Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you

the vegetables of late late summer!Actually, Buffy emailed and asked...'did the okra make it?' Buffy knows now, after having helped with the garden all season long, that sometimes you get a whole lot of something, and sometimes things don't work out. She and I had set out the okra plants more than a month ago....it takes a while with okra....of course, once it begins to 'make', picking is an everyday affair and is not optional! So, after doing some weeding this morning, I thought I'd wander over there and check out those rows. I mean, the plants are still very low to the ground - probably no more than two feet tall at most. So, I thought, I'll just take a peek. good thing. I wound up picking almost a full bucket...bending and cutting then standing and leaning back - that's a lot of bending down. And, even though you wear gloves; if you are stupid enough to not wear a long-sleeved shirt, which I didn't - you have your own version of the Itchy and Scratchy Show.
As to the field peas (yum), they have set and ripened with amazing speed...we put out a call to customers only last Thursday, letting them know that 'UPick' was what was going to be happening with the field peas (and got quite the response! folks seem ready and willing to wade out there and pick). ok. Here's a picture from last week...I tried to take some this morning, but the sun was too high at that point.
Without long pants on, there was no way I was going to make my way through the peas. The two rows are completely grown together in the middle, and they are butressed on one side by massive numbers of zinnias (full of bees of course) and on the other by big bushy trailing eggplants. No room to walk in between anything. Of course, it can be done; bt there is potential peril (wasp nests maybe, bees, and since Will completely cleared around the pond this weekend, maybe a snake, who knows? uh-uh. not this morning. But I got enough for dinner before I chickened out. Ah yes. Field peas and fried okra. ps: there's a watermelon in the fridge too. Actually, two. First ones.

When is 'Natural' natural?

When is Organic organic? And when is Sustainable really sustainable?

Our most recent struggle with the Raccoons over the melons and corn has me again thinking about the nature of humans and our relationship with the “natural” world. It should be obvious to most that there no longer is a natural world, except for a few islands of life so remote and inhospitable that humans choose not the live there. However, even in remote regions of Antarctica, the deposition of airborne PCB’s (now banned) and mercury (increasingly emitted by coal power plants) threaten life as the ice melts (pretty convincingly attributed to human activities) and the accumulated toxins make their way into the krill, fish, penguins and whales. So it is probably and practically impossible to find a spot on earth truly untouched in any way by humankind.
Seemingly, humans coexisted with the natural world in a somewhat peaceful and harmonious, albeit extremely primitive, basis for hundreds of thousands of years. Given, man apparently is responsible for the extinction of some animal species even while only equipped with Stone Age tools, and it is known that man utilized fire as a means to flush out game as is sometimes done even today. But for the most part, humans lived in ecological balance with other forms of life (i.e., were part of the natural world)…that is, until the advent of agriculture.
With agriculture, the whole game changed. Instead of a universally nomadic culture necessitated by following herds of animals that were the sustenance of the time, farming allowed humankind to stay in one place and to proliferate. Here is where the true environmental impact began and continues to this day with hundreds of square miles monocropped, corn grown for fuel, fertilizers made from natural gas, pesticides that bioaccumulate in fish, birds, and us, and bacterial genes inserted into crops to kill insects at first bite. Lions, tigers, bears? Oh my! I’ll take them over Bacillus thuringiensis genes in my sweet corn. At least you can keep the wildlife out with an electric fence (OK, I don’t know about bears, but you’ve seen Jurassic Park, so it can be done, at least for a while).
Which leads me to the fence, organic farming, and sustainability. I find it ironic and somewhat sad that, in order to do what we do, that is, to seek to develop a sustainable farm using supposedly “natural” materials to produce organically grown vegetables, we must utilize modern industrial products…steel, fiberglass, a transformer and coal-fired electricity…to keep out the critters that were here in the first place. And it is ironic that “getting back to nature” for us is to practice the very activity that provided the catalyst for rampant human population growth and the environmental degradation that inevitably follows (I guess we are getting too old to run naked through the forest in harmony with nature – too itchy anyway and, of course, the bears).
Our area is experiencing the same transformation that is occurring all across this county. What had been undeveloped land surrounding our little oasis when we arrived here only nine years ago is now a “golf community”. Here, I cannot complain. Many of our best customers live there, or inhabit other suburbs surrounding our little farm, and who can blame them? It’s nice out here (although getting a little close for my taste). But the bulldozing of seemingly vacant (from the human perspective) land to create this little slice of heaven has destroyed the habitat for thousands of creatures, some of whom (the ones not killed on the road) make it over here for an easy meal. And what do we “friends of the environment” do? We fry ‘em!
There is no satisfactory answer to this dilemma. If the deer and raccoons ate all of our crops, we wouldn’t grow them and, hence, the crops wouldn’t be there for the deer and raccoons to eat in the first place. And I have learned that it is better to grow a sacrificial buffer (buffet?) of peas in the back of the garden for our multitude of rabbits, who would otherwise create a lot of damage in the row crops. We also can feel good about the fact that what was an absolutely barren landscape nine years ago (even the birds would not stop here) has been transformed into a haven for birds, bees, frogs and creatures of all kinds. And yet it still bothers me that we (us and the critters) can’t all just get along (…if we could talk to the animals…). The painful facts are that the truly natural is unnatural today; that our sustainability is sustained by a healthy infusion of cash from our regular jobs without which this would not be possible; and, unless we are willing to do without our tractor, tiller, gasoline, plastic bottles of organically-approved insecticides, and go back to the Stone Age, we cannot be truly organic. But of course if we were there, we would be hunting the raccoons as food instead of keeping them out of ours.

