I realized today that we kind of left all of you hanging (well, those of you who pop on here to read this) regarding our very real frost threat… The tomatoes were fine, better than fine actually. They seem sturdier and are starting to reach for the sky. The eggplants are looking lovely too and all the crucifères were quite happy to have a break from the heat.

The cucumbers on the other hand were not too pleased with the temperature shock — especially so soon after being transplanted — we lost more than half. Luckily, I overseed, so there were quite a few “back up” cukes in the greenhouse who are now in the spot of their fallen friends. Lets cross our toes the heat will stick around this time.

Ode to the rapini

And our first whirlwind harvesting, washing, packing and delivering day was officially today… well, tonight. It always takes longer than planned the first time, but it’s so satisfying when the baskets are all finished and pretty and loaded into the car. You are all still very welcome to come visit the farm on weekends, though I would strongly recommend Saturdays instead of Sundays because it gets a little hectic around here. ;o)
We also went to visit the bees this weekend. Jean-Pierre bought two new queens this year, to replace the ones in the weaker hives.

The buzzing bees

Of course Murphy’s law states that when you do that, the weaker hives become stronger, and in the few months between the order and the arrival of the queen bees, they did indeed. So we now have 6 hives instead of 4 — which suits me just fine because that means more honey and more patterns to analyze. Side note: if any of you are interested in adding some yummy honey to your basket, do let us know. We’ll be doing the first extraction in 2 weeks.
New to the ground this weekend are the okra and the brussel sprouts. We also transplanted more lettuces, cabbages, sunflowers, basil, broccoli and fennel. I dream about fennel… it’s my new weakness. Our plans for this week are to get more rows of potatoes done, get the hot peppers in the ground, more summer squash and keep on tilling that new field. Never a dull moment!

bees, cucumber, farm, field, friends, frost, greenhouse, harvest, honey, okra, potato, rows, seed, squash, sun, tomato