Wills pics are better than mine....

Will wanted to wander around for pictures. I think that's always good, because his eye is different than mine...I think his camera is also better than mine - although smaller...here is what he found yesterday...
more wedding flower fun...and let us not forget the quickly maturing garden!and of course the ever-hopeful Mousey-Tongue cat in the evening, forever awaiting a fish - or two, or three...

Geting Ready for the Wedding

..the second wedding in a few years...we've worked hard to time things - always a challenge. Unfortunately, I had a blur on my camera lens - so I had to crop some pictures. And now it's raining - and will probably rain for many days to come. But, no matter. Here are some flowers and beds and such. We don't have a Plan B for 'IF IT RAINS'...really, we should make one. Don't want to alarm the bride, but it's not looking good! In the end, a wedding is a wedding, right? A ceremony and a party!

CSA Farm Day!!!!!

This morning we had our very first CSA Farm Day! It is incredible how much a whole bunch of eager people can get done in three hours!This is our first season running the farm as a CSA. We have 20 families, and a few folks on a waiting list. We asked, although we didn't require, that our members put in a few hours twice during the 8-week season. and, because the season is not quite upon us (tell that to the potatoes and corn), we didn't know how many would show up to help out this first time.
well, let me tell you....we must have had 15 people or so, and in a single morning, they dug and harvested three rows of potatoes, all of the carrots, weeded the beets, staked and tied the bell peppers..AND performed the fastest cucumber trellising I have ever witnessed! we are beside ourselves with (a) gratefulness and (b) amazement!A very successful start, I'd say. I only hope everyone didn't get too worn out (it was definitely hot).
All in all, everybody worked very hard and remained in good humor....went home with carrots and strawberries, and will be back next week for corn and potatoes. yea CSA!

we THOUGHT so!

you know, you can see all the raccoon tracks you want, but until you actually SEE outright crop destruction, or SEE a 'coon in the garden, you just don't have the evidence. Well...here's item #1, found this morningHere is the suspect

...and here is what he is capable of!thank goodness Will decided to borrow this trap - but so far we only have one trap. And this is the very first actual animal foray into the corn. maybe we can nip this stuff in the bud, so to speak. Maybe on Farm Day (this Saturday) i can convince Will to have our folks help him surround the corn with electric fencing. I know there are many other things to do, but this does seem like an emergency to me!

Full Swing, Once Again...

..and here we are mid-May. Things are looking fabulous, but that's entirely due to Will absolutely killing himself every free moment he has (after work, all weekend etc.) He's out there now in the brutal heat..mowing. Because, he says, at least you're just riding around. well, yeah. but you're riding around in the brutal heat. I've been next to no help so far this season, but as of today I am a free woman (free from university responsibilities for a stretch of weeks).
Our CSA begins early, as the corn has decided that we are not allowed to set the timetable. Also the potatoes. Very badly behaved corn, if you ask me. We're having a family wedding here at our little farm on May 30h, and had PLANNED to begin CSA picking etc. the following week. but no.
We have put out a call to our members, asking for farm assistance on Saturday, and we'll see how that goes. We have always had the most excellent customers, and CSA members have come from that crowd of great folks.
instead of 'boxes' for packing, Will thought it was a good idea to order bushel baskets (and also little picking baskets with little handles...1/2 bushel or thereabouts). So now I have five giant boxes of baskets stacked up against all of the living room bookshelves. This means I get to clean out a closet (yea). But there are reasons for this. At least you don't have to wonder what was IN that cardboard box before you use it for organic produce, right? very important. AND, members can take home a basket each week because there are double the number of baskets we need.

PS: we have raccoons - a LOT of raccoons. Will has set a have-a-heart trap every night but I think they have seen these traps before! I can just hear the coons at night laughing at us. wish us luck. We cannot afford for them to get the corn (not to mention the watermelons, which they dearly love.)

Here is my 'end of the day' picture.

So little So Late

So far into the season...and so little from us over here. I've been trying to get to the end of the semester - always a long, long haul. But finals are upon us at the university, and I can turn my attention a little bit to this poor unattended blog.
Strawberries have not come and gone quite yet - but they've been glorious this year - a fantastic crop, really. Our wonderful loyal veggie consumers have been picking the plot clean every three days or so since the beginning, and the only difference is this: because the plants are no longer in their prime, you must pick and immediately DEAL with your harvest. No laying around on the counter for two days, oh no. This was told to me by a basket of berries, picked Sunday morning, put on the kitchen table, and bleeding by the evening all over the tabletop.
More later about the goings-on, but this year we are formally 'doing' a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We have 20 families who willl buy into the garden up front, will help with the harvest, and will bring home a bushel basket of produce every week for two months.
I am going to try to turn this very blog into a CSA blog, with a new name, because (a) I don't want to lose all of this farm history and (b) this is a new and exciting project which deserves a new moniker.
I promise to be back with new things promptly.