only 16 more hours and we will take the van to Cape Cod and go camping for a week. We
will take Seba and Nadia to Boston, get a little city fix and go on to Cape
Cod. We have a table full of snorkels, games, books and another with
the enormous food list. As foodists we can not go without Birdsfoot
Mixed Greens, first green beans, carrots, garlic...
The ducks quit sitting on the eggs, so we don't have to worry about baby ducklings while we
are gone. May be I look up those Spotted Australian ducks that Wendy
Chapman offers. Do they lay eggs for eating?
We put in very long days after a long garlic weekend, making sure all the fall carrots are
weeded and potatoes are hilled, so the wonderful crew of gardeners does not
get overwhelmed while I am gone. I have no cell phone and don't plan to
take the computer. All possible tasks are divided up between them and
Katie who works as a nurse in Potsdam is still living on the farm if there
are more questions.
The garlic festival went very smooth. There were 12 people in the field and 15 peeling in the yard. The garlic was all pulled by noon on Saturday, moved to the backyard by 2pm and
all peeled and hung by noon Sunday. We had spectacular food, great
music by Kathleen. We spent Sunday afternoon sitting exhausted in the
chairs, listening to jazz by Seba and friends and half the veggie crew while
eating delicious ice cream that Holly brought to cheer us on. Thank you
so much for helping and making this happen. The fans are blowing sweet
air through the alleys of hung garlic in the upstairs of the barn.
Yesterday we did a massive onion weeding and discovered the first damage
of leek moth . Leek moth is a new pest in the area where a moth lays
eggs inside an onion leaf and the larva eats from the inside of the hollow
leaf (or a garlic scape in garlic , or a leaf in leeks) and goes down
into the onion so it will not store well. Our neighbors had it last
year. I knew it was near by and coming. We will scout the onion
patch twice a week and harvest any onions with symptoms to be eaten right
away. I thougth we had seen all bad things, but there seems to be
more.
On the good side, we just harvested the first rows of green
beans and they are so very tender and green. Zucchinis are coming
soon. The basil is about 6"tall and finally turned green after being
yellow from the colder days in June. Potatoes are l;looking good and
will be in soon. (There is late blight in Wayne County, NY).
There are peppers starting to turn. I had a customer tell me about her
delicious potato pea soup if you are looking for more ideas for the
peas. Peas will be ending next week as the beans start coming in.
We are ready for the change in picking after so so many peas.
I should go and pack. Have a wonderful week, I will be relaxing for you
all.
peace, Dulli