Laughing Frog Farm » Fruit trees, herbs and tomato plants for sale

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving

The Laughing Frog Farm — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 18:11:08 +0000

I went outside this morning at first light, about 6:30, to check out the effects of the frost. 28˚. We had given the sheep a sheltered area, but they were all grazing in the open pasture–their frosted wool backs glimmering. I let the hens out. They were fluffed up looking the size of meat birds, more excited than usual. The greenhouse with the tilapia had stayed above 50˚ and the water was still 60˚. Success! All our short haired dogs, that had the rare opportunity to be inside last night, were running full tilt while we went to each livestock area to break the ice layer off their water supply. I wanted to feed the horses some wet alfalfa pellets, but the hose was frozen, so they just got dry pellets. We southern Texans do not do winter on Thanksgiving very often.
When I was a kid Thanksgiving was all about eating. My mother was the perfect southern cook and much of the meal came canned and frozen from our summer garden harvest.
When we had children in Houston the holiday was all about the kids and me cooking together, while Kenan and Granny tried to keep our mess in check in anticipation of the large family gathering.
Today, this Thanksgiving is about growing the food here on the farm where it is quiet, cold and peaceful. It is about knowing the soil, working with the weather, avoiding the pests, understanding the animals and enjoying one another. Of course I will cook and I will eat.
I hope the best for everyone.
I am thankful.

Permaculture at Healing Hands

The Laughing Frog Farm — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 00:51:23 +0000

Yesterday a few of us went to the Healing Hands Ranch in Willis, Tx. This ranch brings in men struggling through poverty and addiction, often homeless, often veterans, and provides housing, job training and an entry back into mainstream society. This group is proposing building an eco village with cob housing, gardens, aquaponic greenhouses–a permaculture homestead with low cost housing, a connection to nature, minimal energy needs and on site employment. This could be a model for future development. This will take some time and they will need many volunteer hands to join in. It is too early to ask for help, but keep them in mind. We all will be working on design proposals in the next few months and hope to begin building early next year. Building cob houses requires more manual labor than materials. Using the unemployed, underemployed and homeless and paying them a living wage will not only help them immediately, but will also provide some skills for future employment. We would like to see families and individuals in an affordable, environmentally sustainable community.

The Wictim Theory

The Laughing Frog Farm — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 21:43:49 +0000

Boris Aronson, a Russian/American scene designer, was teaching a seminar at the University Of Texas in 1974 and one student asked what I thought was a stupid question. “Mr. Aronson, what is your theory of design”
He replied something like this in his thick Russian accent– “My theory of design is the wictim theory. Last week we began developing the style of a new Broadway show and the costume designer was not there. She could not promote her ideas, so everything went my way. This week I am here in Austin and we have another meeting and my ideas will not be promoted. Last week she was the wictim and this week I am the wictim. If you want to get somewhere you need to be present and constantly advocate your vision. If you are not there the ideas of others will prevail and your vision will become wictim to the plans of others.”
Don’t be a victim of the plans of big Ag, big Pharma and the industrial food system.
Come to the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance annual conference in Bastrop Sept 22 and 23 and help advocate your vision.

Citrus trees for sale

The Laughing Frog Farm — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 11:19:02 +0000

A few of our fruit trees

I inventoried my citrus stock.

On trifoliate rootstock $40

Meyer lemon

Republic of Texas Oranges

Kaffir Lime

Meiwa Kumquat

Changshou Kumquat

Lakeland Limequat

Citrus on flying dragon $40

Ruby Red Grapefruit

Meyer lemon

Valencia orange

Key Lime
I sell them at the market and at the farm.
Glen Miracle text orders to 713-542-6615
or
email

Fruit trees for sale–citrus, peaches, persimmons, figs, pomegranates, etc.

The Laughing Frog Farm — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 13:53:04 +0000

We are open by appointment only. We do not ship trees.

I sell fruit trees that are appropriate for the Houston, Austin and Bryan/College Station area. Most trees are in three to five gallon pots and are grown by organic methods. Many are grafted and I list the rootstock below. Please contact me by email glen@thelaughingfrogfarm.com or phone– 713-542-6615 (cell). If you let me know early enough I can deliver them to the Saturday market on Richmond at Eastside in Houston 8:00 until noon. It is behind the building at 3000 Richmond 77098.
Below is a list of the trees I have that are big enough to sell. Other trees are available. If you are looking for something else let me know and I will see if I can get it for you.

