Harvest and pickup continues into our third portion of the harvest season. The beets are finally looking good and the lettuce continues to produce heavily. Our warm season crops are starting to grow after being battered by the winter. We have had a really nice basket the last few weeks. The spinach, mustards, bok choi, some lettuces, and radishes are starting to bolt but we are harvesting what we can. The squash is starting to fruit and I think that one more week we will be able to pick for everybody. There is an abundance of loquats starting to ripen up and we will picking them shortly. This is an exciting time with the produce amount and variety.

One of the very neat things that I tried this year is a little patch of grain I was trying to grow. I planted a small portion of Wren's Abruzzi winter rye. I planted it to see if we could grow a grain for the chickens. So far it is really looking neat. I am very excited to see the small grains forming on the shoots. I strikes something really deep at an emotional level. I am not sure what it is but I really find something extremely fascinating watching the rye heads blowing in the wind and seeing the grains ripening up. It must be something evolutionary that strikes at my core. I hope to expand this for next year if it continues to ripen to maturity. We will be purchasing our camera within two weeks and I will catch up with the pictures.

Easter Break

We will be having a weekend break from our last 8th week pickup and the start of our 3rd season, 8 week pickup. Now is the time to sign up if you are interested in joining the CSA for our last 8 week pickup!

It seems like vegetables sometimes purposefully disappoint. We have some of the best looking lettuce we have grown and it seems like it will be at peak harvest during our break. It is funny how that works out.

Things are going well and it seems like we are starting to find a few core members for our CSA. We get a bunch of trial members but I think that a Saturday pick up and the mix of vegetables available during the winter is not what many people expect.

The chicks have been doing great and we are giving away eggs on a rotation basis on Saturdays. I think that maybe the Easter Bunny might bring some more chicks to add to the flock. It is really great not having to buy eggs anymore. But we have to buy feed. I haven't decided yet to go with more Buff Orppingtons or try some new birds out. I guess it will boil down to what is available at the feed store.

I have started to see a few more beetles showing up and causing some damage. It is finally starting to warm up a bit and now is when the insects start to get nasty.

I planted an olive tree this week end from a nursery that we have propagated for in the past. What is interesting about this tree is that it is flowering in our area this year. We will see what happens.