The days are lengthening; summer approaches. Ken has been excited that we have been getting rain; the same rain has kept him busy keeping his crops ahead of the weeds. Once the soil is no longer wet and gummy, Ken cultivates; it is easiest when the weeds are small, not once they are large enough to require bending and pulling!. Most sunny days, he announces, “It’s a fine day for slaying weeds!” He continues to cultivate and weed between plants until crops are large enough to form canopy – just as it sounds they are big enough to shade out the weeds and stay ahead of them
Ken is also working to wrap up planting all the “full season ” crops. These are vegetables and fruits like squash, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, and eggplant. There is also the weekly task of “tying tomatoes”. This wave of planting starts with the onions and gets interspersed with sequential planting of radishes, greens and shorter season crops or spring and fall crops like broccoli.
As if this is not enough, Ken has been leading me through the perennial project of moving perennial flowers from the weeds to a space across the drive he had prepared with green manures last season.
Two batches of hens are consolidated and moved down below by the mobile high tunnel to give the pigs the former flower area. Pigs have grown from their little piglet status to hungry tilling and eating pigs.
Ken has been rotating broody hens between quiet out buildings like the outhouse to the brooding coop once they hatch. This means we have chicks from the farm rather than having to buy hatchery chicks.
I have been wrapping up weaving – later than usual – and spring cleaning, cooking, cleaning out root cellar, soon I will be picking peas! Life is good.
Happy Solstice!
