The slugs are plentiful this year. It’s not surprising after the long, wet spring. But I’ve noticed that you never see a slug on the mint, and we have long hedges of mint, so I can load wheelbarrows full of mint to lay between the vegetable rows. Maybe that will keep them away from the vegetables. Every evening and if I happen to get up in the middle of the night, I go out with scissors and a flashlight to snip, snip, snip the slugs away.

The poppies are in full bloom, and some are already shedding their petals and showing fat, pregnant seed pods. There is a trick to picking the seed pods before they drop to the ground, or something comes along and eats them. Growing up, Mach Kuchen, poppy seed rolls, were a rare treat. Basically what you do is grind up poppy seeds, cook them with sugar to make a poppy seed jam, spread it on rolled out yeast dough, roll it up, and bake. The thinner the dough, the more layers you can roll, and the better the Mach Kuchen. A good Mach Kuchen should be more poppy seed jam than dough. A few hundred seed pods should provide enough poppy seeds to make an unforgettable Mach Kuchen.

The poppies which have not fallen have gone to sleep this evening. Every night, the poppies close their petals fast, and sleep the night away.