Week 7

Buckets of beautiful freshly picked flowers await the bouquet part of the day. Roses, dahlias, calla lilies and golden yarrow.

More buckets. Zinnias and snapdragons.

One of our new additions to the flower garden, amaranth or Love Lies Bleeding.

A few of the first sunflowers.

Zinnias.

More Zinnias.

One of the first lilies to bloom. Newly planted this year, it is hard to expect too much. But this one is gorgeous!

A yellow plum tree produced quite a few delicious plums this year. Last year, about 4. Nature's ornaments.

A cart full of Baby's Breath, goldenrod drooping over and orange Cape Fuchsia.

"Oh, you left these extra berries in the box for me, right?"

A Sun Sugar cherry tomato, a Marionberry and a HUGE blueberry.

Grams with the blueberry in her hand. You agree, right? It is huge!

The little cherubs brought over a lady bug to show me. We enjoy our bugs here at The Farm (well most bugs). 

Florencio pulled and washed the beets.

He got a little bit wet, or maybe a lot. It was really warm/hot.

Beans are starting to bloom.
Each bloom will hopefully become a bean.

A new planting of cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage. We start the seeds in the greenhouse and then when they are the right size Florencio plants them into the field. We try to time it so there are always things to pick. Sometimes Mother Nature has different plan.

Today's veggie, kalamata olive and pasta salad. I could eat this three times a day. :) Thanks Anna!

And then there were zucchini boats. Delicious and better for you than pizza. These tasted great.

And then there was dessert. Chocolate chip, zucchini and oatmeal cookies.  Oh la la. :)

The colorful sweet peppers. Yes, these are all mild!

Between me and my sister, Lisa and our two brothers, John (who has passed away) and Karl, we have one daughter each. So 4 girl cousins. There were 8 boys between us.
Mom and Dad had 12 grandchildren.
 Here are three of the 4 girls, Amber, Angie, and my daughter Alex (who just got engaged a couple weeks ago!). Yes, they all start with the letter A. Anna is Lisa's daughter and will appear in a later photo. She was either getting us more yumminess for lunch or helping one of her three own little cherubs.

My friend, Erin, came out to help pick today. Thanks Erin!

Here is Faith (she called my grandmother Daisy, "Aunt Daisy" so is she a cousin???) and her significant other, Bill. They help out most Tuesdays. 

The girls are trying to get the lid off the coffee syrup Lisa's makes for our iced lattes. And they are so refreshing on these warm/hot days.

Success! Oh, by the way, Amber on the left graduated from OSU in March and will enter Pharmacy school in the fall at OSU. Angie in the middle, graduated from OSU and is a medical technician at OHSU in Portland, and Alex also graduated from OSU and teaches Culinary Arts in Redmond at Ridgeview High School. Grandpa (Lisa and my Dad) graduated from OSU, too. 

Brea brings out the frozen fresh fruit and yogurt pops that Anna has made. (Brea is a Math teacher.)

Here are all the girl cousins. Left to right: Amber, Angie, Anna, Alex. Anna not only fixes delicious lunches, she has 3 sweet cherubs and a husband who just finished his first year of Vet School at OSU. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) Anna trains horses and people on horses and was a Math teacher prior to starting her family. We are very proud of our girls!

I looked up from lunch in the shade and this was my view toward the orchard. Wow.

Fresh fruit yogurt pops, yum!

My friend Jamie is on the left side of the photo in purple. She has been helping pick since school ended. She is a high school health teacher and we used to coach softball together for 7 years. Her daughter, in pink with polka dots, was with her today.

Beautiful green onions.

Mary (my mother in law) counts out the best lemon cucs to go into the boxes.

Tasty blueberries.

Alex bundling kale.

Chili peppers in the field.

A few tiny peppers on this plant.

A few of each of the 7 different kinds of cherry tomatoes. Pretty aren't they? A handful of peppers underneath. Both are just starting.

The bed of alliums.

Orange crocosmia are dainty on top. They are paired with lime green centered sunflowers and orange zinnias. 

Most Tuesdays Anna's oldest makes a bouquet if there are left over flowers in the buckets. Here is her creation for today. I really like it!

The purple coneflower and Rudbeckia are thriving.

A butterfly snacking.

Wow. Two different kinds of Black-eyed Susans.
I love this mass of flowers.

The view from the field back toward the potting shed. Our perennial bed sure likes all the sunshine.

Red and dark pink coneflower. Not just purple anymore.

The first lilies are starting to show color and open. Do you see the 4 green buds? One other one is showing the light pink it will be.

A neighboring lily is closer to opening. They are very healthy!