There is one thing you can count on in farming, it will always be a struggle.  Rarely, if ever, is there a crop that you plant one month, harvest a couple months later, and say to yourself, “well that was easy”!  This year, our first at the new farm, has been filled with struggles of all sorts.  There are lots of new farming techniques to learn about, new ground to adjust to, new equipment to figure out, new “old” equipment to constantly fix up, and lots of new problems to figure out how to solve.   Here is one such problem, on my walk about the farm this evening I noticed our row cover over the sweet potatoes was all scattered.  Upon further investigation, it seems the deer have figured out what lies underneath.  They have started to make shreds of the cover and shreds of our sweet potatoes.   The deer problem around here is quickly escalating from a nuisance to major issue.   We are going to try a hot sauce product on the leaves next.  I really don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on an unsightly deer fence for next year, so we are hoping to get this figured out one way or another.   Lets not dwell too long on the struggles though… here are some successes!

CSA List

Summer Squash –  Patty Pan  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattypan_squash

Cucumbers

Tomatoes – big and small!

Sweet Peppers

Carrots

Melon – Galia melons, subtle sweet taste.  Looks like a honeydew; tastes more like a cantaloupe

Tomatillos

Okra or Eggplant

Garlic – fully cured, will store well if you don’t use it up too fast

Shallots – fully cured like our garlic

Sweet Corn – we have non – GMO corn for everyone; it has been treated for corn ear worm

Caught these creatures on the trail camera. SMILE. They are planting dry beans.

Veggie platter for family shindig. Very Colorful

Tomato basil mozzarella with balsamic glaze