Spiny Summer Squash and Gnarly Garlic

Well, first things first, Happy Father's Day, DAD! I love you. I hope you are having a glorious (and less humid than here) day today. I also hope that you know how much I love you and appreciate everything that you have done and sacrificed for us kids. You have been a constant support to me in every endeavor I've taken. Thank you, Pops. I can't wait to live in the same state as you again!

And...wow! It's been a while since I posted about the farm. As I've mentioned before, I have a lot of time to think out in the fields, so I keep a running list of things to write about in my blog. The problem is, if I don't blog everyday, I forget a lot of things. And also if I don't blog everyday, I forget what I've actually blogged about or what I've been THINKING of blogging about. Sheesh. I must be 30. Have I written this already? Anyway...

I've been thinking about summer squash. We've added it to our daily schedule just like opening the greenhouses, watering the plants in the greenhouses, feeding and watering the chickens, collecting eggs, and - previously - picking asparagus, although we have finished with asparagus for the season now. As with any new thing that we learn, I was very excited to finally get the lesson about harvesting and storing squash. We all have a variety of squash that we were assigned to pick regularly so that we can get to know it better. I was assigned to green zucchini, which, if you ask me, is the most camouflaged of them all. We pick it every day because it grows so darn fast! I feel like I am hunting squash when I am out there. Eric tossed a few over his shoulder that had been overlooked in the field for a couple days and therefore were too big to sell. All I could think about when he did that was "Zucchini breeaaad!" I guess there's only so much bread that one can make. We tend to pick squash on the small side, when it's more tender and easy to transport to market. However, this means that the skin punctures easily (fingernails!) and the entire squash perishes more quickly.

One thing I remember Eric saying during his lesson is, "Squash is a very large AND yet very fragile plant. We will be working with these same plants for the next 4 to 6 weeks so we want to treat their large leaves, stems, and stalks with care." He also said that harvesting squash is a bit like surgery in that you ever-so-carefully position your knife to harvest the squash without harming the rest of the plant. Ah yes, I see what he means now. I've sliced off several huge stems with only the slightest over-cut of my harvesting knife. Oops.

Oh, and last but not least, those squash plants have a subtle, fiesty spunk to them. Without realizing it, as I made my way down the row of squash, those gals tore me up! I had tiny gashes, scratches and hives up and down my arms and legs by the time I finished. Hear me out - I will be wearing long sleeves for the rest of squash picking season (though it is still too hot to give up my shorts for pants).

Next? The blueberries are peaking this week! On Friday, four of us picked through all five rows/varieties of blueberries. That was a LOT of picking. I discovered two things that afternoon. One, I am the fastest blueberry picker on our team. Great! The one thing I am good at is going to end soon! And two, blueberries give me a stomach ache! Or at least in the quantity that I was ingesting them. Heh heh.


We also learned to harvest garlic! The garlic was planted clove by clove last fall with Miranda's ex-crew. We are pulling the garlic up out of the ground a little earlier than usual because it is "starting to go soft" in the fields. In other words, the ground is wet and some of the garlic is starting to rot in the ground. We use a pitch fork to loosen the soil beneath the heads of garlic, and then we just pull pull pull 'em up and out. Most of what we pulled up looks great! We are selling some of this garlic fresh at market, but the rest is hanging from the rafters of the old barn so that it can cure. It's beautiful! OH, but I have a quickly growing aversion to the smell of rotting garlic. But then again, who would like that smell?

We were discussing today over a beer how much the farm changes while we're away from it. Things bloom in the greenhouse, cucumbers come into season, most of the garlic gets harvested and strung, etc. I am thinking of this because I nearly missed the boat on scallions. I started getting nervous that the scallions were going to disappear before I had a chance to harvest some because they started during the weekend that I had days off. Luckily, I had the opportunity to pick these purple gals yesterday morning for today's farmers market. And I think there are still a few more in the field. Phew.

Last I gathered, we were up to 161 eggs in one day! That means that we are only waiting for a mere 14 hens to figure it out. Not that they will all be egg-bearing. This is actually a pretty good percentage, but since the number has steadily risen (123, 128, 139, 149, 158...), I have high hopes that the total number of regular eggs will still be a bit higher. Oh, and carrying that many eggs is HEAVY! Here's an idea of how many eggs that is getting to be (although these were taken before the 161 day):

Some of these gals are even laying double-yolked eggs. They are so big, they don't fit in the cartons!

Well, there is always more, but I am getting sleepy. Here is a funny video to end on. It's of me driving up to the chicken coops and the chickens coming a-runnin! Now that most of them are producing eggs, I think their appetites have significantly increased. Or at least their attitudes have. They are growing to be...a bit demanding! I still love 'em. And it still makes me laugh to watch them run alongside the truck when I drive up.