plus … herbs by request … lemon basil, purple basil and some cilantro (it doesn’t love the heat)
Plus “ugly” and green tomatoes for free (lots of greens)
PLUS extra tomatoes for $2 a pound and $2 a pint of cherries to all - subscribers and the general public

Yay! Have fun making amazing meals with all this.

08/03/2024

Sold out! Check back every Saturday at 10 am

🚨⏰‼️Extra veggie bag alert🚨 ‼️⏰

We have a limited number of extra bags this week!
They will include: tomatoes, corn, beans, peppers, tomatillos, onions, garlic, cabbage, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and zucchini.

$30 for the regular size; $20 for half. Cash, check or Venmo (Elise Temple )

Pickup is Sunday from 1-5 at our farm (5386 Hanley Rd - turn on Beerman)

Message me or post comment to reserve yours.

08/02/2024

It’s tomatillos time! Get your salsa verde recipes out!

We’ll have hot peppers onions garlic etc for recipes!

Here’s a link for those of you not familiar with this cool veggie

https://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/packages/food-network-essentials/what-are-tomatillos

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/photos/tomatillo-recipes

08/01/2024

Now that the onions and garlic are out of this area we’re planting a cover crop, green manure to help keep building this soil. This cover crop is an interesting one - pearl millet. Besides being an edible grain its use as a cover crop is helpful because it can grow in marginal soil, is drought tolerant, grows quickly when it’s hot so can inhibitweeds, adds a bunch of organic matter to the soil when it’s done, and it can inhibit certain parasites. Plus it looks cool when it grows - almost cat tail like.

So check it out as it grows. It’s just little grain shoots now.

Here are a few links if you’re interested. We get it from Johnny's Selected Seeds

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/farm-seed/grasses-millets-and-sorghums/millet/hybrid-pearl-millet-f1-cover-crop-seed-187.html

And here’s a fact sheet from OSU extension https://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/anr-0117

07/28/2024

Wow. The end of July bag is a whopper. 12 things (13 if you count the optional self serve basil) at 20 pounds!

It’s that time of year for sure. Everything is growing and growing and growing.

The bag even has a couple new things!

Here’s the rundown:
1. Corn! More corn! The 1st batch was a new variety, Latte. This is an old favorite, Sugar Buns.
2. Tomatoes!! So many the regular bags need an extra bag to put them in, so don’t let me forget to give you your tomatoes.
3. Cherry (& other small fruited) tomatoes. Also lots!
4. Cabbage - this is new! Classic green head cabbage
5. Red potatoes- these are also new. maybe a meal with the cabbage?
6. Carrots
7. Radishes - maybe shredded in a coleslaw?
8. Peppers - mostly banana peppers this week
9. Small onions
10. Garlic
11. Zucchini and/or yellow squash
12. Cucumbers

PLUS extra self serve basil
PLUS if your 5 (or 2.5) pounds of tomatoes aren’t enough we have “ugly” and green tomatoes for free AND
EXTRA tomatoes for $2 a pound.

What a week. Hope you planned time for cooking and eating!

07/27/2024

How many garden tomatoes are you managing to eat a day? I’m shooting for three (one a meal) but even for me it’s hard to maintain! There are a lot of tomatoes out there!

We hit our “too many tomatoes” point a little early this year. Our subscribers’ bags tomorrow will have 5 # (for regular size) which is about 10-15 tomatoes. And we still have more! So extra tomatoes will be available for sale tomorrow for subscribers and non-subscribers. $2 a pound.

We also have “uglies” for free. These are the ones with bad spots that will need to be removed. A bird peck or a bug or a crack from growing too fast. The picture here is of an “ugly” after surgery. They’re still good just “ugly”.

Come by our farm (5386 Hanley Rd) between 1-5 tomorrow to get some.

Don’t despair if you’re not able or ready to get extras - I’m anticipating we’ll have them for the next few weeks.

07/26/2024

Oh yeah, we got some new chickens to pass the torch from our older ones who aren’t laying much anymore. They’re not quite ready to lay but they’re settling in well. Hopefully then we’ll have extra eggs again.

07/23/2024

This mornings tomato picking 😮
Tis the season

Address

5386 Hanley Road
Cincinnati, OH
45247

Opening Hours

1pm - 5pm

Telephone

+15135127689

Website

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Videos

Napa cabbage babies a week in the ground

Cabbages settling in nicely All of them looking good - no empty spots 😀 This means I have a few extras if any of you are ready to plant your gardens. LMK if you want any.

Mother’s Day weekend is my favorite! Because it’s Tomato Planting weekend! (& everything else!) My idea of Mothers Day fun is non-stop planting because frost risk is “gone” in southwest Ohio. BTW: we had great germination and survival of the tomatoes so I’ll have plenty of extra starts soon. Stay tuned for tomato starts for your garden. After I get ours planted I’ll post availability and varieties (Subscribers get their 1st 4 starts free, then $2 each. Non-subscribers $5 each)

Tomatoes as of yesterday evening. They graduated to the greenhouse this week (inside at night when it goes below 40) And they’re coming along nicely. 🍅🍅🍅 🍅 🎉😁🍅🍅🍅🍅 BTW. I had great germination rates and early survival so that’s why I know I’ll have plenty of extra tomato starts

Owl windsock

Our latest hawk scaring attempt. The owl wings flutter with the wind and are supposed to work better than the stationary fake owl. A fellow farmer up in Marysville had luck with this to keep the hawks away from their chickens. Here’s hoping! The hawks have been very active this winter. Plus it’s kind of cool looking 🙂

Goaties love to eat Christmas trees! (Thanks neighbors 😃)

Chicken house Christmas

We did our silly chicken house Christmas lights thing again this year 😀 The chickens don’t go for subtle!

Somebody’s eating the corn!

OK all. For those of you keeping track you’re thinking: didn’t we get corn by this time in years past? Yes. It’s a thing this year - some unprecedented corn challenges. But we’ll have some (but maybe not the banner year we were hoping) First: never had this happen before but 1st two plantings (especially first) didn’t form ears after tasseling! It seems to be a response to drought. We had actually been irrigating much more than usual but it wasn’t enough. As you have noticed, normally there’s enough rain with pop-ups in June / July for farmers to not water their corn after it’s established but this year with those heat waves in June seemed to push our corn right into survival mode. So … we irrigated a lot more (& it rained a little more) and we started forming ears. Next unprecedented challenge. We have learned after the 1st year here we need to put electric netting fencing around the corn to keep the raccoons out. They pull the ears right off the stalk, husk them and eat the corn right off the cob. this year it looks like something is getting in the fence and eating the corn in a slightly different way. We think it’s squirrels - they can get through an electric fence and apparently if they get a taste for corn they can decimate it. They pretty much got all the 2nd planting that came in and 1/2 the 3rd until I found the only way to counter it is to get in there and harvest it before they get it. It’s crazy! I posted a video below so you can see - they scratch off the husk and eat what they can on the plant. Anyway … I’m going to try and beat them to it and still get some but it’s not what we hoped for sure. I think I’ll have 4 ears or so this week and I think I can trick them and pick before they get it the following weeks. I think next year we’ll plant somewhere different to try and not let them get a taste. Anyway … there’s plenty going awesomely so in the comments I put some pictures of the tomatillos doing great