Persimmons on d virginiana $38
~~Fuyu~~

Peaches on nemaguard $28
Florida king
Eva’s pride

Tropic Snow
Midpride

Pear on calleryana $30

~~Tennhousi~~

~~Acres Home~~

~~Shenseki asian~~

~~Hosui asian~~

Fig $28

Celeste

LSU purple
Pomegranates $30
Texas pink
Kandahar Early

Citrus on trifoliate $40

Meyer lemon

Republic of Texas Oranges

Kaffir Lime

Meiwa Kumquat

Changshou Kumquat

Lakeland Limequat

Citrus on flying dragon $40

Ruby Red Grapefruit

Meyer lemon

Valencia orange

Key Lime
Blueberries. Rabbiteye $25
Climax
Tiftblue

Blackberries $22
Arapaho
Natchez
Kiowa

For care see my fruit tree fertilization schedule

[contact-form]

Organic tomato plants for sale

The Laughing Frog Farm — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:11:16 +0000

Tomato plants are sold out.

This year we will have the following tomatoes, all grown from certified organic seed:

Celebrity: 8oz, determinate, 72 days

Sungold: 1 oz, orange, indeterminate, 57 days

Black Krim: 1 pound, indeterminate, 80 days

Cherokee Purple: 1 pound, indeterminate, 72 days

Juliet: 1 to 2 oz, indeterminate, 60 days, grape shaped

Roma: 2 to 3 oz, determinate, 76 days

Sweet 100: indeterminate, very small cherry

Caspian Pink: 10 to 12 oz, indeterminate, 80 days

Hawaiian Tropic: 8-10 oz, indeterminate, 65 days, heat tolerant

Pricing:

1 plant $2.00

3 plants $5.00

Tray of 18 plants $25.00

50 or more plants $1.00 each at the farm

Chicken tractor

The Laughing Frog Farm — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:42:00 +0000

It is time to take out a bit of the winter garden. This job falls on the chickens. I built a new lightweight chicken tractor out of PVC and chicken wire. I saw a picture of a similar one at the SSAWG conference last month. One hour with 10 chickens and they should have run out of things to eat, so we move it to a new local. Mine is 6′ x 10′ and very easy for one person to move. Now I need to build one the size of my raised beds–4′ wide.

I am also building a circular clam-like pen that will go around a fruit tree and fit one or two chickens to weed and debug all of the fruit trees. That job should take about 400 hours.

Christmas can be a local event

The Laughing Frog Farm — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 12:14:21 +0000

We are striving to purchase anything we can from small local companies or individuals. I go to Repkas Hardware instead of Home Depot, I buy my meat direct from farmers and I get my paint from a company where I know each salesperson’s name and they know mine. If I spend my money locally and they, in turn, do the same that money will show up in my neighbor’s hand and some of it might get back to me. If each person in America bought $10 of fresh food every week from their local farmer it would make an impact in their community that would nationally total $150 billion dollars. That farmer can them spend his money locally and so on. It would possibly cost you less than the portion of your taxes that go to billionaire “farmers” under the current farm bill.
If each person in the greater Houston area did the same, the amount to stay here locally would be about $2.75 billion. Make Christmas a local event.

Organic food should be the normal

The Laughing Frog Farm — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:27:19 +0000

We who grow the world’s food responsibly are subjected to being certified, inspected, taxed and burdened with a mountain of paperwork to acquire the right to sell our food as “organic”.
Those who use deadly poisons, pollute the water, destroy the seed bank and endanger the health of the people are not burdened with such hurdles because they are normal–they are conventional.
Something is turned on its head. We need to regulate the ones that cause the problem. A certification should be required to use the synthetic chemicals. Inspections should be required to regulate the poisons and altered seeds that are part of our environmental pollution. A tax should be levied to help pay for the cleanup of the pollution and to research the health effects of these synthetic herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and fertilizers. The mountain of paperwork should document every drop of these chemicals that are put on our food, our soils and our water.
The resulting product should be labeled as an altered, chemically dependent and not natural feed product.
The product now labeled as “organic” would be labeled as “food”.

Planting your tomato plants.

The Laughing Frog Farm — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:40:04 +0000

Set out your tomato plants as early as possible. This year that should be about the time my plants are ready–the last week of February. It takes about 6 weeks for the plant to be mature enough to fruit and they fruit best when nighttime temperatures are in the 50′s or 60′s. We get very little of that temperature range in the Houston area. Once we start having days in the 90′s with nighttime lows in the mid 70′s tomato production will be reduced or terminated. Your window of opportunity is mostly during April and May. If the temperature drops below 35˚ cover the plant with frost cloth or a sheet, etc. Dig a hole and add one teaspoon of rock phosphate or bone meal in the bottom. Set the tomato in the ground a little lower than it was in the pot. Sprinkle the ground around the plant with a half cup of cornmeal. This will be fungal protection. As leaves near the bottom turn yellow or brown remove and discard them. You can spray them every other week with seaweed extract and/or compost tea but do not fertilize with nitrogen until the first flower is set. Then lightly fertilize with fish emulsion or a prepared organic tomato fertilizer. It is usually advisable to add calcium to the soil at that time in the form of ag lime, bone meal, rock phosphate, gypsum or even powdered milk (my grandmother’s solution). Pick the tomatoes as soon as they start to turn red (if they are a red tomato) and let them ripen at room temperature. Never put them in the refrigerator.