Josh Mayfield

Sure, sounds interesting! Pick your own flowers is definitely a model I’ve considered.

Holding a cowpea pod with the peas inside

🌱 I’ve mentioned how much I like these heirloom Whippoorwill cowpeas before, mostly because the bean beetles avoid them. But they’re already drying down, quite early, and they’re delicious cooked up with a little sage. 12–18 peas per pod.

This is the first year we’ve grown and eaten it, we’re big fans now!

A garden bed with four rows of beet seed.

We decided to try a small CSA this fall after market season is over, a first for us. So beets have been sown, and I started collards, kale, lettuce, bok choi, and cabbages last night. Will try radicchio and more fennel soon. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes!

That’s the plan, though because it’s an F1 hybrid, the F2 seed will have some variation that makes it a bit less ideal for market.

8 butternuts lying on the ground.

🌱 More of the Thai hybrid butternuts coming in. Absolutely love this variety, though I haven’t tasted yet. Wish I could source more seed, but it seems impossible.

Over 150 lbs of winter squash harvested so far this year.

I’m willing to bet there wouldn’t be much of a market for the nuts since they’re GMO. And since they’re apparently slower growing, that removes incentive to plant them for lumber too. They were called “the redwood of the east” because their growth paced tulip poplar.

These are definitely around Serrano range, and possibly hotter, though our drought and poor soil might have increased the heat levels beyond typical. Thin walls.

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The National Weather Service will hire as many as 450 people after Elon Musk's DOGE gutted the agency, leaving it dangerously understaffed.

Not sure it’s ever gotten down to 29% in the Carolinas 😂

Mostly cut contact with an uncle that lives locally. Very little regret, because not letting kinda racist/sexist/creepy ppl around my kid is a no-brainer. His ranting texts made me feel even better about my decision. Still, definitely feel sorry for him, he basically has no one without us.

Yep, squash season is my favorite!

Holding a closed okra flower with a bee’s head sticking out.

🌱 Bee burrito?

Okra flowers only open one day, then close at night. This sleepyhead woke up shrinkwrapped, but recovered quickly upon being unwrapped and placed on a nearby flower.

The good news is…
- I have been able to cross the best of the best varieties
- Learned how to scale up while holding to a regenerative approach
- Learned what the market wants and doesn’t want.

Never stop iterating ✌🏼

Two of 15 butternuts harvested today. These are the parent varieties of next years’ butternuts – a modern hybrid from Thailand that is productive, resilient, and has a good growth habit and shape. And a short-season bushy heirloom with incredible eating quality.

First butternut harvest today in the rain! This is probably the last year I do a large-scale variety trial for squash. I’ve found what works, and learned enough to know there are no magic bullets for defeating CYVD. Gotta take the holistic approach. (Resistance, trap crops, insect covers) (1/2)

Cool! It wasn’t Laughing Springs farm in NC by any chance, was it? That’s where this seed comes from.

Today looks like it will be the day the drought breaks. The peppers really need every drop!

I should clarify, the color should deepen a bit more than this to a very bright red.

This is a c. chinense, so has a habanero flavor without the heat. Quite sweet and thicker flesh than most. Happy to trade some seed for some of that squash pepper seed if you like!

Photo of a pumpkin in a pumpkin patch.

🌱 Tropical pumpkin glamour shots? Yeah we have those.

As a South Carolinian farmer, I can highly recommend any fruit and vegetable varieties that come from the Caribbean islands, Hawaii, South and Central America, and south-east Asia. Their disease and heat tolerance is generally far superior to what we have available stateside.

The flesh is totally sweet, but the pith is supposed to have a very low amount of heat. I didn’t try the pithy area on this one since it was a little moldy.

‘Carnaval’ seasoning pepper - a lobed red pepper shaped like a pumpkin.

🌱 It’s not enough to grow pumpkins. I must grow pumpkin peppers. This is ‘Carnaval’ seasoning pepper from Puerto Rico.

Nice!

Whoa! Why the grow pots, soil diseases?

Fall carrots in the ground, and the first fall brassicas and fennel starts are sprouting. I’m scaling back in a big way for the winter, but there will be a few other crops I’ll start or plant by September.

Here’s a tropical pumpkin from a cross I made last year. Looking very productive. Will likely average 8-9 lbs, or larger if we ever get rain. I’ll probably grow a lot more of them next year if I’m happy with the flavor.

A rainbow in the sky, with an open red gate and a field in the foreground, and a forested hill in the background

A rainbow over the Saluda lot today? I’m taking that as a good sign

Sure, could always try a couple to compare! This is an heirloom called Karikachi #3, from True Leaf. Great for edamame, and also supposed to be cold tolerant.

Yes, we call them edamame when immature and soybeans when mature. There’s not really a market for them here unless they’re sold fresh as edamame, but for personal use I’ll probably experiment with drying them down next year. Can’t save seed though, we have volunteer GMO soybeans in our fields.