June 8, 2020

Up against the south side of the stable, a few sulfur cinquefoil plants grow up out of the grass and bloom every year. It’s interesting, and in some ways revealing, how these are considered weeds by some, and wildflowers by others. I guess it all depends on how one chooses to look at things- or even if they look at things at all.

Aiming for perfection, we have been misled to believe that dandelions, clovers, wild violets, buttercups, and the like, are our enemies, but an unnatural sameness is our friend. We do not stop to think or appreciate that gone with the wildflowers so too are the bees, butterflies, and animals that need them to survive. It’s not just the life of a “weed” that is eliminated, but gone with it, an entire quilt of lives. We have been taught, knowingly and unknowingly, to surround ourselves with, and live, in mono-stands – that variety is somehow unwelcome, over riding the universe’s intentions.

It all leads me to think of the current events surrounding racism. I look out on my pastures and see all the “weeds” and can see that life was designed to complement differences. Where there are many different plants, life supports life, and life flourishes.  Where there is no diversity, life falls in on itself and disappears.

It seems that how we treat nature is also how we treat people, and we are not very good at either.

May 25, 2020

Yesterday I harvested the first two zucchinis from the four plants I seeded in the hoop house back in March. I am really happy that planting these early has been successful. There was a bit of work involved such as double covering them with plastic every night up until May to keep them from freezing and then watering them very carefully each day.  Since they began to bloom, it has been up to me to pollinate them, which I continue to do by hand as there are no pollinators in the hoop house. I have also had to dust them with diatomaceous earth for insects every so often, as many make their home in the hoop house's humid warmth. It’s all paid off and what I have learned so far this year I will use and build upon for next year as I add other summer vegetables to my late winter planting.

May 12, 2020

The garden is taking shape.

I have been busy these past few months – mostly picking up where I left off years ago. This time around though, I am keeping myself more measured so as to not get overwhelmed. It does feels good to be “back at it” and I’m looking forward to having a good season.

I am starting a garden again. The last time I grew vegetables was back in 2014, which was the last year of our CSA. For now, I am going to grow for our family and a little extra for friends and donations. I am keeping the garden simple- squash, pumpkins, corn, beans, peppers, eggplant, and heirloom tomatoes.I also made a raised bed for black raspberries.

I kept the hoop house planted all through winter with arugula, mescalin, lettuce and garlic. I experimented with zucchini, planting it in early March- it is beginning to flower now and hopefully, with hand pollination, I will have crop before June.

I have also re-begun bee keeping after a three-year hiatus. I am taking this slowly too. In the past I have had both good and bad “bee years”. There were years when I had more honey than I could ever hope for, and years when I couldn’t keep a hive going no matter what I tried. By starting out with just one hive I am hoping to relearn the basics and get some beekeeping confidence back.

A new leghorn and blue rock.

We still grow strawberries and raise chickens for eggs. Of course, without the CSA, we downsized these endeavors years ago. We now have a small area of strawberries mixed with day lilies. It works out well for berries and for flowers that bloom well into the fall. Instead of keeping 25-30 chickens as we did back in the CSA years, we maintain a flock of 12-15 now. Of those, only half lay regularly. The other half is made up of retired chickens who deserve a restful life after supplying us with many, many eggs over the years.

One of the things that I am happy about is that we stopped selling eggs in March and began giving them, along with greens that I grew in the hoop house, to three families who’s household heads lost their jobs because of covid -19. We will continue to do this for so as long as needed, and I will expand if the need continues to grow. I think that this is the best reward of having this small farm – that we can use it to help others. Every little bit helps.