Hello, Pretty

These pretties just opened up in the garden, a day or so ago.  I hope to have a few to take to farmers market tomorrow ... but I also want to have some for a 4th of July centerpiece!  

My selfishness might just win out and I may keep them all for myself this week.  :)

Oooo, I like the orange ones.



 ... but these are my absolute favorite! ... Deep red darkening to almost black in the center. Lovely.

Other farm updates - here is a new pic of our chickens.  Can you believe how much they've grown??? 

I'm hoping for eggs in October. 

Gage says it will be longer than that. 

Come on girls, don't let me down.

This past week was haaa-ard keeping up with the garden.  Gage has been doing most of the heavy lifting this summer in the garden, and I help ( a little ...) in the evenings and on weekends.  But with Gage gone for a week for wheat harvest, it was up to me.  I think I did okay, if I do say so myself. 

(I'm not going to talk about how Gage said he had to triage the plants last night to determine which crisis to tackle first.  Let's just say, I wasn't very happy about it.  We're in a stinkin' drought with 100+ temps, and I kept the plants alive.  That's all I'm gonna say about it.) 

Here is our row of squash plants.  The butternut squash (in the foreground) are going CRAZY!  Mulching and setting up drip irrigation systems this year has helped immensely in controlling weeds and maintaining moisture.  Of course, you can see there is still johnson grass creeping up through the squash.  But, if we hadn't mulch, by this point in the summer, you wouldn't even be able to SEE the squash plants because they would be so choked out by weeds. 

(Yes, I know this from experience.)

Here is a delicious pattypan squash.  These are YUM. 

Lookit!!  A watermelon!

Here is my row of tomatoes.  The intense heat this summer has been really hard on tomato production.  Tomato plants drop their blossoms when it gets too hot, too fast. 

Apparently. 

I still have a lot to learn.

I have a few green tomatoes from before it got super hot.  Might not be the best year for tomatoes, though.  We will have to wait and see.

On the topic of green tomatoes ... why does it always seem like it takes forEVER for the first green tomato to ripen???  Must be some Murphey's Law thing.

Cherry tomatoes are ready, though!  Only planted one cherry tomato plant this year in my kitchen garden.  Because they are so time consuming to pick, we decided we didn't want to sell them at market.

Speaking of my kitchen garden, look at these pretty bean blossoms. 

Confession:  I bought these green bean seeds specifically because it said they would have pretty red blossoms, not the usual white flowers.  I have no idea how the beans will taste.  They might taste like dirt. 

But the blossoms sure are pretty. 

P.S.  Any of our friends or family recognize that trellis?  Yep - it's from our wedding.  Of COURSE we are using it to grow vegetables now ... why wouldn't we?

There are also other flowers blooming in the kitchen garden ... zinnias and cornflowers.

I just had to throw this picture in, 'cause I didn't get it posted when I took it a month ago. 

YUM!  Spring strawberries!

This year we planted some "ever-bearing" strawberries (as opposed to these berries which came from "June-bearing" plants), so a few of those plants are putting on strawberries right now.  I found a few last night, popped one in my mouth and .... YUCK.  Suffice it to say, the ever-bearing berries are not the succulent, juicy, berries I am now used to in the spring.  Maybe the heat has affected them, too.  Who knows, but I think I will feed the rest to the pigs.

Our little girl-cat Lucy coming out to "help" in the field. 

Scenes from the farmer's market over the past few weeks. 

Carrots!  Last week was the first time I have had carrots to sell!  Fun.

Here's something funny.  After struggling with trying to figure out a display for my pricing signage, I came up with these little flower pots filled with wheat berries. 

Do you know how many people in Kansas don't recognize wheat berries when they see them?  Let's just say it's a lot ...  :)

Gage and I are working on a more permanent, easy-to-set up display, and the flower pots will probably go away at that point.  Until then, we will keep educating people about wheat.

I love the farmer's market. 

I love growing and selling fresh, wholesome food to people who love it and appreciate it.  See you at market!