Broccoli seed crop.
Folks!
Here's a chronicle in pictures of some of the goings on here at the BZ Farm starting in March 2022 and updated when we can.
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Merveille des Quatre Saisons (Marvel of the Four Seasons) red butter lettuce. We're going to let these go to seed.
This is part of the series describing Chrys' lettuce-lettuce-lettuce rotation. This is what happens if you cut a lettuce and don't pull up the roots. Usually, you can't get a head of lettuce to form because the plant is pretty much primed to go into flower.
Chrys saved seed from long-leaved Plantain (Plantago lanceolata) when he lived at Heartsong. It was rare there. It was one of the first things he planted in a flat when he arrived at BZ's in March. BZ said, "Oh, we have that here." No kidding. It's everywhere! But nowhere is it growing a lush as it is planted from transplants in the rich market garden soil.
Gathering and preparing firewood for winter.
Gathering and preparing firewood for winter.
Five new baby ducks! It's actually a poor hatch-out. Usually there are a dozen or so. BZ says thin eggshells were the problem. Since the pandemic began, he hasn't been able to obtain oyster shell to to feed for calcium supplement, which the ducks love to eat. The weird white coarse pebbles we have been able to get don't do the trick. We do save all our eggshells that also work very well, but we have limited amounts, so when it was time to collect eggs for the next batch of hatching eggs, we fed them the eggshells. About a week to go from today (7/19) until the new ducklings hatch.
Freshly hilled Inca Gold Potatoes.
Some of the Ancona ducks. They are excellent foragers.
BZ's walk-behind tractor set up for hilling potatoes.
Our lowland field is blessed with big patches of Stinging Nettle. Young nettle tops were our best seller at the farmers' market for three weeks running. Now (July) we're watching it for when it's time to harvest the seed.
A 90 watt panel to power the greenhouse fan obtained from a dear friend of ours who provides renewable energy solutions locally. The fan will go on whenever the sun shines on the panel. It will also power our new 12 volt aquarium bubbler for making aerobic compost tea.
A few more items available at our farmers' market stand in Colville, mid-June. The coolest, wettest, sunlessest spring in recent memory delayed a lot of our crops.
Loading up for the farmers' market.
Looking south down Cedar Creek Valley from our lowland field.
Market garden, mid-June.
Merveille des Quatre Saisons (Marvel of the Four Seasons) lettuce from seed Chrys has been saving for a number of years. Parris Island Cos, seed saved by BZ, in the background.
Merveille des Quatre Saisons (Marvel of the Four Seasons) lettuce in need of some weeding.
Ducklings! June 20.
Digging in compost in the year-round greenhouse.
Experiment: In June Chrys sowed carrot seed between lettuce transplants. In July we can see this doesn't work too well since the lettuce really crowded out the carrots, but some survived and might still grow after the lettuces have been harvested. It works better if the carrots go in first and get a bit of size to their leaves and then put in the lettuce transplants.
Inside the hoopy, June 12. Remember, we didn't finish rebuilding the hoopy until the end of April, so things are behind.
Lettuce transplants on the outside of the bed where carrots are growing in the middle.
June 7.
Potatoes emerging, June 7 (planted May 2). Before emergence, BZ used a flame weeder, hence the weeds between the rows but not where the spuds are.