EcoSuburbia

06/20/2023

Hello, everyone. This is Kate, Shannon’s daughter and farm partner. I apologize for the silence on our part. We have been having a medical crisis with Shannon for a while now and needed some personal time away. She was private about her medical condition, so this might come as a shock to some.

On June 16th, Shannon Marie Thomas passed away. She was surrounded with love and the laughter of stories told with and about her by her family and friends.

I have been trying to find the right words on what to say for the last few days and what would be appropriate to say on the farm page. So, I believe for her, instead of mourning for her here, I want to celebrate her and her achievements with the farm.

My mother and I started this farm from the literal ground up with our blood, sweat, and tears. And wow, there were a lot of tears hand pulling and raking out bermuda grass for almost two weeks! She worked that farm for four years strong, hand growing all of our plants from seed and planting them one by one with love. Every cut of leaf greens and pulled root veggie was special because of what she had done. Shannon was so kind and compassionate to all of her farm friends and our customers when she was at the market. She believed in love and kindness to everyone. One of the ways she showed that kindness was with her produce and the hard work that was put into each and every vegetable. Even when Mom was at her worst, it was almost impossible to keep her from the field. There were many times when me and her husband would tell her to come inside and her response every time was on the line of “Not now, I’m farming!” If she wasn’t inside the house, she was on the farm!

Unfortunately, with Mom’s passing, I have decided to close the farm. With Mom’s declining health over the last month, I realized that I could not run this without her, and with how personal this farm was to both of us, it would feel wrong to do it without her. Ecosuburbia was and will always be so special to me. It will always be part of me and who I have become. I don’t know where I would be if Mom had never started this farm.

Thank you everyone for being a part of our farm journey.

05/04/2023

Too cute of a meme to pass up! The mulberry pie pic… just YUM!
👇
We won’t be at the Mesa Farmers Market this weekend but we’re still harvesting mulberries, rainbow carrots, and finishing the harvest of our beet beds for the season.
I know we’ve had a ton of requests for more mulberries, please message us and we can make arrangements for you (message please, not a post reply).
Mulberries also freeze well for future use and smoothies.
Because I don’t know about you, but a fresh baked mulberry pie sounds like an amazing Mother’s Day dessert or gift to all the special Mothers, Mother figures, and Fathers who’ve done a damn good job being both parents.
We honor ALL of you for what you do, day in and day out 🥰

Picture & Recipe

04/28/2023

We know you’ve been patiently waiting for our fresh picked Black Persian Mulberries (veganically grown from our heirloom tree of course!). If you’ve tasted mulberries before, we can guarantee you haven’t tasted ones like these 😍

These will go FAST too since they are specialty fruit which you’ll never see at a grocery store — as they need to be hand harvested and eaten ASAP.
Not flown or trucked 3 weeks prior 🫤

We’ll be at the market tomorrow morning from 8am-12:30pm.
See you there!!

04/21/2023

Washing, bunching, bagging goodies for tomorrow’s farmers market Saturday 8am-12:30pm
REMINDER: Market moved to Inspire Farms. Still on Main just a mile East.

Our roots & greens are winding down for the season. Soon to be replaced by the most amazing veganically grown artisan tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, large array of petite summer squash, French green beans, and other summer specialties like (the sweetest EVER!) cantaloupe and heirloom melons!

There’s always something growing in Arizona! Yeah, summers get rough by the end of it but we’re so fortunate to be able to grow almost year round 🧚‍♀️

See you in the morning!

04/19/2023

Mulberry season is upon us!
Why don’t you see mulberries at the grocery store??
They can only ripen on the tree (not on your counter or on the produce truck & grocery isle) and they need to be eaten or frozen within 2-4 days of harvesting. Not ideal for grocery store’s 3wk avg turnaround time!
But what a treat that can only be grown & enjoyed locally.
Since they just started ripening we may only have some available this week for tasting at this Saturday, but will carry them as the season hits full stride in the coming weeks.
So plan now! Fresh handfuls, a dollop of whipped cream, homemade jams, frozen for smoothies, pies… uses are plentiful!
What’s you’re fav way to eat mulberries?
Did you know they’re also a “superfood” high vitamins & minerals, but more specifically in Vit. C AND Iron - perfect for those needing bioavailability of both.

04/19/2023

Don’t forget to stop by Main Street Harvest if you miss us at the farmers market on Saturdays.

How lucky are we to have such an abundance of local AZ organic goodness??

Our produce case is full for you this weekend thanks to the likes of



Here’s what we’ve got for you…

- Citrus
- Cabbage, green and purple
- Cauliflower, white
- Hakurei Turnips
- Kohlrabi
- Parsnips
- Carrots, orange and rainbow
- Black Spanish Radishes
- Red Beets
- Spring onions, red and yellow
- Leeks
- Celery
- Oak Lettuce, green and red
- Kale
- Lettuce mixes
- Potatoes, red and golden
- Sweet Potatoes
- Dry onions, red, yellow and white
- Mushrooms
- Strawberries (AZ grown!!)
- Dill
- Italian Parsley
- Green Onion
- Mint

Comment below if there’s something you don’t know how to use and we will post a recipe for you!

