Things have finally calmed down this week since Open Farm Day,
being at the lake house, Dinner on the Farm, and seeing my family. It was a blast going to Boothbay and
Wiscasset and getting to watch the Olympics. I was sad to see my family go, but I know time
will fly until going home.
On Tuesday I fed the animals in the morning, which includes
scooping the poop and wet bedding out of their stalls. I suckered the tomatoes, checked for horn
worms, and broke off all branches below the bottom set of tomatoes on each
plant – this aerates the plants and takes off dead weight to focus the
nutrients on growing the tomatoes. The
tomatoes are huge (about the size of 2 softballs sometimes, maybe even a
football) and they’re finally getting ripe enough to pick – a few each day. The garlic has been drying in the barn for a
couple of weeks now, layed on a drying rack with a fan blowing on them. I trimmed their roots, cleaned the heads, and
cut the stems off to a 2-inch stub. I
organized the garlic into hard-stemmed garlic, soft-stemmed garlic, and
small-headed garlic (to be used for planting). I was supposed to leave the soft-stemmed
garlic stems on for Mary to use in garlic braids.
While Mary and the kids were gone for errands tonight, Jillian
and I went on a bike ride and a run, respectively, through the dark. Kenya returned home tonight. She had spent Monday and Tuesday with Sharon,
Eli’s mother, for Sharon ’s
birthday. Along with helping out in the
gardens, Kenya worked on
building her solar dryer with Sharon .
Kenya will use this and a giant
solar dryer she’s making in the roof of the hoop house to dry fruit and veggies
for fruit leathers and soup mixes. She will
sell her products at the Youth Entrepreneur Station at Maine ’s Common Ground Fair in September to fundraise
for her expedition next year.
Wednesday morning was filled with harvesting. Many plants are in season now, so harvesting
takes a long time. Along with pickling
cucumbers, I now harvest slicing cucumbers, and squash and green peppers are
still coming in. Eggplants are ready, so
we first pick them a little small to encourage the plant to produce more fruit.
I found one today larger than a football
– beautiful. Provider Beans (green) and
Yellow Wax Beans are also plentiful. I finished composting Field 7 with Jillian
and was supposed to heavy hoe-weed Field 7 for the rest of the day, but Mary
called me up to help her with making Turkery Pot Pies. You’d be surprised at the demand for this
product in the hot summer season. We
pull pieces of turkey and add potatoes, carrots and onions, and gravy and pop
this in the freezer.
I got all spiffied up and read to Sage before we went out
for dinner tonight. Because I didn’t get
a share of the tips earned for Open Farm Day tours, the family treated me to a
dinner at a Thai restaurant (that also serves sushi). I enjoyed some yummy eel sushi and Pad-Khing (rice
dish with tofu, ginger, mushrooms, vegetables).
Pickling cukes (left) are shorter and fatter than slicing cukes (right) and are a lighter shade of green. They're both prickly on the vine though.
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