We Are Almost There

Harvest time is soon approaching and we are busy with chores for preparation for this event. It has been unusually hot this past week, well into the 90 degree mark, and we try to work early and late in the day and avoid the sun beating down on us. It seems like we’ve been cutting scapes for months but in actuality it has only been 2 weeks and I believe we’ve finally finished for the 2016 season. We were able to share our scapes with several local restaurants and I love seeing their menus and what creations they come up with.
Jeff and Aaron have been busy getting the new drying shed ready. As the operation grows so was the need for a larger curing space. We finally got some long needed rain from a severe storm the other night and I was getting a bit concerned that the predictions for the storm could beat on the garlic but all did well thank goodness. The lower leaves are browning on the garlic plants and we patiently wait for the maturing process to finish so we can start our harvest.
Jeff is welding a new harvesting tool tomorrow and we might even be ready to harvest the Asiatic Korean Mountain variety and maybe even the Turbans. This weekend our weather looks good and gladly so as the chores are numerous and the short weekend time frame to finish them slips away before we return to our other jobs on Monday morning.
We also need to tend to some tilling in our own veggie patch as the weeds are returning with a vengeance. We hurry to till them back before they get strong and rooted or seed. Since we are organic our weed control methods are alternative to those that come from an herbicide bottle but we may resort to plain old fashioned hand weeding too. We’ve planted numerous peppers hot and sweet, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, eggplants, potatoes, greens, carrots, melons and cabbage. I hope to get a couple long rows of bush beans in but I usually wait until after 4th of July to bypass the Japanese Beatles that tend to devour those plants. We’ve had some tremendous sunsets thus far this Summer and I can’t believe it’s already almost July 4th which is my favorite holiday. ​