It’s the dog days of July, but when you think about it, every day is a dog’s day.

I’ve had to separate Ema and her ducklings from the other ducks. She needs time alone to raise her ducklings without being harassed by the drakes or fighting with Snow whose eggs should be hatching soon.

Ema has picked the soft straw next to the duck’s swimming tank as her nest for her ducklings. When they aren’t foraging through the potatoes and garlic rows, Ema and her ducklings are either swimming in the water tank or preening and resting on the straw by the tank.

All it takes is spending an afternoon watching a mother duck with her ducklings, or a hen carrying for her chicks, to understand that ducklings and chicks are much happier being raised by a mother.

The Upstate Abundant potatoes are looking very good this year. A few more weeks and I will have some for the Mount Vernon Farmers Market, or will I end up eating them all?