Shady Maple Farm CSA: 05/14/15

The middle of the field is too hard to rototill. Florencio is setting out sprinklers to soften it up.

This sprinkler keeps tipping itself over with the high water pressure needed to shoot the water far.

This sprinkler is getting the boot. He has turned it off and headed out to get a different one.

Purposeful strides toward a different sprinkler.

The compost pile grows some interesting things this year. Hmmm.

New growth on the tea plants will be harvested for the boxes on Tuesdays.

Bosc pears are getting larger.

These persimmon buds are so different.

Grapes are adding length in their stems and in their clusters.

Marionberries on the right were put up on their wires in early winter. They have less foliage than the ones on the left that were put up later in the winter. Maybe they like being on the ground during the cold, breezy wintertime.

Florencio found three sprinklers to stand up and throw water a good distance. He will let them run for a few hours and then move to the dry areas, and then repeat.

Foreground, large leafed spinach. Background, varieties of lettuce and to the right, peas climbing upward.

The drip needs mending. Actually it needed plumber's tape. It did blow a bit of dirt around when it came apart. The middle line took the dirt down to the asparagus roots.

Beets have really nice beet greens this year. So far. Knock on wood. Or you could read this as, critters haven't found them yet.

Many baby peas amidst the white blossoms.

The Utah celery has many new stems growing strong.

We are enjoying watching the red celery mature.

I thought this Swiss chard had "wine" in its name. It is actually "Red Magic".

Rhubarb Swiss chard.

Golden chard near some Red Magic.

Original "Fordhook Giant" Swiss Chard.

"Red Ursa" kale.

Some of the Red Ursa is curlier than others.

Double rows of onions with their drip at the far end of the field.

Blackberries are getting larger. The center berry in the cluster usually matures first and ripens first and therefore gets eaten first. Generally they are bigger, too.

This cluster of raspberries are a tad behind the blackberries in maturity.

These raspberry flowers have opened.

This branch of raspberries has light green fruit hanging down.

The draped black netting protects the strawberries underneath from the birds who love them.

Raspberries have many thorns to protect them.

These thorns aren't keeping away the bug that is protected by the white foam. These are called "spit bugs" or "spittle bugs". Birds can't locate the soft bodied green critter inside the foam. The bug chews on the plant to help it make its own cloak.

Two new rows of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kohlrabi have been added to the rocky garden area. Our succession planting in progress. We start seeds in the greenhouse at varying times to try and have produce throughout the summer.

Excited to see broccoli heads forming.

This is a "Purple Sicily" cauliflower plant.

Greenhouse tomatoes are tall with many yellow blossoms.

Very fragrant purple "stock" flowers in the greenhouse. During olden times in England and other places, when people would bath only in June, this flower was dried and used to scent drawers in houses. Also when fresh was put into little "tussy mussies" or bouquets to be held near a person's nose if the person they were talking with had an unpleasant aroma about them.

Another planting of cauliflower has started to grow.

We are trying out this variety of butternut squash this year. The mice ate off the top leaves of most of these. Florencio has since replanted this flat and the new seeds are up.

Cute lemon cucumbers in the greenhouse.

Since I love all tomatoes, it seems like these first ones stay green FOREVER. I am excited for the first ripe ones.

The cucumbers that don't run into something when they grow tend to be straighter than the ones that hit the side of the pot and curl.

Baby slicing cucumbers with their sunny yellow flower still attached.

We intentionally seeded this variety of tomatoes much later than the other field tomatoes. These are a storage tomato "Golden Treasure" that we want to ripen in late September or early October. Florencio will harvest them, dip them gingerly in a light bleach solution, and place them on newspaper sheets in Mom and Dad's basement here at the farm. Dad put sheets of plywood on saw horses down there. Currently I think we are down to two sheets of plywood. Florencio will place the clean tomatoes so they aren't touching each other on the newspapers and we will eat tomatoes until Easter. This last year we ran out! They hold up very well and taste like a tomato all winter. Dad's goal was to never have to buy tomatoes. Greenhouse tomatoes followed by field tomatoes followed by storage tomatoes. Then repeat.

One of Mom's bleeding hearts peeking through the fence.

Sweet cicely is an edible herb that is duh, sweet. All parts of the plant are edible.

Sweet cicely has fernlike foliage and white flowers that mature to the somewhat crunchy seed pods that some use as sweetener.

French Sorrel is a perennial to be used in salads or as a substitute in spinach dip. A sour lemon taste that could make you gleek. The kiddos out here at the farm snack on it regularly. A refreshing, crunchy leaf.

Verbascum has large low growing leaves and sends up pretty spires.

The variegated foliage of these irises could be yellow and green or white and green. Both are beautiful in the garden.

Dad built the lathe house for Mom's collection of fuchsias. The lathe house has drip irrigation tubing from the ceiling that dripped into the hanging baskets. The shade cloth would help keep the leaves of the fuchsias from burning. On really hot or windy days Mom could turn on the mister system Dad put in. If she needed it for her plants, he would find a way to make it happen. She also grew about every herb known. Dad built these beds so Mom's herb customers could see what the herbs would look like when they weren't in their 4 inch pots. This areas is changing to meet the current needs of the farm.