Making Progress

Market List; 

Grass Fed GROUND LAMB, Purslane, Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Sautéing Onion bulbs, Foragers Salad Mix, Squash Blossoms, Garlic Scapes and Free Range Non GMO Fed Chicken and Slow Food Cayuga Duck Eggs. 

So we only got 3 and a half inches of rain this week and we had a volunteer. We were able to get the field and the garden tilled again, shaped the beds and got another 218 tomatoes planted- 110 of those Green Zebras and 90 were Japanese Black Triefle, 80 hills of cucumbers, 170 tomatillos, laid our ground cover in the tomato field, planted 2 more rows of Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans for a total of 7 rows. Some day soon we should have a lot of stuff to eat. We also have Chinese Yard Long Beans in the works, maybe in a couple of weeks they will be ready. 

Our volunteer is Nathan a 16 year old who goes to our church. He apparently likes to stay busy because he certainly is a hard worker. Many of the things in the above list were accomplished because of him. He planted the tomatillos, laid and tacked down a bunch of our landscape tarps in our field, helped with the animals, and because he was here, we tackled a huge project that kept getting put on the back burner; our Walking Onion bed. It's been a mess for weeks, the Ground Ivy and Smart Weed had ran all through it, all the rain has just made the weeds run rampant. The original stock of these onions had gone to their woody stalks and there was no room in the bed for the onions to do their walking and we couldn't break the progeny off of the top and re plant either. I mean it was thick in there. Here he is digging out a Catalpa tree that had grown at the edge of the bed. 

It took us about 12 hours over 3 mornings to pull all of the onions out, break the tops off, cut the woody stalks out and get all the weeds. It was miserable work. It's so muddy, we all were not only filthy but it's really impossible to get the dirt off of the roots when it's like that. We literally all had buckets of water that we swished the dirt out of the roots from each weed and periodically dumped the mud back into the bed. If we hadn't the bed would be empty of dirt and the sheep who we were feeding the roots to would have muddy belly aches. So every 45 minutes or so, Nate would take a big container of weeds to the barn and put them in the hay feeder, empty the buckets, refill them back up with clean water and we'd start all over again. Finally we finished with the bed clear except for a few volunteer sunflowers and 3 full crates of onion sets.

We will be bringing some of these to the market for sautéing like Pearl onions or you can just eat them, they are delicious raw too. In any case, the bed will be ready to replant soon. Probably Monday.

You can meet Nathan on Saturday if you get there before 10. He's kinda shy but friendly. It's supposed to be pretty hot, 93 they are forecasting. Dress comfortably and come by to say hi.

God's Blessings on you and yours,

TTFN,

Sam, Bill and this week Nathan