I'm Your Man

I'm not sure if he chose them or if they chose him, but either way, Buff seems to be the man for Denise, Dorothy, Clucker and Specks. I was hoping they'd be more into Zebra Head but he is young and lazy and shows no interest in the ladies. Yesterday Buff hung out with Mother Clucker all day ... she walked around in front of him ducking every so often but he was oblivious. Today, though, I saw definite chicken action. You know you're new to farming when you can barely text the words "BUFF AND CLUCKER GOT IT ON!" to your boyfriend because you're so excited by the turn of events. I want Clucker to hatch some eggs! Except that would mean less eggs for us...hmm. 

It would also mean less eggs for our farm stand customers! All three of them. That's right, the farm stand had some minor success yesterday and today. Yesterday we sold the eggs (with only 4/day right now, it takes us awhile to collect a dozen without eating them or baking with them) and some lettuce. None of the herbs sold, though, including beautiful big bunches of basil (try saying that 3 times fast). Today I switched up the marketing. I took the leaves off the stems, bagged them and put them with this sign:

It seems to have worked! One bag gone so far, along with some more lettuce, kale and a brownie (oh yeah, I made brownies last night to attract people to the stand. Organic produce and brownies - perfect combination).

Baby bell pepper:

The Debut

Yesterday the farm front stall made its first appearance. 

We have had a grand total of...0 customers. I've seen at least 3 people stop and look and not buy anything. I'm thinking that it will be more popular when we have more than lettuce and herbs available (hopefully!). 

I pulled up the first carrots yesterday. The one in the middle must have hit a rock while growing. They were delicious!

Mmm more basil for pesto - this time it went on a pizza with zucchini, radish, onion, garlic and sundried tomatoes. It was one of our best yet!

The name "Sweet Million" isn't much of an exaggeration for these tomato plants. They are *covered* in vines of growing tomatoes. 

The lettuce (romaine and manoa) that I harvested for the stand yesterday. It's hard to keep it from wilting. I put it and the kale on damp towels on the stand and I stood the bunches of herbs up in some water. That seems to keep it pretty fresh. 

Nathan got some red wriggler worms to add to the aquaponics system. They help to break down the fish waste for the plants. He put them in the grow beds and they tunneled right down into the media. 

Our landlord is digging a trench to lay irrigation pipe from the rainwater pond by the greenhouse to the orchard. Nathan had a small work team of 3 to help him dig.

All of the dogs had had a pre-weekend bath. Back to farm life...