Fresh From the Farm Blog

Smile at someone each day. Studies have shown that your blood pressure reading can go down if you are smiling. Just like other animals, humans look at one another’s facial expressions to determine how to react in differing situations. These days, when we are largely communicating through text, email, and online social media, we can’t see the face of the person to whom we are speaking, and we can’t tell the tone of their voice. Are they joking, angry, anxious, or deliriously happy? At Fredericksburg Farms most folks here can communicate face to face in person throughout the day. And...

The Texas weather is continuing to surprise us, going from fireplace weather to shirtsleeves weather in a few days. The trees are showing all shades of green on the hillsides as they put on new leaves, and interspersed with the green are the bright flashes of color from blooms of redbuds and peach trees. Here at Fredericksburg Farms we are busy converting old greenhouse space into additional warehouse and manufacturing facilities. Change brings new opportunity, much like Spring heralds a new season…and a time change. HAPPY SPRING, Y’ALL!

This coming Friday is St. Patrick’s Day when everyone claims a little Irish heritage, looks for that leprechaun guarding his pot of gold, and goes about “a wearin’ o’ the green.” Exactly 138 years ago, my great grandmother, Rena Josephine Driver, made her appearance on March 17, 1885. She was proud of an Irish heritage and lived most of her life in the Texas panhandle town of Shamrock. Shamrock is known for having the art deco Tower gas station that was the model for one in the animated move “Cars,” and for its annual St. Paddy’s Day celebration which includes...

March is WINDY this year and it reminds me of the incessant wind that I grew up with in the Texas Panhandle. Living up in that part of Texas, the wind blew year-round and often picked up a healthy portion of dirt and sand to blow into your face and irritate your eyes. Here, where we are, the wind comes and goes with different seasons…our grandkids are waiting for “kite-flying” weather; windy enough to loft your kite into the air to float gently back and forth above you, and not so windy it ends up in the next county. March...

What a difference a week can make! Last week the pastures hereabouts were brown and dead looking and this week a light green hue is evident. In our garden here at Fredericksburg Farms the fruit trees have buds and a few blossoms. We can hope that a late season freeze doesn’t get them and at the same time we hope that we got enough “chill hours” for the peach trees that are a big part of Fredericksburg economy. Who doesn’t look forward to taking a juicy bite of a Fredericksburg peach? Our family’s roots lie in farming and ranching. My...