The Bounty of Farm Life

Well, it's now July 10th and we are beginning to reap the bounty of the garden. Still getting swiss chard, lots of cucumbers, celery, the onions are up, most potatoes are dug, variety of tomatoes coming in, garlic is all braided on the porch, and zepher squash plus butternut squah. Have begun to get the sun Gold tomatoes in good numbers daily, the bigger tomatoes are still a few days away from reddening. Isn't it remarkable how much can be grown in such little space?

Let me talk about the volunteers first. The butternut squash volunteered in the compost pile and we let it go - it now occupies about 250 square feet of the yard, is on the fence came through from the outside to the inside and is on the gate. There are about 8-10 huge squashes - most are at least 12-18 in size and are about the size of a football. Then the tomatoes have volunteered all along the garden fence and they are prolific. Sun Golds are hybrids so the seeds do not always give you what you had the year before. Mostly, the sun gold volunteers are much bigger than the hybrid sun golds and seem to be just as tasty.

The blackberries have been providing a great fruit for granola every day for the past couple of weeks and show no signs of slowing down. We have one blackberry bush that re-rooted itself several times and now is about 15-18 in width. The thorns are awful though! Today we found out that there is a seedless variety now that we may look into. But for now one plant gives us a pint of blackberries every day. Isn't that wonderful?

This week Susan made potato salad with potatoes (of course), celery, pickles, onions, peppers, and eggs that never left the farm. She grew it all with help from the chickens of course and the pickles were from last year's cukes.

The stirrup hoe has proven to be a miracle tool for getting weeds and grass out of the garden. I think we have hoed up over 10 wheelbarrows full of weeds and grass this week and the garden is nearly spotless. If you are a gardener and do not own a stirrup hoe, you need to buy one. Oh, Susan is the main hoer and I am the main hauler. We work early in the morning and still are dripping wet after 60-90 minutes.

our new chickens have now begun to lay eggs - right on schedule - they are 5 months old - they are laying dark brown eggs so far and we expect the other new chickens to lay greenish-blue eggs. All are the same on the inside.

Tonight Susan fixed skewers with marinated beef filet (from Rob Hogan's grass fed beef), peppers, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms. All but the mushrooms from here and we are talking about growing mushrooms one day.

The weather has moderated and that's been helpful - highs now in the upper 80s or low 90s, not the upper 90s or low 100s like last couple of weeks. Rain is still sparse so most of the farmers including us are still praying for rain soon.

That's all for now.

Dwight & Susan on the Farm