Folks,
It has been a long stretch of weeks, trying to get the vegetable patch to turn a corner here at our little farmstead. Its a bit unfortunate that practically nil of the work down in the garden is conducive to carrying around a smartphone/camera. What this means is that every time we spend hours doing this or that big push -- spread mulch on the rows, tack down weed fabric, top-dress with silt from the flood, plant over a half-thousand plantlings into the slits of the fabric, deep-plant the tomatoes; weed the root crops row... (I could do on and on!) -- we have nothing to show but an incrementally better garden LOL.
So you'll have to take our word -- there have been a lot of evenings eaten up, dirt under fingernails, blisters from shoveling, stained hands from removing slugs (the bane of our existence so far), etc. Here are some pictures we took today, that can at least tell SOME of the story so far:
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| "It looks so leeeetle from here. You sure you got yerself a garden?" |
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| Are we growing potatoes here, or lamb's quarters? Answer: BOTH |
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| With Marcel's (and a tiny bit of my kids') help, we've spread about two dozen truckloads of aged mulch onto the garden rows |
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| Now that's what potatoes should look like! |
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| Spinaches (left) and the slugs' clear favorite, Napa cabbages (right). We're about ready to just call them a trap crop... |
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| One of many zucchini plants we have, with the humble beginnings of what may well become in a few weeks' time Lousiville slugger-class fruits |
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| Lettuce tell you: from here some of your future salads will surely come! ;) |
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| Baby beets... do do dido dido... baby beets (repeat) |
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Large-scale gardening is great, but sometimes I really think we're kale-ing ourselves =P
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| This is an hour's worth of slug-picking... and Doro and I probably have about three of these, each. Rain's been bringing them out like we've never seen before... =/ |
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| Stinging nettle, sting removed... and ready for super-nutriment-ing! |
Today Dorothea found her way to the garlic scapes that I saw emerging a couple of weeks ago, and made a very delicious quiesce from a couple of them and a handful of other greens. Definitely expect some of these in your baskets next week. Our milkweed patch managed to attract at least one monarch caterpillar, and is also producing some fine florets right now... these might be in next week's basket, or the one that follows. And as most of the first couple of baskets tend to turn out (very immature, and so very GREEN), there will likely also be dandelion greens and lamb's quarters in the mix. Get ready to get your minerals, everybody ;)
I've got everyone's cell #s from the survey and will send out a test message shortly to make sure you all get it. Text is usually how I give any late-breaking updates. Basket #1 pickup is at the Wedge Foundation this coming Wednesday, from 5:00 to 6:30 PM. As usual, I plan to lean into the role of voluntarily-impoverished farmer by buying the first pitcher of beer. I'll be driving the red Eurovan and parking by the first of the picnic tables. I'll probably also be wearing my Tilley, which is about as 'corny... kinda-like-an-actual-farmer's-hat' as I'm willing to go.
So excited to start bringing you all anything and everything we can produce, right around the corner from you out here in Candler!
Matt, Doro, Josie and Yanusz
