The initial spring frenzy has passed and things have calmed down a little around here. The winter squash and pumpkins are up and growing quickly and the heat loving crops like tomatoes, peppers, beans and basil have really taken off. After a very cool spring, it’s finally starting to feel like summer.
In addition to the harvesting, which we do every day of the week, we are mainly trying to keep up with the weeds and to turn over fields that we have finished harvesting from so that we will always have ground ready to plant into. One of the hardest lessons I had to learn when I first started farming was just how often you have to plant to ensure an ongoing harvest. Beginning farmers have the tendency to dote over the crop at hand without making sure there is something to follow it up with.
I did eventually learn that lesson, however, and our fields are now full of good things to come. In addition to the ongoing mixed Lettuces, Cooking Greens, Herbs and Tomatoes, some of the new things you can expect to see over the coming weeks will be Padron Peppers, New Potatoes, a second block of Summer Squash, Filet and Shelling Beans, and Corno di Toro Peppers.
It’s an exciting time to be a bird lover around the farm. The swallows that nested in our garage and farm outbuildings have fledged and are learning to fly, while still being fed by the doting parents. And on a much larger scale, we spotted not one, but two, juvenile bald eagles taking their first flights over the farm from their nearby nest! This is the second year in a row the bald eagles have successfully nested by Harkins Slough; they fledged out one chick last summer. Meanwhile the ospreys are not happy with the territorial competition the eagles prese
nt, as they raise their own chick(s) on their power pole nest a little farther up the slough. While they clearly do not like each other, it’s encouraging to see that both the ospreys and the eagles returned to nest again this year.
Besides the wild birds, the sound of peeping even fills the house this week. We got some new chicks to augment our household laying hen flock. New life is always sweet and these chicks couldn’t be cuter. They’ll stay in the brooder inside for a couple weeks before they go out to meet the older hens in the coop.
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