Thigh-high by the 28th of June doesn’t have quite the ring to it, but it sure looks nice. Our first ever planting of sweet corn is a tall, lush deep green. The adjacent cabbages are the size of softballs and the zucchini plants have thin, long fruits already on the vines.
It’s good remedy to the lackluster current harvests, a relic of those long-forgotten rainy weeks when seeding and early growth was happening. We lost the earliest planting of green beans to the rain, broccoli to the short heat wave and the spring peas have been an overall disappointment. The vines never took off in their very wet location and they’ve been routinely topped by a wily woodchuck since then.
The vegetables as a whole are looking beautiful though, with good deep coloring and rich vegetative growth—promises of many good things to come.
Down the road our first-ever planting of field corn is also up, this will be collected at the end of the season for next year’s chicken and pig feed. The first-cut hay squares are stacked in the mow, and the round bales are along the winter pasture hedgerows, covered and waiting for the return of cold weather and end the of fresh grass.
Other Projects to Keep Pace with
The concrete pour went off nearly without a hitch, preceded by a late night of work and an early morning up and running to finish everything off before the big trucks rolled in. We do have a beautiful slab at road grade now and a nice cavernous basement below. Next up is the slate roof…
With the passing of the summer solstice and the end to the hay-cutting, barn-building, planting frenzy we’re all in much better humor. With some much needed sleep last weekend and a subtle but apparent shortening of the days we’re back to our hectic yet manageable pace around here.
This Week in the CSA Shares
In the veggie share: head lettuce, loose-leaf lettuce, mesclun mix, kale, chard, spring beets with greens, bunching onions, basil (Italian and Anise), red and white dry beans. Coming soon, broccoli planting number two, carrots, cabbage, zucs.
In the meat share: Fresh chickens! Whole chickens are available unfrozen, half chickens need to be frozen before halving, so these are in the freezer. Many cuts of pork and beef (sorry still no sausage, but bourbon fennel coming soon).
Sara Kurak
Full and By Farm
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