Teo got the new carrot, turnip, and arugula patch covered with rowcover fabric to keep out the flea beetles (which eat leaves) and root maggots (which tunnel into roots). We should have a nice, tidy crop in a few weeks.
THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:
• Sugar Snap Peas (eat the whole thing!)
• Fava Beans
• Salad Mix
• Beet Greens
• Pea Shoots
• Cilantro
Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.
COMING SOON:
Spinach
Dill
Shelling Peas
I really intended to get the first post of summer done on the first pick up day, but it wasn’t meant to be. Maybe I should say, “bee”, because when Mike and I returned from doing the Seattle deliveries, I found another swarm hanging by the greenhouse. This time was like having the second child—I was much more relaxed about the situation. I waited for a while, packed up eggs, did some chores, chatted with people while they picked up their veggies. After a while, I suited up and went to check out all the hives, since it was a nice, sunny afternoon. I combined the two partial hives that I split a couple weeks ago, since they seemed to weak, and one appeared to have a new queen. Checked on the others, which were building new queens. And then, worked on the swarm. This time, I used the tricks I learned after I lost the swarm two weeks ago, and they stayed in the box I caught them in. I got the stragglers at dusk. Only got stung twice. Here’s the new configuration. I’m still hoping for some honey this summer.
Tuesday afternoon one of the hives swarmed again, and I’m not sure which it was. I successfully caught them this time—in the box on the left. There are baby queens nearly ready to hatch in each hive, which is a better situation than the last time I checked, when there didn’t appear to be queens anywhere.
After all the sweaty bee work (it’s hot in that bee suit) we took Cosmo up the hill to cross over to Bear Cub Scout. We were socializing when Teo texted me, “Shelley the big pig is out”. That was an abrupt end to the festivities. We got home to find that Henry had tipped over the garbage cans and went walkabout. The ladies who raised him told us that his favorite food was Spaghetti, so I grabbed a jar of sauce from the pantry and headed out to lure him home. It worked, and he didn’t do massive destruction, but all a 500# pig has to do is wander through things to tear them up. The worst part was in our summer squash and cucumber patch, where he enjoyed pulling up our irrigation tape and walking on plastic mulch. Miraculously, he didn’t eat any plants.
Our boar, Henry, decided to break out of his pen by shorting-out his electric wire and he went for a leisurely stroll around the farm before we could round him up. He spared most of the summer squash and cucumbers, just played with the drip irrigation tape and enjoyed the feel of plastic under his feet.
I’d like to take a moment to welcome all of our new subscribers. You can find recipes on the right sidebar. You can also find links to those pages by clicking on the menu items above. Please email me if you have any questions about how to eat things.
Summer Solstice is one of those magical days—the longest day and shortest night of the year. It’s perfect when it’s a sunny day, and it doesn’t get dark until almost 10:00. It’s even more perfect when it falls on the last day of school and we don’t have to get the kids in bed.
Whistling Train Farm 