June flew by!
A lot has happened since my last blog post. We welcomed 10 pullets (young hens) and four are already starting to lay beautiful little brown eggs. The gardens were filled with seeds and plants including 72 tomatoes, 75 peppers, hundreds of onions, three varieties of potatoes, carrots, radish, sunflowers, cabbage, beets, pole beans, peas, kale, collards, lettuce, and more. The three varieties of garlic planted last fall look great and the garlic scapes are starting to form (for sale soon). The horseradish flowered early with beautifully fragrant blooms. The two year old asparagus that I planted last year is now towering frons, building strength for next year. We added more grapes and four more apple trees. I’m so thankful for Rory’s help. He spent a lot of time prepping soil and clearing brush/trees so we could add a few more plants and raised beds this year.
The birds are singing like crazy and tending to their fledglings. Chickadees took over the Bluebird house by the garden and the adorable babies found safety in the juneberry trees. Speaking of the juneberry trees, the Cedar Wax Wings are often found nibbling the underripe berries. I’ve had two bumper crop years so I don’t mind sharing this year. Rory broke in the new chipper for the John Deere as he cleared space for the apple trees. I’ll never have to buy wood chips again! The bugs, specifically mosquitoes, have been atrocious but between smudge pots, bug spray, and net suits, we’ve still managed to get quite a bit done outside. The bugs took a noticeable break today and the dragonflies are becoming more prevalent. We were in the 30’s this morning so maybe they are defrosting!
I hoped to share updates on our baby moose, but sadly, our trail camera by the pond was taken out 12 days ago, presumably by a curious Yellow-Bellied Sap Sucker. We lost a camera a few years ago to either a Hairy or Downy Woodpecker. We did capture a young bull on the northeast corner camera and had a doe and fawn in the driveway. We’ve had the occasional bear but nothing that’s a nuisance.
I’ve started canning season with a few batches of rhubarb jelly. I have a lot of rhubarb so I will also be making rhubarb jam and rhubarb BBQ sauce. If the Cedar Wax Wings leave me any berries, I’ll definitely make more rhubarb juneberry jam. I hoped to pick strawberries today, but they will not be open until the work week so I may have to figure out a day I can pick berries after work. I can’t wait to make strawberry rhubarb everything - jam, fruit leather, hand pies…yum!!
We’ve had some extra rain here, but nothing like the surrounding communities. We were fortunate to not have any terrible flooding on the homestead. We lost a few trees during the storms, but they will heat the garage this winter, and the limbs were chipped to fill holes in the trails.
I still haven’t decided if I will attend a different market this summer with my prior market closing. I’ve been dealing with some health issues and did not want to lock in any dates until I knew what my schedule looked like. Thankfully, recent test results indicate I can postpone surgery to this fall, after harvest season. Yay! I don’t attend too many events in June anyway as we are just getting started with our growing season. Once I have a bit more to offer, I will offer “pop-up” homestead shares like I did last year. Make sure you are signed up to receive emails and follow my Facebook page to see when products are available! The pop-up shares work well for me because it’s hard to make the weekday farmers markets with my work schedule but I can meet in Virginia during the week.
This month, I was able to assist with grant reviews for the MN Department of Agriculture’s Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA). I provided feedback on 16 applications from projects across the state. I worked on reviews at night or weekends when the bugs or weather were bad. It was a wonderful opportunity! Oh, and for those of you who read my last blog post, I got my Facebook access back!
I think that about sums up the homestead over the past month.
Happy growing season!
~ Heather
