Sunday morning farm report

I know what you mean about having Bill along while shopping. I like it when I can cajole Chas to coming along; he always picks up different and interesting things. What brand of vegetarian hot dogs? Were they any good? We had something called "Good Dogs" a few weeks ago, and they were misnamed. And what are the buns? Wish I'd make menu plans. I always have some vague idea of what's next, but things go more smoothly when I do a written plan for the week. I did stock up on meat last week (the meat freezer was almost completely empty), so at least I am equipped to do things impromptu when needed. Still in the interests of not eating meat every single day, some planning is needed.

We slog along here. The floor continues at a snail's pace. If Charlie had done the wood part, it would have been done in a couple of days. Instead, it took a couple of weeks, but Charlie's knees were spared. Luckily we bid the job, not time and materials. Ditto the tile, which is going faster (the guy is really a tiler by trade), but still, the fellow works at his own pace. And it's impossible to be in the house while he's working, because he likes to chat, and when he chats he doesn't work. I am eager for this to be done! No photos until it's finished. It's going to be absolutely beautiful.

This the garden a week ago, just showing that things are beginning to do nicely. (I need to take some more, close, photos -- sorry about this one.) Now everything is planted, and most things are up and growing. The bean-sprouting experiment was a qualified success. Canellini, pintos, and reds responded nicely. Another red (Lowe's Champion) failed, and the Kentucky Blue pole beans responded poorly. The edamames were worst of all. Everything is replanted, only in the last day or two. We'll see. The small chicken-wire enclosures, tried two years in a row, yielded badly. We've moved to extra tomato cages, which are much bigger, giving the beans more room to develop. Even though all the dry beans are bush beans, they need support. Since they stay in the garden all summer and into the fall, they rot if allowed to trail on the ground. This we had to discover for ourselves. Dry beans are something of a pain to grow and to shuck, but well worth it. One must simply avoid the thought that each hard-won pound of dry beans is worth about 65 cents. They're a lot better, though.

Cucumbers are up (I don't get EdF any more; I think Mom still does, and maybe Marty -- I'm always looking for cuke recipes), squash is up. We've planted cantaloupe again, a success last summer, at least those we could rescue from the mice, and for a change, some butternut squash, which I like a lot and Charlie doesn't. The cows will eat what we don't, if we cut them up. Peas are swelling in the pods. They'll be early.

Should be able to scrabble out a few small potatoes next week. 25 pepper plants, 22 grown by us from seed, are in. Anchos, anaheims, jalapeños, mulatos (another ancho), Fresnos, plus 1 each of purchased Thai hot, green bell, and kung pao (this last to be frozen for next year's pickles -- this has to be done a year in advance, since they're not red yet when it's time to make pickles). Corn is up and doing nicely. I need to get down and transplant a few, where the seeder left a couple of blank spots. The wild arugula/cilantro/dill bed has gone to seed. By the end of the summer and into the fall it will produce nicely, particularly the arugula. Garlic huge; the hardneck is making scapes, and I need to use them. Good in mashed potatoes, also a nice pesto base.

Broccoli, which we grew indoors from seed, is getting huge and should broccle soon. A dozen purchased cabbages (6 early, 6 late) are doing well. We also purchased 6 cauliflower plants; we'll see. For some reason it's hard to grow. We have some dark-green Kale that's doing well. Only 14 tomato plants this year. 22 was way too many. Hope this is enough. Only 4 romas, the rest fantastics.

I planted more dill the same day as the cukes. We'll see if that works. There are so many dill volunteers all over the garden that it's hard to make myself plant any. But the volunteers are always spent before it's time to make pickles, and I often have to buy dill, which is ridiculous. We'll see if the timing is right planting dill and cukes the same day. Fennel is coming along beautifully. Turns out that it's quite easy to grow. I seasoned some salmon with the thinnings last week, but we are really waiting for the bulbs, which are wonderful either cooked or raw, as you all know. Onions, leeks, shallots are all also doing nicely.

It's been so hot and we've been working in RF so much that it's hard to get down to the garden enough. Today would have been good, but we went to a wedding reception last night, then repaired to the Woods' and sat around until late. They just got back from Italy and were full of travel news. Charlie is still asleep (amazing, but he was awake from 5 to 7, reading the paper and a book).

I'm making a kale, potato and bacon stew for lunch today. It's from Slow Food, and has the catchy title "Yum, yum, pig's bum." I want to try some of the new kale, and we've got some nice-looking local bacon. Good thing we're air conditioned, since it's not really a hot-weather dish. My hopes that the recent rain would break the hot spell were unfounded.

Here are this year's herb pots. I need to take a photo of the beautiful one I made for Mom.

These are our ladyslippers, the wild orchid of the upper midwest. They are pretty rare. Curtis transplanted them into one of our flower beds. This is their third year. I'm sure I sent a picture of them last year, too.

Enough! Hope it rains, but not too violently.