A Rainy Morning

Rain was not predicted until late this afternoon.  We had been mowing and trimming yesterday evening; thought we'd finish this morning.  Wrong.  Maybe it will dry enough to mow later this morning.

The strawberry plants are still producing, but they are slowing down some.  This will probably be our last week for selling berries.  We sold 18 pounds at Fairfax yesterday morning and will have some for Mound City Friday evening and Maryville on Saturday morning, but then, I think that will be it.  I plan to keep the remainder for us so we'll have some for the freezer.

This time of year is really hectic.  Besides picking strawberries, we have vegetables to pick, clean, weigh, and bag for market.  We have to control weeds, because as we get rain (which is great for the vegetables) it's also great for the weeds.  And, we're still doing successive plantings of some vegetables like green beans and sweet corn.

In this picture, Dylan and Laura are putting straw around the tomato plants.  This mulch blocks out the weeds and holds in the moisture, which makes the tomato plants very happy.  The next project is staking the tomato plants so they'll have support to hold them up off the ground as they grow.

 There is still time to be silly.  Laura was cutting rhubarb.  We could not believe how huge some of the leaves grow.  She decided they'd work as angel wings.

 The broccoli is producing like crazy now, as are the sugar snap peas.  The cabbage heads are growing fast, so we've begun cutting a few of those to sell.  Spring turnips are delicious now too.

The lettuce and spinach have started to bolt, which means they've decided to produce flowers.  That means it's time to pull the plants and add them to the compost pile.  We covered the raised beds with a large tarp to smother any bugs that may be present and will let the beds lie dormant until it's time to plant lettuce and spinach for fall.

Outstanding Strawberry Flavor

If you have never tasted locally grown strawberries, this is the time of year to do it.  They have so much flavor that you'll be "blown away!"  Shipped in strawberries are pretty, but their flavor does not hold a candle to these.  We've spent a lot of time in the strawberry patch lately.  In fact, I've spent so much time picking that I haven't gotten to updating the blog.

We'll be selling strawberries in Mound City this afternoon, 4 - 6, on the lot east of McIntire Building Center, facing State Street.  We'll also have lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions, homemade jam, and some baked goods.

Tomorrow morning, June 8, we'll be at the Mary Mart shopping area in Maryville, starting at 7:00.  Fruits and vegetables are really starting to produce, so this is a good time to start shopping for locally grown items at farmers' markets!

No More New Canning Lids. . .

and no more energy!  The strawberries are prolific!  Dylan and I picked 60 pounds yesterday afternoon.  We quit because we couldn't straighten up anymore; not because there were not more berries to pick!  It was muddy and we were picking between rains.  We got rain again this morning so I started making jam.

Six batches and 48 jars of jam later, I am out of energy.  I am also out of canning lids.  I recycle the jars that people return.  I wash them, sterilize them, and they're ready to fill again.  The metal rings that secure the lids can also be reused.  The lids have to be new; they can only be used once.  I only had a supply of 4 new boxes, so I'm through until I get to town to buy some more.  The few extra strawberries I had washed and stemmed tasted wonderful on ice cream - our dessert after supper.

Tomorrow afternoon we plan to set up our booth facing State Street in Mound City, east of McIntire Building Center from 4 to 6, weather permitting.  We'll have fresh strawberries, spinach, lettuce, radishes, and green onions.  If you like strawberries, you'll love the flavor of these - they are so tasty this year!

Less Attractive Aspects of Farming

This year as I pick strawberries, I've been finding stink bugs on the berries, apparently eating them.  Not fair!  I tried 1 sure-fire method for killing them which was stomping them into the ground.  In addition to my yoga moves in the strawberry patch, I could also invent a new dance called the "Stinkbug Stomp."  I determined, however, that it takes too long to stand up, find an appropriate space for stomping, set bug on the ground, and then stomp 2 or 3 times.  (One stomp doesn't always accomplish the feat).

Yesterday, I tried a less acrobatic approach.  I took a quart-sized yogurt container half full of water, with lid, to the strawberry patch with me.  As I found stink bugs, I opened the lid, dropped them in the water, closed the lid.  Much easier!  Pictured below is my collection.  All dead.  Some are floating, some have sunk.  The yellow ones are upside down - that's their bellies you see.

So, now you know, farming is not all fun and games.  On the brighter side, we've had over 3.5 inches of rain in the last 2 days and it's thundering again.  We needed the rain so badly and it's coming at a perfect time because almost all the crops are planted, including field corn and soybeans.  Cattle farmers were needing the rain to fill ponds and make pastures grow.

