I like that there are jobs that have to be done every single day, and then others we get to when the conditions are right and we have the time.
Today on our farm on the second day of summer; we gathered the eggs and fed the chooks, dogs, alpacas and bunnies. We washed out and got ready a mobile chook house that is being picked up in the morning, farmer Bren spent a while playing with irrigation and I planted out some tomatoes. We picked the very last of the hairy carrots, we watered, we searched for strawberries and we weeded and forked over some garden beds. When the girls came home from school we picked broad beans and spinach and Miss Pepper watered the garden (and us). And finally, after the sun went down and the day cooled off a bit, farmer Bren went down to the market garden and plowed in a green manure crop to prepare for bean planting and I carried on with the spinach picking and preserving.
So far, our summer days are long yet we always seem to be catching up.
So far I'm feeling so terribly grateful for the warmth and the sun and the fact that finally, finally things are starting to grow again. It's a slow season so far but it'll all be worth it in six weeks or so when we finally bite into the first tomato of the season. Oh how I'm missing tomatoes.
But gosh how I'm loving all the salad greens, the garlic scapes, the broad beans and the peas. Veggies certainly taste sweeter when you've waited a whole year for them don't you think?
Have a beautiful one peeps.
xx
You always hit the nail right on the head Kate x
ReplyDeleteWow, such gorgeous photos! I look forward to looking through your archives, one day I hope to have a beautiful farm like yours.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree! Although we're buying from the farmers market in between, what is available is only in season veggies. It's lovely to eat seasonally, it really defines the seasons more. Those first warm tomatoes are going to be lovely!
ReplyDeleteHey noticed the cut-off tops of the carrots - do you use the greens? They're delicious in cooking, and used to be the only part of the carrot that got eaten back in the days of yore...
ReplyDeleteWe picked our first two tomatoes out of the hot house last week, man oh man they were good, and as I was slicing them for my crackers, all I could think of was you and how you weren't going to have any tomatoes until yours were ready this year! Have you been craving them? I start craving them as soon as the bushes get that lovely tomatoey smell. Yum!!
ReplyDeleteSo my son and I were reading this post together and he asked me "but how do you make carrot seeds?" I said that you'd just let the carrots keep growing in the ground and then eventually the green tops would flower and seed... but it was a total guess... ?!?!? Do you collect your own carrot seeds? Just a couple of city folk wondering about life on the land ;)
ReplyDeleteThe start of a new season beckons imperiously; taste buds comply, reawakening last years' synapses around flavor.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you had alpacas and bunnies. What type of rabbits do you have? Are they for fun, fur, or food?
ReplyDeletethey do taste sweeter when you've waited so long for them. It feels so good to be smack in the middle of cherry season here at the moment. I bought some at the markets this morning and damn, they're good!
ReplyDeleteNow the critical question, to munch or bake a pie?