Farm Notes

It’s hard to believe it’s the middle of July already! We have a couple opportunities for you to come out to the farm this summer. First, we’ll hold Strawberry U-Picks the next three Saturdays – July 18^th, July 25^th, and August 1^st. Picking time is between 10 AM and 2 PM, so please try to arrive on time to finish up your picking by 2. Now’s the time to make that jam or stock up the freezer with berries for smoothies! Berries cost $2 per pound. Bring your own containers if you can.

Second, if you’d like to put in a few hours hard labor on the habitat restoration project, Saturday July 25^th is the day! You’ll need long pants, close-toed shoes, and work gloves. Please RSVP to Restoration Intern Clare Peabody if you plan to come help. The workday is from 10 AM to 1 PM and we will mostly be spreading mulch in a native planting area. This will prevent non-native “weedy” species from reestablishing themselves in these areas. The location provides a good view of Harkins Slough and its abundant bird life, including the occupied osprey nest in the slough. The planting area is also near the beehives from Kimes Apiary, so please be aware of that if you are allergic to bee stings.

Speaking of those beehives, we’ve got honey again! Keith Kimes has harvested honey from the hives he keeps here on our farm and it is available in 1 lb or 2 lb jars on the web store.

We were also thinking of bees this weekend when Steve got inspired and started tearing apart our living room walls and floors for a long awaited remodel. When we bought the farm, the house was almost more of a liability than an asset, but we signed off on it “as is,” did as much as we could in the month or two before we moved in (tearing out carpeting, removing moldy drywall, replacing window trim, painting), and have been slowly working our way through the house projects ever since. The living room by the front entranceway was the part of the house with the worst termite damage, but we kept putting off fixing it in favor of other projects. At any rate, over the years there have been bees living in the walls and floor in this part of the house, and we finally got a look at their home within our home when we pulled off the drywall on Sunday! (There are fortunately no bees living here now.)

Enjoy your summer projects and hope to see you at a u-pick or restoration day!