We are still learning much about crop rotation, companion planting, and all things natural (no toxic anything allowed!) We hope to have food for our family but also enough to share with other families via the Farmington Farmer's Market as well as those homeschooling families we see in the city each month. What a joy it will be to see a harvest!
Squash plants are planted with nasturtium flowers, a natural deterrent for squash bugs, which plagued us last year near the end of the season. We will see how well they work in a couple of months.
Emerging sweet corn. We are anxious to see how we do with sweet corn, which is prone to all sorts of bugs - and the reason why commercial corn is heavily sprayed with toxic chemicals. Many of those chemicals become useless as the bugs develop a resistance to them. So a natural remedy may be more difficult at first, but is lasting and a whole lot healthier! Our popcorn plants did very well without any intervention last year.
Onion plants sprouting...
Lots of tomatoes in many varieties. We will also be canning as many of these as possible for stews, chili, soups, sauces and other fall/winter favorites. If there is interest, we may be able to can these for others to sell along with our fresh produce.
Our lettuce and spinach plants are producing heavily and we've had enough to share with others. We are attempting to have three separate growing areas so that we are always starting new lettuce, to continue through the fall season.
I didn't expect the strawberry plant to do nearly as well as it has! After attending a farmer's market workshop, the list of diseases and other problems with strawberries had me convinced we couldn't do it without chemicals. But alas, our plant has multiplied itself from last year, into about 10 plants and the berries are delicious! We are harvesting 1/2 to a full cup each day.
Herb garden is started with oregano, thyme, cilantro, basil, sage, lavender and parsley. We will be dehydrating any that we don't sell fresh and those will be available to all interested. They are SO much better than store bought - the flavor is rich and we find we use about 1/2 as much per recipe.
Dylan's bees are doing well, they have expanded into a second brooder box. Next will be a "super" box which will hold excess honey. For this year, we don't expect to harvest any honey as the bees will need it to survive through the winter. But we are hopeful for next year!
Our second hive had a swarm leave and we are hoping to attract them to a 3rd hive we have set up. How exciting it would be if they decided to move into it. But they may just fly on, leaving this hive to start another queen. This is swarming season and we may have waited too long to add another box so they decided to leave for more space. However, sometimes they just leave because it's their instinct to spread and multiply - I guess they know they should "BEE fruitful and multiply" Forgive me for the terrible pun! :-)
Like everything on the farm, flexibility is key. Our whole day was planned today, when we saw the swarm starting early in the morning. Feeling helpless at first, we spoke to a couple of experts and decided we would set up a third hive - which took all morning. There are the goals for the day - and then there is reality!
Dylan has spent many hours reading and researching how to manage bee hives. What a learning experience this is!
Below, the bees are beginning to "glue" the new top box to the original one - they will seal it up tight with their bee glue. They are such amazing creatures to observe, and amazing creation that only an amazing God could have designed!
Blueberry plants are the most challenging plant we've tried. But boy are they worth it.
They require very acidic soil, and constant testing to ensure the PH is low enough. Our soil is naturally balanced, so lowering it takes some work. The other challenge is the weeds. This looks like a full day's work to us!
But in spite of much needed weeding - the berries are doing well so far. I've taste-tested a few (couldn't wait!)
We will be bringing blueberries into the city this year from our neighbors blueberry farm. I'll be asking for advanced orders soon. They are amazingly yummy - and I think we eat as many as we pack some days.
The raspberries are giving me great joy. They used to look like the blueberries until we weeded them and mulched them. No more weeds! Looking forward to multiplying the bushes and having plenty of raspberries to share.
The baby chicks are ready to go on pasture, but seem pretty comfy in the greenhouse. We have some work to do to get them out on pasture. The rain has slowed us down (still we're thankful for it.) They seem like they will be great foragers, so the sooner we get them out on pasture the better!
It's a bigger job for us - we just aren't all that efficient yet. And these little ones aren't as tame as our last batch of chickens, making them just less agreeable about things we want them to do. :-)
Our egg customers as well as those on our waitlist, will be glad to know that it won't be too much longer before we can fill all orders. Hopefully sometime in late August we'll see them start laying. Yippee!
And that's all for now - thanks so much to all our faithful and patient customers and friends!
- Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do,
do all to the glory of God. - 1 Corinthians 10:31