Open 8am-8pm Saturday and 10am-4pm Sunday in .

04/06/2023

Veganic produce restocked

Your Fav greens & salad mixes, mixed beet bunches, rainbow carrots, black Spanish radishes —
All colorful veggies that’ll illuminate your holiday dinners 🤩

Eat the rainbow 🌈

03/30/2023

Mixed beet bunches!
Can’t decide if you want Golden Beets, candy-stripped Chioggia, or a rich, dark Red Beet? Problem solved! Makes a wonderful presentation for roasted beet dishes, pickled, or thinly sliced/shredded to top fresh salads or tacos, etc.
All are freshly harvested sweet & tender with fine, smooth skin. Just a scrub will do, no peeling needed.
Get yours at all week or stop by and say “hi” at the this Saturday.
Oh!! Don’t forget to sauté your beet greens!

Just in time for holiday dinners next week too ✡️✝️

03/25/2023

We won’t be at the today. But will be back next Saturday with more Veganic goodies: new bed of sweet tender beets, salad mixes (including our edible flower salad!), fresh greens & sweet snap peas. Oh and don’t forget the rainbow carrots!
We’ve been so blessed by the unusually cool weather we’re taking advantage of being able to grow an extra round of greens which are usually being phased out by warmer temps by now.

Can’t wait until next Saturday?
We deliver to on Wednesday. Great place to stock up on EVERYTHING local!

Enjoy this amazing Spring we’re having! Get out and enjoy the fresh air & sunshine. Summer will be upon us before you know it 🌻

03/20/2023

Happy First Day of Spring🧚‍♀️

Some blooms happening around our property.
Yes, it’s time to plant those viola/pansy’s into their beds wouldn’t you say?!
I also forgot the nasturtiums growing through out the greenhouse beds!
Maybe I’ll save them to celebrate the 2nd day of Spring lol
This happens a lot to me: I bring my phone out to get some shots for IG and end up getting distracted by everything around me.
Like… there’s a w**d, let me pull it, oh hey these radishes in the next bed are popping, let’s check for pests, wait (!) are the new beets ready to pull?!
Come on, I can’t be the only one!
Good thing for crop plans & daily task schedules or I’d never get anything done!

If you haven’t yet, take a minute to sit or walk quietly in your yard, garden, farm, public park, whatever your outdoor space is, and look for the little unexpected surprises Spring has brought. They’re there if we slow down for a sec to really look 🌻
Then — back to work!

03/17/2023

Grow your own!

We have some of our veganically grown Artisan Tomato plants available at tomorrow, Saturday 8am-12:30pm

We grow from organic seed using only our veganic potting soil made here at our farm. The tomatoes will be a “grab bag” type of thing bc we plant how we harvest and we harvest a mix of artisan tomatoes that we sell in quart clamshells. So it’ll be a surprise tomato… are you up for the unknown?!

The varieties include: Lucky Tiger, Blush, Sunrise Bumble Bee, Pink Bumble Bee, and Purple Bumble Bee.

We also have *LABELED* Clementine (golden orange salad tomato) & Sakura (bright red cherries).

Tomatoes come with us! We’ll be happy to tell you how we plant & grow ours for a successful growing season. For example: Swipe left to see how we prune all branches a foot off the ground. The worst tomato diseases are soil borne diseases and this keeps leaves from dragging in the soil and soil from splashing up on them when it rains. Pic taken after this week’s rainstorm and leaves are squeaky clean 😁

We’ll have large tomatoes available in a couple weeks when we plant our second succession. Unfortunately, the first succession sold out from a waiting list. It’s not too late to plant when they become available 🧚‍♀️

And if you read ALL THE WAY to the end of this post… you must be as obsessed with homegrown tomatoes as we are 🤣

03/17/2023

Finishing up harvesting a few carrot & lettuce beds to make room for summer plantings. Couple hundred feet of tomatoes already in with other crops going in first thing Monday morning.
Artisan tomatoes, heirloom summer squash, Asian & Italian eggplant, cucumbers, cantaloupe, Rocky Ford melons, greenbeans, Caesar salad mix made w/baby tri-colored romaine, edible flowers, and a few other surprises coming up shortly!
The 1’ to 1-1/2’ tall tomato plants are from the potting on reel a couple weeks ago. The “secret sauce” is our Veganic soil recipe!

Warmer temps transform our farm into a completely different place. The smell of flowers & ripening cantaloupe floating through the air is unbeatable 🧚‍♀️
Have you had a chance to enjoy our veganic grown cantaloupe & melons?
We usually end of with a waiting list by end of summer lol
YEP!
They’re that good!