C’est la vie!

One more time...

A few weeks ago, I looked at the burgeoning shelf of canned Tomato Sauce and Hot Sweet Garlic Pickles and the weekly output of Rosemary Jelly and my only thought was 'make it stop!'. So many days and evenings of cleaning and cutting and boiling of jars and cooking and filling and sterilizing...and waiting for the jars to seal and the jelly to 'gel' . True, there is an abundance of beautiful canned goods. But all of that, I have to admit, is exhausting. And this along with everyting else 'farm'. Then Will begins to collect ears of corn for processing because we missed the first round; it went by too fast and we were too busy. We really didn't want to miss this, the second and last round of fresh swet corn this summer. We wanted some in the freezer. I'll admit that yesterday evening, when Will said 'tonight is corn night!', I said 'have fun!'. He sat out there dutifully blanching the corn, then dousing it in ice water; cutting it off of the ears and bagging it for freezing - and I'm grateful that he was willing to do that. Last fall, at some point, we had crammed a very large frozen turkey into the big freezer...and hadn't noticed the door wasn't quite closed until it was way, way too late...everything had to be thrown out, including all of the corn (and other veggies) we had put up last summer. (also some things that were completely un-identifiable, but you know what I mean here...) An empty freezer does give one a fresh start, but all of the farm produce being thrown away was heartbreaking. I keep meaning to cut up and freeze bell peppers to add to the stock, and I probably will, but this week I'm enjoying the end of the summer garden, which means doing a lot of nothing for a few days. In the menatime, here is Crazy, obviously in disdain because corn is the focus of the moment, not him...

Mission Accomplished...we think

day 2 and it looks like the raccoons have been outsmarted - at least for now. Lots of damaged yellow melons from before, but no new damage. I'm glad the coons don't seem to like the other types:
And now, let's say a few words about the electric fence idea...Several years ago we were faced with a choice: electric fence or irrigation system. This was before the pond, so flooding the field with the pond wasn't even in the picture. We chose the fence - mainly because we were having such terrible deer problems, and we had tried several other things to no avail. Of course, that year proved to be the year of the worst drought we've had in a long time (of COURSE). And we thought we had made a bad decision...but that was then and this is now, as they say. It was the smartest thing we could have done. We chose to invest in a fencing system that went around the entire acre that is the garden. It was, in the big picture, not that expensive an investment. And to those who have written comments about your trials with critters (we know how exasperating that is!), I think you should take a look at this option. For a smaller space, it is very, very affordable. And it has saved us so much stress over time. We run higher wires when there are deer to be dealt with, but the smaller aggravating animals can be kept out with a few low wires (you do need to weed-eat frequently along the ground, though, so that the fence isn't shorted out by grass). All that human-hair / weird sprays / animal traps / shotgun at night (!) business can make you crazy! (we know because we've been there)... And you wake up at night knowing that they're still getting in and eating all your stuff while you sleep. And, of course, it does nothing about the blackbirds descending from above! Of course, from year to year, there's maintenance...but that's with anything, right? And it is basically a one-time investment - notwithstanding new wire from time to time, and this year we had to get a new box. But the first-time money pop is the only one that hurts. And it hurts a lot more when you go to gather the fruits of your labor only to find that something else has gotten there first! Here's a pretty good basic article about installing an electric fence around a small garden:
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/deer-proof-electric-fence.aspx

