June has been a busy month around here. The garden is all planted, tomatoes and peppers are growing in the hothouse, chickens are getting fat and sassy, seeds are germinating and strawberries are hanging red and ripe. I do love June. There has been enough precipitation to keep me from having to water all the time, so the kids’ first week out of school felt like a real summer break. We hiked, we skipped stones on the river and just played. Food is starting to come on out in the garden and the earth is seeming more and more bountiful. I wanted to share a few scenes of bounty from around the farm, so here’s a little tour in photographs.
The first week of June brought back our weekly CSA boxes from Groundwork Organics! This first one had ripe strawberries, green garlic, out-of-this-world arugula and many other organic, locally grown treats. You may be wondering why we would get a CSA when we’re growing all this food. The answer would be hoop houses. Groundwork Organics farm has enough hoop houses to keep food production going June through Thanksgiving, and we just can’t do that here. So, some weeks we end up with more of something than we need, but generally I try to keep our production geared towards canning and food storage crops. It all evens out pretty well.
The field is all planted and filled with potatoes, onions, pumpkins, squash, melons, corn, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers. By moving around a couple of sprinklers with hoses, I think watering is going to be much more manageable this year.
The garden by the house is growing radishes, mustard, carrots, peas, lettuces, eggplants, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, kale, tomatillos, basil and New Zealand spinach. I’m already tired of radishes, which I never thought was possible. Even the French breakfast ones. Too much of a good thing I suppose.
Here’s that New Zealand spinach. I haven’t grown it for a few years, but I remember how good it was and how long it lasted. You can just keep harvesting off of it until November, and it doesn’t bolt.
I’m proud of my potato patch this year. There are about 6 different varieties, and all the plants look very unique. The goal is enough potatoes for the year, and this is looking like a whole lot of potatoes, so we’ll see how that goes.
A big, beautiful poppy plant came up in the herb bed from some seeds I saved last Fall. It’s been catching my eye every morning when I’m watering the carrot bed.
On sunny days, I’ve been able to use my clothes line again. One of my favorite things in the world is hanging clothes to dry on the line. I love the fresh air smell they have when you take them down, and there’s something very poetic about all your clothes flapping in the breeze like colorful flags.
Summertime around here means backyard camp outs underneath the apple tree. It’s good to see the old canvas tent out there again.
My one and only complaint are the Cornish Cross meat birds. Enticed by the promise of fat, juicy roasted chickens, I gave them a try this year, and I can say with certainty that I will never do it again. They are just not like normal chickens, and that really bothers me. Impaired walking aside, they don’t act quite right. They don’t scratch or forage, they rush at me when I come into the chicken yard as though they plan on devouring me, and they smell repulsive. The next time I raise meat birds, it will be Dark Cornish, and they can take their time growing as slow as they please.
Silkie and her chick are doing quite well, sneaking out of the chicken yard and wandering around the homestead scratching for bugs. They even hung around near the picnic table during a pot luck with friends, right in the middle of all the excitement. Silkie is a very sociable little bird.
These are the goings on of June on the homestead. Things are growing, things are changing, and the wheel of the year just keeps on turning around. It’s a wonderful thing to see all your hard work beginning to take shape into something visible that literally feeds you. So, on we grow into summer.
I know what you mean about the meat birds… something is just not right- nice work with the gardens!
What a wonderful garden! I too am a big fan of potatoes. This is the second year I've planted them, and while my patch is not as wonderfully larges as yours, I've got a bunch in the garden and a whiskey barrel full out front (kind of an experiment). All doing well.
We too tried the cornish crosses this year. Thankfully all of ours are now in the freezer. But I can completely agree that we too will never grow that bird again. It was such a stinky mess! I think next year we are going to try Red Rangers.
I'm starting to think those Cornish Crosses are a lesson many of us homesteaders have to learn the hard way. And Rachael, I hear great things about Red Rangers!
Your garden photos are inspiring!