THURSDAY - JULY 29

Produce coming to Carson Framing parking lot on Thursday - July 29 from 4pm to 8pm:

Peppers, mini cabbage - green, red and caraflex, green beans, beets, onions, carrots, summer squash, cucs, kale, swiss chard, and a very limited quantity of  tomatoes.  Also cut flowers prearranged and ready to put in a vase.

See you there at the corner of 4th and Broadway - Rochester!

WILD BERGAMOT

SUPER LONG

Nuff said.....

It's called "Taste of Asia" - green bean.

IN FLIGHT

Feeding and take off.

Coming in for a landing.

STORM DAMAGE

Last night around 1:40 am.  Jumped out of bed from a dead sleep to wind, hail, and hard driving rain.   This little monster produced another 3/4 inch of rain with a total for the last two days of 3 1/4 inches.  The hardest hit was the tomato field.  Getting them back upright is going to be a long process.  (The pic below was last night around 7:30.  I didn't have the heart to put the pic on here from this morning.) Let's just say our plans for the day have been changed and we will be attempting to upright and salvage plants.  The Amaya garden vining plants had more hail damage than the tomatoes.  They will come back.  All in all we were spared major damage. 

AN AWESOME SURPRISE

Yesterday, my sister-in-law, Karen stopped by with an awesome surprise.  Yes, these super, cool signs she hand made (with the assistance of her husband, Dave - he welded the signs to the rebar).  Believe me it was well worth taking a break for!!!  Thanks Karen, they are phenomenal.  FYI - this is Karen's website http://sebestapottery.com/.  Her art is first class and she will do custom orders.

BELLA GARDEN - filled with the wonder of tomatoes - all of them.    

AMAYA GARDEN - loaded with sweet potatoes, cucs, summer and winter squash, watermelon, muskmelon, dried beans, and flowers.

ELLIE GARDEN - you name it, this one has it - tomatillos, sweet peppers, carrots, kale, swiss chard, onions, beets, green beans, peas, scallions, lettuces, spinach, radishes and flowers.

Finally - YULI HERB GARDEN and YULI FLOWER GARDEN.

TEAM WORK

8:30 am - we have them hard at it.  Luke is applying mailing labels and Bella has the stamps.  The mailing is to announce that we will be bringing in produce and tomatoes to the Carson Framing parking lot (corner of 4th and Broadway) on Thursdays beginning July 29 from 4pm to 8pm.  Questions call Deb at 651.388.6378 or Michael at 507.269.3779.  Look forward to the harvest season and FYI - the tomatoes are DELICIOUS!!!

WEEDS OF THE LARGE VARIETY

Yesterday we put Paul to the task.  Due to our work schedules some things just don't take priority - that would be weeds.  As long as they do not invade our prime growing areas. So Paul set to work in the rows that are currently dormant waiting for fall garlic.  It looks daunting, it is, but they actually pull sort of easy.  One row down, two to go.

OFFICIALLY - JULY 17

We experienced our first taste of a juicy, ripe tomato!!!  It was a Chalk's Early Jewel and it was super sweet.  Bella said it was "GOOD!!"   Bella said the tomato was "better than I expected because I sometimes do not like tomatoes." 

Bella is staying with us for a couple of days and she wants to make sure we tell everyone we saw a baby bunny.  Bella wrote - "we are trying to catch it i hope we will.  Michael and I put out a live trap and we put lettuce in it because bunnies like to eat lettuce."

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

Yes....fried green tomatoes.  We're going to try a recipe provided by Deanna and Alvin Servick from Rochester who we delivered green tomatoes to today.  We'll let you know how it turns out and provide the recipe. Anyone interested please give us a shout and we can supply as many green tomatoes as you desire!

A DROP OF DEW

After walking the tomato rows this evening we were a little bit disheartened.  There are several rows of tomatoes that took a bigger hit from yesterday's storm than what we had originally thought.  They are tattered and torn and very slow to recover, even after the beautiful growing day we had.
  

A little sun of dewdrop to end the day with.

FIVE MINUTES OF NATURE

Stupice at 2 pm before the wind and rain - big, strong, vibrant and loaded with fruit.

Stupice at 5 pm after the wind and rain - stunned, but will recover.

Actually the whole field along with the peppers and tomatillos look stunned and pummeled.  Some plants are completely flat, all facing east.  In the morning, after a night of recovery, we will see which plants need futher assistance.

THE BEST HELP

Paul was here at 8 am roaring and ready to go.  He was great help cleaning up all the piles of weeds I had accumulated.  Today was only one of the hottest ever and our blessing was cloudy skies and wind prior to the afternoon storms.

Then the rain hit and it hit hard.

PINK

Next step is red and edible!!!

PETAL SHINE

YULI GARDENS

This year we added four small gardens.  Two strips near our home filled with herbs and two strips near our out buildings filled with flowers.  As is tradition (naming gardens after our grandchildren) we named these four gardens the "Yuli Herb and Yuli Flower" gardens.  All four beds are flourishing and this morning they were filled with a heavy dew.

From the Yuli Herb -- borage and cumin.

From the Yuli Flower -- poppy.

JUNGLE

There is an appetizing aroma rising from around the tomatoes as they stretch for the sky...ahhhh, won't be long before we taste that first, juicy bite!

THE FERTILIZER TEAM

Annie, Tugboat, Dani, Col, and Olive.

FAMILY

A big, huge thank you to our son-in-law, Alberto, for spending the last day of his vacation at the farm mowing lawn.  We had two blessings that day - his help and bringing the girls to hang out.  Thank you so very much.  We told him he could come drive the lawnmower any time.  He had fun, I think.  It was his first experience driving a riding lawn mower and after a few hitches caught the hang of it.  The girls, after eating peas for snacks and swimming the redneck way (in the horse trough), assisted in the gardens too.

Noelia flexing for the big lift!!

One, two, three......go...........

PEAS AND KIDS

Pea rows were made for kids.

And dogs.