The spring heat carried through into the summer months. Excessive hot weather usually means watering is inevitable. Calculated irrigation & mulch played a key role in keeping our plants healthy & prolific.
This summer, like the summer before, we grew our staple crops... heirloom & cherry tomatoes... zucchini, eggplant, jalapenos & herbs in addition to a few new vegetables... tomatillos, purple string beans & a medley of hot peppers. (Visit Cross Country Nurseries, a great local farm that specializes in hot pepper plants.)
The cucumbers were especially prolific, so we made pickles, relishes and, of course, used them fresh.
There was a lot of excitement over the Asian Pear tree this year. Not only did it bear fruit, we managed to keep the squirrels from getting to it & earned a beautiful harvest!
Mid-July also brought us chicks. In an attempt to help supply the kitchen with eggs for breakfast, we rescued 2 chicks from a shelter and bought 6 more locally. 
Fric, Frac, Sally, Lola, Cecelia, Corrina, Eleanor & Roxanne are all growing up, their first eggs expected late fall.
This summer, like the summer before, we grew our staple crops... heirloom & cherry tomatoes... zucchini, eggplant, jalapenos & herbs in addition to a few new vegetables... tomatillos, purple string beans & a medley of hot peppers. (Visit Cross Country Nurseries, a great local farm that specializes in hot pepper plants.)
The cucumbers were especially prolific, so we made pickles, relishes and, of course, used them fresh.
There was a lot of excitement over the Asian Pear tree this year. Not only did it bear fruit, we managed to keep the squirrels from getting to it & earned a beautiful harvest!
Mid-July also brought us chicks. In an attempt to help supply the kitchen with eggs for breakfast, we rescued 2 chicks from a shelter and bought 6 more locally. 
Fric, Frac, Sally, Lola, Cecelia, Corrina, Eleanor & Roxanne are all growing up, their first eggs expected late fall.Lastly, our edible flower project has been going well. 
Short of a wedding or two, we managed to supply the kitchen with enough edible flowers for each dinner or salad plate.
Short of a wedding or two, we managed to supply the kitchen with enough edible flowers for each dinner or salad plate.
With spring comes the flowering of our lovely old Weeping Cherry tree. This year, however, includes new additions. The young apple trees were an early addition, bringing simple white blossoms to the fields.
Our established blueberry bushes set forth with gusto, preparing for hundreds of little berries with hundreds of little white, bell-shaped flowers.
But with spring comes plenty of work (hence the delay in this post). 
The plastic mulch also warms the soil which heat loving grapes enjoy.
As of late spring, the plants looked healthy and full of promise. And a bird has even moved into one of our gourd houses, where he has taken up watching over the orchard, preying on nuisance bugs. 
And the peas are happily creeping up, up and up.
