2nd week of July 2010

Early Tomatoes Summer harvest officially arrives when we can eat our fill of tomatoes while hanging out in the garden. Some of the children are harvesting cherry tomatoes from their gardens and are pickng enough to start sharing with each other and with me. I've been "teasing"`my customers for several weeks with a few sample tomatoes in each basket and this week they will each get a quart full of Stupice and Sungolds. I'm not sure those tomatoes even made it home since I saw several nibbling them as they left. Pictured is one of my Tuesday customers with her basket of veggies. I really enjoy my weekly visits with my regular veggies folks and I hear stories about what is going on in their families plus some interesting cooking adventures from our produce. Sometimes they will go peek at the gardens while they are here and recently one customer brought relatives from Kentucky who are starting a farm to walk through the gardens. Even though we don't get away much during the busy summer season, it is interesting to have many people come here to visit us. It's a pleasure to be able to share the blessings of God's abundant Creation with visitors and we nibble, smell and enjoy the beauty.

Veggie Basket Customer It's still warm but not as scorching as last week. I'm starting to clear out some spring crops and weed infested areas for new plantings. This week I made my last summer crop succession plantings of beans, zucchini and cucumbers. All the lettuce from the shade bed was harvested and we moved the shade frame to rows of just planted lettuce, spinach, cilantro and arugula to see if I can get those things going for fall even though it is hot outside. With rain in the forecast I also planted a small bed of carrots plus some golden and red beets. The bit of rain we did get softened the ground nicely for pulling big weeds. A vigorous morning of family weeding produced a clean looking melon and corn patch. There are a few more areas needing that kind of attention and it's satisfying to see the "before" and "after" progress. A reward of blackberry popsicles is helpful notivation too!

Homemade Popsicles Our family is looking forward to attending the Family Farm Field Day at an Amish farm in Holmes County on Saturday. This is one of our summer "vacation" days that we look forward to each year. The speakers and sessions are great, we run into many old friends and the kids have a blast doing various activities. I also will be attending a pre-conference seminar by the keynote speaker, Arden Andersen, on Friday. The topic is "Reducing Healthcare Costs through Nutritious Food" and I'm ready to soak in some new learning but will need to get up early that day to pick for veggie customers plus flowers for a wedding before I take off at 8:00 for the seminar.