A Few June Highlights

It's too busy these days for a proper blog post, but here is a rundown of a few recent happenings.

Of all the current events, the most wonderful event has been having Cadence, our younger daughter, home for a couple weeks. In addition to assisting with many farm projects, she baked bread and pastries for the  Farmers Market for two weekends. It was wonderful to get reconnected with long-time market customers, and Cadence appreciated earning a few bucks. Alas, she leaves tomorrow - we will miss her!

While Cadence was here, our turkey poults arrived.

Last week we had fierce storms with heavy rain and strong winds that broke many branches and toppled a few trees.

The saddest part was finding so many nests with baby birds destroyed all over the farm.

Our main pasture fence was damaged by a fallen tree. Branches are hung up in the top of the tree, so we will have to pull it down with the truck in order to saw it up. We haven't had a chance to do that yet, so I re-routed the electric fence around the fallen tree so the cows don't escape.   Add this project to next weekend's to do list...

Last week's CSA box (Box # 4)  might be the prettiest yet.   Contents  included  sugar snap peas, lettuce, spinach, garlic scapes, baby zukes and squash blossoms, a little bundle of Italian herbs, golden and red beets, and elder flower blossoms.  I wonder if anyone was adventuresome enough to try elderflower fritters?

Cadence and I  (mostly Cadence) washed and pitted all the beautiful tart cherries we picked from Don and Betsy's tree, over half a bushel. We have an actual cherry/olive pitting tool, but  figured out it was much faster to pop the pits out by squeezing the cherries between thumb and index finger.  We made cherry shortcake and cherry smoothies and froze the rest. Some are destined to go into wine later this summer.

Work has finally begun on my tiny garden shed. I had wished it was a bit taller and our friend Chad said he could make it so. He disassembled the entire structure from the floor,  built a knee wall, and re-assembled it so that it is now 18 inches higher than it was. Now it  is tall enough to stand in without brushing your head on the ceiling and useful for rakes, spades and hoes to hang on the walls.   Next will come windows and doors, siding and a little porch. I can't wait to finish the exterior.

We have also made significant progress on the aquaponics system, but  I will devote a separate post to that project.

A Blast from the Past

Last weekend, three dear high school friends came for a visit.  There was a little food, a few mojitos, a bit of farm work, some music, and a lot of laughing.

We made raspberry ice cream, courtesy of LaFonda.

Betsy invited us over to feed lambs.  Margy really has the knack.

Deb was our photog.

Deb snapped me feeding some lambs.

Gayle demonstrated her excellent sheepherding technique when the sheep broke through the fence.

We have been friends for over three decades!  Thanks so much for visiting us on the farm, seesters!

Potato Bug Ponderings

A few days ago I discovered  the potato patch has been invaded by potato bugs, more accurately called Colorado Potato Beetles. This is the pretty striped adult,  but what I first noticed were the larvae,

fleshy, humpbacked orange critters, devouring the leaves of the potato plants until they turn into lacy, poop-covered shreds. No time to waste in dealing with these pests.

I think most organic gardeners hand-pick and squish these bugs, but that seemed too disgusting to me.  Instead I got a bowl of  water with dish soap and a spoon to knock them off the leaves into the water. We used this technique a couple times last year and it worked well.

In addition to knocking the larvae and parent beetles off the plants,  I checked under all the leaves for clusters of eggs and squished them with the  back of the spoon.  I only found a few adults and not too many eggs, so maybe we are on top of the problem.

This was a tedious, time-consuming task, but not unpleasant since it wasn't too hot this morning. I noticed curious things about the  potato beetles and began to wonder about some things. (I bet gardening has been the impetus for much scientific experimenting throughout the ages.)

For instance, I am growing several different heritage potato varieties, some of which have darker leaves and stems.  Most of the potato bug larvae on the dark green plants were  brown rather than red.  I wonder if there are two subspecies of potato bugs, with dark ones preferring dark plants for camouflage, or, if eating the darker plants causes their color variation?

The potato bug infestation was concentrated in the plants in the middle of the plot.  Most of the edge potatoes had no  potato bug larvae or eggs at all. Is that a demonstration that diversity is  more resistant than monocultures?  Does the initial potato bug land in the center of the patch to lay eggs and  the population works its way out to the edges?

It was  difficult to  knock the baby potato bug larvae in the crevices of the plants with the spoon, so I  sometimes resorted to squishing them, turning my thumb and fingers a vivid rust color. Hmmm, could you use potato bug larvae as a dye colorant?

At first I  found the larvae to be  repugnant, but as I worked the patch I tried to view the babies as their mom,  might -- cute, lovable little larvae.  It worked, and I actually felt a bit sad drowning them in soapy water, but I also felt very protective of my precious potato plants. If I don't significantly reduce their numbers, they will destroy my crop.

It took several hours to work my small potato patch, and I am sure I will have to do it at least once more to catch the bugs that eluded me.   If I were being paid minimum wage to grow these potatoes, I wonder how much per potato the pest control would cost?

