Friday is here and so is the end of June!? 4th of July next week? Where did that come from? Summer decided to make an appearance on Thursday. Nice and warm and sunny. Tomatoes are showing some color and things are moving right along. Cucumbers are growing about a foot a day. I have them all trellised this year. CSA pickup went well, Barre market show's some promise. Have to go harvest before the rain and get a few things done.

Here we go...the latest in weather whining.....so the meteorologists states that so far we are plus 1.5 inches of rain for June and minus 3-5 degrees in the normal temperature department. Continues to be cloudy, windy, cool, ah well. The bugs are out, the slugs are in, the deer got the phlox but not the veggies, yet. I am still in a very odd place with production. Things are moving along but ever so slowly. I really need my tomatoes and cucumbers to come in, zuchinni would be greatly appreciated as well. Pole beans were transplanted today (yes transplanted, the first 2 direct seedings rotted in the ground. I have run out of space on the farm to plant. I am eyeballing a blue spruce that serves no purpose but to shade my greenhouses. If it was not there I would be able to put in another 30'x100' bed.......and plant more veggies.

Cloudy and humid.....could not ask for better transplanting conditions. Last few things going in the next couple of days. Mostly melons and some beans, extra winter squash. Ate my first ripe tomato last night out of the greenhouse. June 19th with no supplemental heat! Insects are making up for lost time with the cold weather and are out in force. Plants are looking really good though and everything is lush and waiting for some heat. That is in the forecast for next week. Weeds are under control....so far......Headed out to the kitchen table bistro in Richmond for dinner this evening. Should be fun. Basil is going great guns and the garlic scapes are finally coming in. Cucumbers are sizing up nicely and I finished another ditch yesterday morning. Man what a work out. Need to get going on the next greenhouse so I can get the excavator in here for the summer. Gotta go.......

Things continue to keep moving right along around here despite the lack of heat. Warmer temperatures are promised for later in the week. Need to figure out what has to go into the ground this week. Going to till up some fields again due to poor germination on pole beans. Cold wet soil and they turned into worm food. Snapping turtles passing through this year are crazy. I keep finding them in my stone piles or greenhouses. Have had 4 of them in the last few days. Tomatoes continue to look real happy but am a bit concerned about the twine cutting into the main stems. Not sure if this is a big issue or not. Kids are out of school this Wend for the summer. They are going to start helping out next week. Well gotta go get a few things done this morning before we get the 1/2 inch of rain they are promising today. The ditching in the greenhouses is making progress but I managed to tweek my back pretty good on Friday.......ah well.

Good Morning Folks, Well not a great day at the Barre Market but the weather was nice. Glad I have sandy soils with them forecasting 1-2 inches of rain tonight. Ouch. I was up in Montreal this past weekend at the Toulon Market. Met allot of neat vendors and ate allot of great and interesting food. One stall was nothing but wild crafted edibles. Really neat and interesting. Seems white perch are the new scourge in Lake Champlain. Kind of a pain in the rump invasive non-native species that likes to eat fish eggs. Need to do more research on them. Greenhouses continue to look great ( big thanks to Liva for all the nice work) and the tomatoes in particular. Hoping to see some cherry tomatoes by the end of this month. Peppers are already setting fruit, eggplant are lagging behind big time. Head lettuce and mesclun are close to done in the greenhouses, it is just to hot in there. Field vegetables are about two weeks behind schedule because of wind damage and the cold we have had. Normal temperatures are on tap starting today through next week. Really hoping things catch up. Today is a big push to dig one of the greenhouse ditches and get it finished. Killing me to keep looking at an empty 100 foot row in there at this time of the year. Asparagus are still a mystery at this point. Not real sure why production is so off. Another research project. Need to get paperwork done and get ready to buy a tractor this fall. Lot's of stuff to get done in the office, ugh. Kids are out of school next wend and start helping out part time around here. Well coffee is finished and I have to go get started with the business end of my shovel.

Well the cold and the soggy continue......but not after 10 days without rain first. The field crops are way behind schedule and causing issues with my wholesale accounts because of the lack of heat. In the 40's again tonight with a high of 57 today.....not good for the heat loving plants. Lettuce is even slowing down out in the fields so that I am experiencing a mesclun gap. Greenhouses are planted with the last of the mesclun finishing up in there. Melons will go out on black plastic next week. Inside the greenhouses things look great. Tomatoe plants are all full of fruit already and so are the peppers. Eggplant are struggling this year? A few bugs are starting to show up here and there. I am sure the heat on tap (normal temperatures) for next week will kick them into high gear. Well off to make a delivery and then spend the day doing paperwork. Need to get caught up with that stuff so might as well let the rain do it's job. Ditch digging is still gotta get done. Last big thing hanging over my head for this summer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/health/nutrition/01recipehealth.html?_r=1&ref=dining

Follow the link above for some Asparagus lore, technique, uses, and recipes. See everyone Thursday. I am at the Barre Farmer's Market today....finally some relatively warm sunny weather on tap. Time to plant some more and water.

It was a dark and stormy night...(yes another one damn it!). Well  the wind came up to 60mph gusts and tore up all the black plastic once again. This was while the temperature dropped 20 degrees in about 20 minutes. Then the power went out until midnight and we had a frost advisory as well. Thanks to my daughter Nikita for braving the hale storm to get things covered back up in time. Had to wrap the baby chicks coops in remay since the power was out and the brooder lights were not working. Luckily they are far enough along that they did fine. Spent the morning surveying the mess and cutting a tree up that fell on my electric fence.  Have managed to get some stuff in but now Thurs is looking to be down in the 30's with an inch of rain on wend......G00d Grief!!  Well enough whining and complaining I need to go get something done. Internet is back up at least and the only thing I appear to have lost is my labor.