Peanuts, hand to mouth.
Yuengling in a bottle.
Life requires celebration.
Large and small.
A rather physical day/week done.
We started the day harvesting in Y. Head Lettuce. I got to mow the headlands of the bed so our legs could remain dry during the washing part of the harvest. Yeah, all excited about mowing. Still.
Next up? W1. Spinach. Go know. We thought it was done/gone. Little did we know that bolting does not necessarily mean "over." It tasted great so we went for it. Got close to 90 lbs.
Next victim? Swiss Chard. A rainbow of watery fiber. Bunched by the dozen..ish.
Nancy and Judy pulled the yellow leaves from the row as D & E followed with their knives and twist-ties.
During all of this I ran to the barn, hopped the closest John Deere (w/ rototiller attached) tractor I could find and beelined back to W1. The (finally finished) Spinach beds needed to be turned over. I did just that.
Upon completion, D spun buckwheat seed (summer cover crop) by hand over the beds. Back to the barn I went to detach the rototiller and attach the brillion seeder (which, in this case, was to be used for its weight to press the cover seed into the soil). Before I could return to the field, everyone magically appeared at the office for a morning break.
Nancy brought muffins. GOOD! I heated up coffee. Drank it. Buzzed. Smiled. On with the rest of the morning... which consisted of pressing the cover seed with the brillion and raking the pathways beside the Swiss Chard beds. Many discarded leaves close to healthy leaves = Opportunity for rot/disease. I removed said leaves in a harvest cart and to the compost pile they went.
-Intermission-
Straight to summer squash (last piece of this week's distribution puzzle) after lunch.
-(aside) I'm having an extremely hard time putting together today's series of events in my head for whatever reason. I know we ended with trellising tomatoes, but I want to say some minor task directly preceded that as I remember D saying, "I'll go get ready to trellis while you guys do ...???" Ugh!!-
Anyhoo, we learned how to trellis tomatoes today. (note to self: we trellised a little late in the game. still effective, but way too much work. trellis tomatoes at around 12-18". much easier. better for the plant too.)
Not too complicated. Pound metal posts into the bed between every other plant. String 1 continuous twine, post to post, using a wooden stick (extends your reach to alleviate loads of back bending). Support plants about 3/4 high. Repeat. Easy.
After work and a quick hour of relaxing, I caught my second wind. What to do?
Hmmm. Tomorrow is distribution and I've got hours til dark?? Beautify!!
Mowing!! Rocked the mower for a couple hours... hit a hidden rock near the flower garden after most was done... bent one of the blades... had to quit... will fix on monday. Had a great time though.
Made my evening rounds with camera in hand.
A couple things stood out:
1. THE most gorgeous color (black purple??)/plant (to me) on the entire farm. Japanese Eggplant.
and
2. WE GOT BEANS!!! In the 3 Sisters Field that is. The Red Noodles are ahead of the pack.. then the Trail of Tears. No word from Scarlet Runner yet.
I feel like a proud parent. ...Pretty compacted soil. Fighters, these ones!!
Can.You.Dig.It?
I knew that you could.
Dig
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