What a lovely, productive weekend! We really enjoyed meeting those of you who came out to the farm. Speaking with people who are enthusiastic about veggies (and food in general) really makes my heart happy. We are reminded why we do what we do… and why we love it so much. So a great big thank you to all of you!
It also happens to be an amazing feeling to sit down to a big family dinner late Sunday night (with a scrumptious lettuce head from the garden) and feel tired but oh so satisfied that everything on the to do list was done. Hooray for productivity! And a really dedicated work crew. And the beautiful plants… they are so green and gorgeous… and edible!
Garden wise, many of the nightshade seedlings have migrated out of the greenhouse and are digging their little roots into our clay soil, strengthening up to be able to produce delectable fruits.
120 foot mixed varieties tomato row
The tomatoes (all 169 of them), tomatillos, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and summer squash are in the ground — with some soil warming biodegradable film mulch. We decided to go for the florida weave method for the tomatoes in the field and the tipi route for the melons, squash and pumpkins. It really changes the landscape of the garden when the structures are up. We planted sunflowers around the cucumbers — it happens that they are companion plants and it will make for a very cheerful patch.
The bursting rapini
Eric made me laugh because he had trouble believing the rapini could get so big — it was literally lifting up its row cover! It’s quite amazing when we think about it, teeny tiny seeds get so big and tall.
Almost forgot to mention the new machinery – not really my cup of tea, but you wouldn’t believe how many times Nico came over to see if they had arrived yet. Joël was pretty excited too… what a bunch of farm geeks! Technically speaking we bought a moldboard plow and tandem disk harrow that attach to the John Deere tractor.
The tandem disks
You know you have changed gardening scales when you go from manual to rototiller to tractor attachments. Growing is always a little intimidating, but mighty exciting too. They did a great job at tearing up the sod — which used to be cow and then horse pasture which makes it’s already nice and fertilized. But the grass is going to be a bit of a pain… its root system is mighty persistent. I can’t wait to get the corn and sunflower acre planted. It will look awesome come August! We were thinking of doing a big corn boil and pot luck in September, you folks up for it?
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