Farm News
Farming provides a great opportunity to observe nature. One part of nature that is fascinating to me is how birds have adapted to farming. Here are a couple examples. Whenever I use the tractor to cut the lawn, the pasture or other grassy areas two types of birds show up: Barn Swallows and Hawks. As I cut the grass the swallows swoop around me picking the insects I disturb out of the air for a quick meal. It is amazing how quickly they can turn and I’ve never seen them collide.
The hawks are far more lazy and just perch nearby keeping a lookout for any rodents scared from their hiding spots. I haven’t yet witnessed a hawk diving down and grabbing its dinner; hopefully soon.
Another bird that makes itself known is the killdeer. Killdeer nest on the ground in areas around our farm. We wish they would be more selective and nest in areas we don’t cultivate. But they just don’t seem to get it. If I am cutting the grass or tilling the soil I sometimes see a killdeer mother tweeting loudly ( in all caps!) and acting like her wing is broken. She’s trying to draw me away from her next by make me think she is an easy target. But I haven’t fallen for her act in a few years and just trundle on. I hope the nest is not in my line but can never be sure — they are well camouflaged. The baby killdeer are precocial. If I do find a nest it has either unhatched eggs or empty hatched eggs, never baby killdeer. (Today’s newsletter brought to you by the word “precocial” — hatched or born in an advanced state and able to feed itself almost immediately). Chicken are precocial too!
Another bird that uses my services to find a meal are the crows. They always arrive whenever I am tilling and area. They must eat the grubs and worms brought to the surface by the tiller.
Maybe is a future newletter I’ll focus on amphibians.
I should also apologize for the ragged bok choi we gave out last week. It still tastes good but the leaves were torn from the row cover flapping in the wind. We use row covers to keep the flea beetles off the bok choi. This typically works well but for some reason this year it tore the bok choi leaves. We have a different plan for next year.
What will we have this week? Definitely squash and zucchini. Also cucumbers, kohlrabi, squash, some eggplants, green onions, zucchini, as much kale as we care to give out, some beets, some peas, a few leftover bok choi, more squash, some radishes, more zucchini, broccoli, squash, zucchini and maybe a few other odds and ends.
This week we have CheeseShare, EggShare, FruitShare and FlowerShare.
Speaking of FlowerShare, last week I saw some bugs on the zinnias that I hadn’t seen before. They seem to be eating the flower buds causing the flowers to be deformed. I’m not sure what to do. If we use an organic pesticide we may be able to put a dent in the damage but this would put pollinators at risk. I also noticed they were eating the broccoli heads, which makes sense since broccoli heads are the buds of the broccoli flowers.
Speaking of broccoli, we noticed some broccoli worms (actually caterpillars) in the soaking tank we use to hydrocool the broccoli. We’ve sprayed with bt, an organic bacteria that causes caterpillars that consume it to perish. Just giving you a heads up to be on the lookout.
Speaking of heads-up, we are just starting to harvest cabbage heads. Not a lot this week but it is a start.
Speaking of new this week, there are a few tomatoes ripening up. Not enough to hand out in quantities but enough to go through our quality control procedures.
That is all for now. As always please let me know if you have any issues, problems, complaints, jokes or other things I may find interesting.