Raccoon update...

well - no picture for this: but Will did a perimeter run around the garden and came back in with half an ear of corn...coon damage. So, our nephew Dylan is here for the week, and will help with anything at all that needs to be done, so he and Will got out there, lowered the middle wire, then added a fourth one. This was last evening: Will had an epiphany while they were working. Of the first three strands, he made the middle one negatively charged (whereas they were all three positive before. I'm not going to pretend that I completely understand this, but from what I gleaned, this means the coon doesn't have to be on the ground to get zapped, but can get zapped while trying to make his way up and through the wires. I'm sure Will could provide a much better explanation, and we'll see whether there's any evidence of fried coon today. We'll just keep fighting the good fight. Probably the Owl and Bird will go up this evening. The blackbirds haven't descended yet on the corn, but it's only a matter of time, you know...By the way, here's a picture of a bee on the corn tassles. They were ALL OVER IT. Will says he's never seen this before, but it's mid-summer and the bees are looking for any pollen source they can find. quite cool.

It's War!

ok. We've been pretty lax about the electric fence...only wrapping the corn in it two weeks ago - and pulling that down after the corn was in. Years ago when we invested in this fence, the deer were playing fast and loose with things in the garden and we had to pull out the big guns. THen the golf course went up, and more subdivisions nearby, and there were less deer. Maybe that, and maybe they just knew better with the fence out there than to bother us. Either way, we haven't really needed it full time for a while. No more. Went out to check the precious watermelons...and this is what we found: Hmmmm....big scratching going on. Something trying to get into the melons.
oh no...an actual hole. This is very bad news. Looks like raccoons have made their way from the fenceline...very, very bad. Looks like the raccoons are partial to the yellow melons. And they don't EVEN care if they're ripe yet! Sure enough. Almost every yellow melon we found had been messed with, punctured, or totally destroyed! Something must be done. today, not tomorrow.
It was late in the evening. All we could do the first night was chain poor old Dude out there in the melons. I felt sorry for him, but Will assured me Dude didn't really care that much. I spoil him plenty enough the rest of the time. Well, by 1:00 a.m., Dude was barking his fool head off, and Will had to go out there and let him loose, for fear we'd wake the neighbors. We have very nice neighbors and they probably wouldn't even complain, but that's not a very neighborly thing to subject people to, the barking of your dog.
So the next day I went to the Tractor Supply to pick up half a mile of 17 gauge steel wire..Will came home from work and weed-eated around the fenceline. I rolled up all of the old wire from around the perimeter of the garden. (that's a long way). A lot of it was tangled and broken and it's a very unwieldy business, rolling up that wire. I ran off to get gas for the big mower. Will mowed. Then we worked on stringing three strands close to the bottom of the fence posts. It was late, late in the evening by then. the roll of wire weighs a billion pounds and is generally uncooperative. Will rolled it out and I walked behind, fastening it to the clips. And it was so terribly, breathlessly hot. Around the garden we went, once, twice, three times. It was slow work and it was almost completely dark. Even past eight o'clock at night, sweat was literally dripping off of us onto the ground. But we got it done. That night, we envisioned some surprised and frustrated raccoons out there. I'm sure one or two got zinged. We knew the fence wouldn't actually kill a raccoon, but we could always joke about dinner the next night, and cooking what around here is know as 'your outdoor meats'.

Mr. Tomato Head

Sometimes, you're just working so hard that things get downright silly...three of us were slicing romas for sun-dried tomatoes and cucumbers for pickle-making...and it was hot and the day was long and we came across this guy:
So it seemed he would make a good vegetable version of the stolen garden gnome...showing up here and there as we worked...just a little something to make you smile (!)