Wordless Wednesday: Cherries and Critters

In which our wonderful neighbors, Don and Betsy, invite us to harvest cherries and bottle-feed lambs at their farm.

We Are Busier than This Blog Makes it Seem

We have been working hard and accomplishing much.  Blogging has fallen to the bottom of the priority list, so I am way behind.  I'll write a quick catch-up post now and tour you around the farm. Then, back to work!

The garden is growing great!  It is so luxurious to have the entire garden space plus the high tunnel greenhouse to plant in this year. It has been kind of hard to decide what to plant where, however.  Here are the sugar snap peas,  French green beans, with a few Lacinato kale and  Biondi di Lyon chard I transplanted from the  greenhouse early this spring.

Lettuces and spinach.

I finally got all the winter crops harvested and  pulled out of the high tunnel.  The chard, kale, scallions  and leeks just would not stop producing, so I had to steel myself and yank them out anyway. The two long rows on the right are about 70 assorted tomato plants, nearly all started from seed.  The bottom center area has a few tender herbs that were started inside for early harvest plus those exuberant pansies from last fall. The bottom left corner has bush-habit zucchinis (I put them in the greenhouse for an early crop of squash blossoms.) Beyond them are sweet potatoes and a few Jimmy Nardello sweet red peppers. I still have the  back left corner to plant --I want to try growing peanuts to make our own peanut butter, but I haven't found any raw peanuts to plant yet.

We have installed 4-foot tall fence around the inside perimeter of the greenhouse to keep the chickens and rabbits out - notice the great garage sale gate Rog added for easy entrance.

Just outside the greenhouse is the new pond constructed  in the silo foundation -- our future aquaponics system.  Rog built a dock across one side. In the aquaponics system it will provide a surface for  standing to tend and harvest the plants above and to tend and harvest the fish below. For now, it is a nice place to lounge and pretend you are at the (14 foot diameter) lake and it gives the fish some shade and shelter from predatory birds.

We planted several fruit trees this spring (2 cherries, 2 pears, a plum and a Reliance peach that is supposed to survive zone 4 winters.) One of the cherries had a tasty and picturesque little crop of berries last week.

The birds gobbled most of them the second they got ripe, however.

Remember that robin nest inside my future garden shed? The shed is located conveniently a few feet from the cherry tree and strawberry bed. The baby robins fledged a week and a half ago; here is one on the wheelbarrow just waiting for the cherries to ripen.

Those birds are not going to get our precious strawberries! I covered them with netting, clothes-pinned to the metal hoops from the high tunnel row covers.  We are only getting a few handfuls of strawberries a day, but they are delicious.

We are already in the third week of our mini CSA program.  I was  worried I wouldn't have much variety to include in the first few boxes, but I am pleased with the boxes so far. Last week's box had leeks, chard, lettuce, spinach, sugar snap peas, rhubarb, a mixture of edible flowers, and little bundle of savory herbs.

Yesterday's box had leeks, sugar snap peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, garlic scapes, chives and the first few baby zucchinis. I am getting more efficient at harvesting, cleaning and assembling.

Our younger daughter Cadence is home from Prague for a few weeks (she has been attending  film school there and soon will be teaching for a year.)  She dived right into baking for the Farmers Market last week, jet lag and all. Wood Fired sourdough bread, hot out of the  clay oven.

Spinach-Leek-Walnut turnovers. She will be doing market again this weekend, then we will probably be done for the summer. Rog and I simply do not have enough time to devote to it by ourselves.

Yesterday after harvesting the CSA boxes, I was a power-washing maniac. First, I cleaned the chicken coop, shoveling out the bedding, power washing and shop-vacuuming the inside of the coop, sanitizing the middle room for turkey poults that arrive today, and spreading new bedding.  I even washed the windows.

Then, I power-washed the trailer upon which chickens had been roosting all winter in the barn- I need it to pick up a load of hay tonight and it was too disgusting to drive down the road.

Finally, I  power washed the milking parlor. I always try to keep it clean, but I wanted to see how the power washer worked on the milk board we installed last year--very sweet! I put in fresh wood chips and washed the dusty window.  LaFonda seemed pretty happy about the maid service this morning --

and she paused to sniff at and admire the new cow art I had hung on the wall for her.  I found this large, framed vintage print at an antique store a couple weeks ago and fell in love with it. (Happily, it was only $9.)

This weekend is the season's grand  opening of the farm store. I have been working hard to get ready - planting and weeding outside

and setting up displays of fun new merchandise (local art and Profound Objects) inside. I still have plenty more to do in the store - not to mention I need to cleanup my disheveled and sadly neglected house for this weekend's visit of four dear high school friends --so, I better quit blogging now and get to work!

P. S.  We'd LOVE to see you at Squash Blossom Farm this weekend for the Grand opening, Saturday and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.  Get a special discount on a Profound Object and on Sunday, listen/dance to The Nodding Wild Onions, beginning at 2 p.m.

Wordless Wednesday: Now Playing at a Garden Near You in Technicolor