Garlic Scapes, Radishes- Lots of Radishes, Spicy Foragers Salad Mix,
Spring Onions, Bouquets, Non GMO and Free Range Chicken and Slow Food Cayuga Duck Eggs
Grass Fed Lamb this week!
Plant List
I'm not sure how much you all pay attention to the weather but one thing that Farmers use their phones for is their weather Apps. Many of us text each other what is coming, radars and complaints in Spring about the coming rain and in Summer- "do you think that we will get this or will it miss us?" messages. This week most of us breathed a sigh of relief to see that the projected rain levels were fairly low. There was a little rain in the forecasts but most of it was .06, .02 , the highest projected was .17. So it seemed like it would be okay but of course as you know, it was another week of deluges. The day for .17 promptly changed to .40 and we actually got 1.75 inches. Today we received 1.5 and from the last couple of days, more than 3 inches was in my rain gauge when I emptied it at 10 this morning. The above picture is the flood in the high tunnel on Monday. The aforementioned day. I had just planted a row of Cherokee Green Tomatoes in there about an hour before. It was wet of course but no standing water. The rain came in and there is just nowhere else for it to go. Everything is saturated. Luckily the plants didn't wash away and my lettuce is thriving. I'm a little worried about the tomatoes and peppers that I have put in to take place of the lettuce and radishes that will soon be moving out. They do not like continuous wet feet but only time will tell.
Sunday we had a visitor in the barn and I was not happy about it. In the afternoon, the Chickens started raising more cane than usual and soon the ducks joined in also. Usually it's nothing, someone knocked someone off a nest, the roosters are fighting, maybe the sheep got into their section. The birds roam in and out of the barn all day, laying eggs, pecking around, going back into the pasture. Sometimes though it can mean a snake...this time it was; When I ran into the barn one of the ducks that had been on a nest was standing a few feet away from it, quacking and inside of the nest was this snake. I will tell you that I was fed up. I ran and got a shovel and Bill. Between us we were able to take care of it. Luckily it only got one of the eggs, but I broke 2 trying to get it and I can't believe it but about and hour later the duck got back on the nest. The last time this happened a friend talked me into taking it off to the lake and the time before, it got away after consuming 13! eggs. Not again. This baby was over 6 foot long. We laid it out and measured.
So the next morning, I go out to let the ducks out of the barn and the duck is again standing out of the nest complaining so I go to the nest and what do I see but another black tail disappearing into a crack in the barn wall. So instead of working in the garden, we pulled apart the wall, I ran to Lowes and got some concrete and we spent a few hours making it at least harder for the snakes to get through to the nests. Yes, I know snakes kill mice but so do the chickens(and the cats). That duck had been sitting on that nest for 2 weeks. By the time the the 2nd visit happened, she was not getting back into that nest. Luckily one of the other ducks took her eggs. We don't kill all snakes but these huge snakes in the barn had better take notice!
So each week there are more vendors at the Market. It seems really different with the set up, it's almost like we are starting a different market and not as easy for the vendors to have their usual comradery but the set up is definitely easier in and out. Probably cuts almost an hour off of our set up and break down. I'm grateful to be up and running but it seems weird to be stepping away from how we've done things for the last 14 seasons. So it seems like they are just allowing vehicles on Magnolia and no further. Since I am not a customer, I'm not sure whether this is harder to get to us at Center Cross than it was walking across the Grass to the Square with the lack of parking or easier.
Maybe some of you could weigh in on that.
See you Saturday!
God's blessings on you and yours
TTFN
Sam and Bill who is still home
Spring Onions, Bouquets, Non GMO and Free Range Chicken and Slow Food Cayuga Duck Eggs
Grass Fed Lamb this week!
Plant List
Tomato Plants- Lemon Boy, Early Girl, Sweet 100, Pork Chop, Japanese Black, Caspian Pink, Pantano Romanesco, Yellow Pear, Tommy Toe, Green Zebra, Violet Jasper,
Black Plum,
Amish Paste, Jet Star, Arkansas Traveler,
Golden Jubilee, Mortgage Lifter, Purple Carbon, Azoychka Russian and Cherokee Green- This week new; Garden Peach, Paul Robeson and Black from Tula
Herbs- Italian Parsley, Genovese Basil, Cilantro, Thai Basil and Dill
Others- Okra, Scarlet Bee Balm, Hardy Hibiscus and Mixed Zinnias
I'm not sure how much you all pay attention to the weather but one thing that Farmers use their phones for is their weather Apps. Many of us text each other what is coming, radars and complaints in Spring about the coming rain and in Summer- "do you think that we will get this or will it miss us?" messages. This week most of us breathed a sigh of relief to see that the projected rain levels were fairly low. There was a little rain in the forecasts but most of it was .06, .02 , the highest projected was .17. So it seemed like it would be okay but of course as you know, it was another week of deluges. The day for .17 promptly changed to .40 and we actually got 1.75 inches. Today we received 1.5 and from the last couple of days, more than 3 inches was in my rain gauge when I emptied it at 10 this morning. The above picture is the flood in the high tunnel on Monday. The aforementioned day. I had just planted a row of Cherokee Green Tomatoes in there about an hour before. It was wet of course but no standing water. The rain came in and there is just nowhere else for it to go. Everything is saturated. Luckily the plants didn't wash away and my lettuce is thriving. I'm a little worried about the tomatoes and peppers that I have put in to take place of the lettuce and radishes that will soon be moving out. They do not like continuous wet feet but only time will tell.
Sunday we had a visitor in the barn and I was not happy about it. In the afternoon, the Chickens started raising more cane than usual and soon the ducks joined in also. Usually it's nothing, someone knocked someone off a nest, the roosters are fighting, maybe the sheep got into their section. The birds roam in and out of the barn all day, laying eggs, pecking around, going back into the pasture. Sometimes though it can mean a snake...this time it was; When I ran into the barn one of the ducks that had been on a nest was standing a few feet away from it, quacking and inside of the nest was this snake. I will tell you that I was fed up. I ran and got a shovel and Bill. Between us we were able to take care of it. Luckily it only got one of the eggs, but I broke 2 trying to get it and I can't believe it but about and hour later the duck got back on the nest. The last time this happened a friend talked me into taking it off to the lake and the time before, it got away after consuming 13! eggs. Not again. This baby was over 6 foot long. We laid it out and measured.
So the next morning, I go out to let the ducks out of the barn and the duck is again standing out of the nest complaining so I go to the nest and what do I see but another black tail disappearing into a crack in the barn wall. So instead of working in the garden, we pulled apart the wall, I ran to Lowes and got some concrete and we spent a few hours making it at least harder for the snakes to get through to the nests. Yes, I know snakes kill mice but so do the chickens(and the cats). That duck had been sitting on that nest for 2 weeks. By the time the the 2nd visit happened, she was not getting back into that nest. Luckily one of the other ducks took her eggs. We don't kill all snakes but these huge snakes in the barn had better take notice!
So each week there are more vendors at the Market. It seems really different with the set up, it's almost like we are starting a different market and not as easy for the vendors to have their usual comradery but the set up is definitely easier in and out. Probably cuts almost an hour off of our set up and break down. I'm grateful to be up and running but it seems weird to be stepping away from how we've done things for the last 14 seasons. So it seems like they are just allowing vehicles on Magnolia and no further. Since I am not a customer, I'm not sure whether this is harder to get to us at Center Cross than it was walking across the Grass to the Square with the lack of parking or easier.
Maybe some of you could weigh in on that.
See you Saturday!
God's blessings on you and yours
TTFN
Sam and Bill who is still home
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