every day is a good day
So what are these seeds? These are carrot seeds. These are the seeds from one cluster of carrot blossoms. A single carrot will produce many of these clusters, so from one carrot you can get thousands of seeds.
Every carrot you ever ate at one time looked like this. Think about that the next time you bite into one.
Every summer we look at the grapes on the champagne grape vine and wonder if they will ripen this year. Most years cool, autumn weather sets in before the grapes ripen. This year looks promising. Maybe this year we will be able to enjoy ripe champagne grapes. In the ten years we have been here, the grapes have ripened only once.
Even if the grapes don’t ripen, the apples will. This year it looks like they will ripen early, along with the plums.
There is so much beauty in fruit before it ripens. From the blooming flowers to budding fruit to ripening fruit, there is so much to enjoy. When you watch fruit go from flower to ripened fruit, you are very aware of all the effort it made growing into an apple or plum or grape. You can then take that apple and congratulate it for working so hard to provide you the pleasure of having something delicious to eat.
The White Flower Beans are in full bloom. As an experiment, this year I am trimming half of the vines once they get about seven feet tall. I’m also thinning the number of flowers on these vines to see if this will result in larger beans. It works for many other fruits and vegetables, why wouldn’t it work for beans? This fall I’ll compare the beans from the trimmed vines to the untrimmed vines and see if there is a difference.
A steady stream of bees visit the bean vines all day long. They find plenty of food in the blossoms and make sure that many flowers get pollinated in return.
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The morning dew is heavy on the cattails this morning as I head out to weed the potato patch. Near the potato patch, the chickens are already busy searching for worms, bugs, grubs and field mice to eat along the pasture fence. An hour later they may be on the other side of the farm. It’s amazing how far the chickens travel every hour.
A favorite spot for the chickens during the day is the thick brush in the woods. Can you even see the rooster below? Hint: he’s a white rooster.
A few baby potatoes I uncovered while weeding the potato patch. Three little promises of great things to come soon. Potatoes are best when they are still young with delicate, paper thin skins you can peel just by rubbing them gently with your fingers.
This Sunday August morning begins with a hen and her chicks taking a pause after waking up. There are three chicks on the roost with her. You can see one peeking out from under the safety of her legs.
A box of garlic wrapped and ready to be shipped Monday morning.
And a sure sign that it is August, blackberries ripening. This is going to be a banner year for blackberries. And for supper, a riot of colors out of the garden: colorful chard, tomatoes, mustard greens, herbs, blackberries, and a pullet egg. The hens born in early spring are starting to lay eggs.