If the mud settles enough tomorrow, I need to pick more strawberries.  They are ripening fast now.  If it doesn't settle, I guess I'll just take off my shoes and go to the patch barefooted.  We have lots of berries to sell despite the fact that we sold several pounds at the Fairfax Farmers' Market today.  I decided to make some signs for advertising.

Strawberries are Ripening!

I've never learned to do yoga, but it must be similar to working out in the strawberry patch.  Now that the strawberries are ripening, I'm doing lots of bending and stretching.  Strawberries need to be picked every day as they ripen.  We'll start selling fresh strawberries at markets in Fairfax and Mound City this week.

 The berries are so good!  Part of the first picking, we had with ice cream.  Then, I used the rest to make a strawberry pie to have for dessert at our family cookout today.  I'll be spending time every day now in the strawberry patch in order to get them picked as they ripen.

 Fairfax Farmers' Market is Tuesday morning at the Community Hospital parking lot.  We'll be there around 7:00 a.m.  Friday afternoons we'll set up a booth on State Street in Mound City, 4:00 - 6:00 in the vacant lot east of McIntire Building Center, right next to the Mound City Nutrition Site.  This week we'll have strawberries, lettuce, spinach, green onions and radishes.

Mornings - My Favorite Time of Day

I thought when I retired I wouldn't get up at 5:00 in the morning anymore.  Wrong!  I used to commute 60 miles (round trip) in St. Louis traffic.  Now, I walk out the south door, across the yard, and there's work!

I have found that I like to get up early, enjoy the pre-dawn light, take my coffee with me as I do a "scouting" trip around the garden to see what needs attention first each day.  What a lovely way to get started.  No one else is out and about and I can wake up gradually.

Yesterday morning I saw that the sugar snap peas needed weeding between the rows.  Sugar snaps would like to be trellised, but instead, we plant 2 rows close together and let them support each other's weight.  If you look closely in this picture, you can see their tendrils reaching out for each other.

 After we weeded between the rows, I used a hoe to pull the dirt up against the outside of each row to give them even more encouragement to stay together.  In the foreground you can see all the maple tree seeds that have blown in from the south treeline.  Maybe we should give up gardening and just grow trees.

This morning on my "scouting" trip, I checked out the potato plants.  They are growing nicely.  There are some weeds growing between the rows, but that's not a major concern.  They can be easily handled with the tiller.  No need for hoeing here.

 Also, this morning, I found that some of the onions are starting to bolt or produce flowers.  This is caused by a fluctuation in temperature, and we've had that several times.  We had very cool weather after they were planted, then temperatures in the 90's and then temperatures in the 60's.  They are so confused.  The ones that bolt, we pull right away and use for green onions for ourselves.  That's one thing nice about gardening - the produce that is not perfect enough to sell, we get to eat.

Today we planted more green beans (our third planting so we'll have a continuous supply for market).  We continued with weeding, watering, and tilling.  I picked a few strawberries today.  They are just beginning to get red.

Another Busy Day

This time of year when the weather is good, we get quite a "work-out."  It was very windy today, so we picked lots of jobs where the wind doesn't matter.  We did some mowing, weeding, hoeing, and planting.  There are some places I can't get with the riding mower, so Tom worked on those with the push mower.
Dylan worked on pulling more dirt up around the potatoes.  I weeded and hoed the beets.  We worked together on the sugar snap peas.  Tom made more hills for planting and Dylan planted more cantaloupe today.  I worked on weeding and hoeing around the strawberries.  I have more of that to do.  A few strawberries are turning red now; so they'll need to be picked in a day or two.

The picture below looks like a biology experiment.  This is how Tom starts the sweet potato plants.  He sticks toothpicks in each sweet potato to balance it in a jar of water.  The potatoes grow roots in the water and leaves on the top.  Then, he uses a knife to cut off the leaf clusters.  He puts those in the "Cool Whip" container and other plastic containers full of water.  Those leaf clusters then grow their own roots and then we plant those little plants in the ground.  We've already planted around 100 of them.  These will be ready to plant soon too.

I picked some spinach this morning, but gave up after a while because the wind kept blowing the spinach leaves out of my picking container.  Since we've had a lot of cool days this spring, the spinach is really tasty. I'll try picking again early tomorrow morning - maybe it won't be so windy.