Farm Update 7/23/2013

Farm Update:  Midsummer

Since our last update in June, we've sweltered through the week long heatwave and caught up on weeding the garden. Next to save the pumpkin patch! We thought we'd share some of the garden's summer splendor. 

In the Garden:

Our beets and carrots, they are coming, in their own sweet time,
 but they are coming along, we swear! The deer took to munching some of their tops off,
so that and the heatwave has slowed them up a bit.

One of our Broccoli varieties did not care for the heat.
It bolted with the 96 F days with 100% humidity

Thankfully our other Broccoli variety, the fractal Romanesco variety
that we're looking forward to, is just starting to head and didn't bolt!

The cabbages are starting to form heads

We've got over 250 Tomato plants with 8 different varieties 

We saw the first tomatoes, the Velvet Red cherry variety, starting to turn red!

The Sheboygan Tomatoes are getting huge!

Any else like Fried Green Tomatoes?

The eggplants have fully recovered from the Colorado Potato Beetle's munchings,
 and will start to form flowers soon.

Rows of peppers!

The first yellow bell peppers

A young Anaheim pepper and flowering plant

We were tempted by some Okra seeds, and seeded some this spring.
And now they're about to flower!

Sweet corn, dry bean and green bean rows

Pumpkins and tomatoes further up the hill

One of the Musque de Provance, or Cinderella pumkpin. 

A Cream Saskatchewan Watermelon, about the size of a softball

Melons are coming along great, with some small fruit and some large already set and growing.

Green Beans, Summer Squash, and Cucumbers. Our Summer Squash have been hit with a Squash Vine Borer infestation, we did a little plant surgery on them to excise the buggers, and are hoping they'll pull through! 

In the Pasture: 

Our laying hens are loving the recent rain and fresh pasture.

The Turkeys are getting big! Our male, whom we've named Tom Bombadil,
has taken special interest in one of the females...And we've thought about keeping a breeding pair.
Any name suggestions for his special lady?

Pigs are getting big big and have been busy rooting up their pasture. All over 100 lbs now,
with Hodor in the lead at 150. They spent the heatwave sprawled in their wallows, covered in water and mud. 

We've moved Rosie back on top of the hill, next to the pigs and laying hens. She seems much happier so close to the pigs. We'll be artificially inseminating her in August, for a calf in May! 

We've got several trumpet vines that are taking over!

Berries! Sorry shareholders, these are only going make it as far as my pie!

Apple tree filled with fruit