It’s been very busy,
and I haven’t had time to update my blog although I’ve wanted to.
Things are going really well in the field. The weather has been good
for growing, and our crops are coming in very early. I harvested
cucumbers today, and summer squash a few days ago. We’re harvesting
sugar snap peas and strawberries for the CSA. There are some big
eggplants, as well as green peppers ready to harvest, which is crazy
early for these crops. The kids ate their first cherry tomatoes
today, again, unbelievably early.
I’m feeling really
good about all this, and love looking at our fields, as well as being
there, working.
We’ve made some
changes in the way we do things on the farm since last year, and
things are running more efficiently now. We’ve been able to spend
more time with the kids on the weekend, just being with them and not
working, but it’s always hard not to be drawn in all the things
that need to get done, especially when your home and place of work
are the same.
The CSA is going well
too, and so far we’re getting lots of positive feedback from our
members. We have constant demand from new people who want to join,
although the CSA is full. We’ve been able to deal with the
increased number of members this year without any problems, although
I always find myself exhausted at the end of CSA pickup days. Sena is
training to help customers at the CSA table, and so far she’s doing
well. She does great getting the orders ready, and then adding up the
total value of the order. She does her math by hand and refuses to
use a calculator, which is OK. She uses the digital scale and knows
how it works. Of course, I or Ed are there with her, supervising, and
going over her math. I am excited at having her become more and more
independent with this. She says that eventually she wants to take
over more of the customer side of the farm. I like customer
interaction, but I also need to and want to be in the field, and
since Sena’s not interested in field work (at least so far), she
can be more of a manager/customer person, which she seems to have a
natural talent for anyway. I can think of no better education than to
run your own business, so this is a good opportunity for her.
There’s certainly no
lack of excitement in farming. Last weekend, we caught a groundhog, a
skunk and an opossum. The groundhog was eating our squashes and
cucumbers, and we tried catching it with the have-a-heart trap, but
it didn’t work, so Ed shot it. We ate it for lunch yesterday, and I
thought it was good. So did Aiyana. Ed and Sena don’t eat meat. Our
friends who shared the meat were not impressed. The skunk killed our
big white rooster during the night. Ed caught it in the trap next
day, using the groundhog carcass for bait, and relocated it to the
woods far from here. He caught the opossum using strawberries and
peanut butter for bait, and relocated him too. I know that there’s
another groundhog eating our stuff, because I saw it in the squashes.
I hope Ed gets him soon, before he does too much damage. At least we
haven’t had any deer this year, thanks to the electric fence, and
the rodents seem to be under control too, which I think we can thank
the cats for.
I took these pictures
walking around the farm a few days ago. I feel really blessed at the
abundance and beauty of this land, but most of all I feel blessed for having such a close relationship with it.
lettuces (left) and potatoes (on the right)
strawberries! luscious and delicious.
our strawberry patch
sugar snap peas. the stakes you see are 7 ft tall. the plants are about 8ft. i cannot harvest the topmost ones without standing on a crate. that's pretty amazing.
the carrot patch, with our big greenhouse in the background
chard
sweet peppers
tomato trellis in the big greenhouse
squash and cucumber patch, with garlic in the foreground
squash
tomatoes and lettuces
cabbage
broccoli - i love this picture
more cabbages
a wild rose, blooming on the edge of the field
our house
peace
