Peace Disrupted

It is a beautiful morning here on the farm, cool and clear. As I was sitting down at the computer enjoying my cup of coffee a familiar sound reached my ears. The drone of a spray plane (crop duster) whined through the morning quiet, and it was close! The plane flew right over the house and proceeded to spray a field a quarter mile from us, at times circling directly above us at low altitude.

photo curtesy of the ISU Entomology Department website

Now the pilot was well within the law and the conditions were perfect, nearly still wind and before the 8:00am stop time for spraying within a mile of registered honey bee hives. But still, given our past experience with herbicide overdrift, I always get a little queasy at that sound. Blue wasn't very happy about it either and ran around "chasing" the plane when it got close, barking wildly to scare it off. She looked rather triumphant when it would fly away, only to start up again when it circled back.

The plane has now moved off to further fields, but I can still just make out the drone of its engines as it passes back and forth over a field to our southwest. I understand the "need" for this kind of chemical control and application in the large industry of mono-culture, but it doesn't mean I'm happy about it.

Today's Harvest 07/26/09

The high tunnels continue to perform admirably this season. The above photo is just today's harvest from the two tunnels. The harvest includes:
Cucumbers (2 varieties) : 45 lbs
Peppers (3 varieties) : 4.5 lbs
Tomatoes: (6 varieties) : 20 lbs
Zucchini (2 varieties) : 27 lbs

The Boys of Summer

Z & N sharing the first Suyo Long cucumber of the season

Received this photo of my nephews this week. It is currently my favorite veggie themed photo and I thought others might enjoy it too. Thanks, Brenda for sharing it! Here are a couple other
shots of my favorite veggie-lovers from our archives...

Golden Rave Tomato, anyone?

Just a little something to tide me over until lunch.

Refreshing Mint Soda, Anyone?

During the summers we go through a lot of seltzer water. Sean drinks it plain and I drink it mixed with my favorite elderflower syrup or fruit juices. We aren't big fans of consumables in plastic bottles, so when our regular store brand of seltzer recently had a significant price increase, we decided it was time for a change. Sean's brother Paul had mentioned during a recent visit (thanks again, Paul!) that his family uses a "soda machine" to make their own seltzer so we decided to look into it.

We found the info online and were discussing purchasing one. Then we discovered that our area Kohls stores stocks them, so a little side trip after the CSA delivery this evening and we are now the proud owners of a SodaStream Fountain Jet, and we are LOVING it! It can produce highly carbonated fizzy water from our own rather tasty tap water and added to our own "farm-made" herb and fruit syrups, the possibilities are nearly endless. LOVE IT!


I started with a lovely Mint Lemon soda this evening and am partway through a homemade gingersnap soda. And I haven't even started thinking about the possibilities with "adult " beverages. Oh my!

A brief observation

This past Friday I saw a flock of geese flying south at sunset. It was a beautiful sight with their stark arrow of bodies silhouetted against the glowing end of the day. Sheer poetry it was.

Then I realized its July 18, I'm wearing a sweatshirt and have been wearing it most of the day while harvesting...and the geese are flying south. Not a huge flock, mind you, but a flock nonetheless. Huh. I'm sure it was just a fluke, that they were simply moving to a pond for the night. But regardless, it did make me pause.
July 18.
Sweatshirt.
Geese flying south.
Huh.

From There to Here

Last month my friend Claire surprised me with a wonderfully crazy fiber batt to play with. Its a wild blend of different wools, lumpy slubs, sparklies and whatnot. Here's half the batt and the ball of roving made from the other half, all ready to spin.

The real fun with a batt like this is that you have no idea what the resulting yarn will look like.
Here's the result...


And a gratuitous close up for you real yarn junkies...


What a fun project this was, thanks Claire for the treat!!

New Neighbor

Today as the harvest crew was finishing up lunch and heading back outside, we noticed a Cedar Waxwing flying close to the door and calling repeatedly. I was tickled to see one, as they are one of my favorite birds, but since they are normally rather shy birds, the behavior was notable. Then I heard an answering call very close by. Looking down into the small garden beside the back door we spotted this little fellow perched among the heuchera.

Cedar Waxwing fledgling

I'm quite sure that I was much more excited to see him than he was to see me. So I tried to be quick about getting a picture and leaving him alone with his chaperone, who continued to call from the overhead Ash tree. When we checked again later in the afternoon, both birds were gone, but I could still hear the occasional call from the hedgerow, so I hope the fledging was a success. I'd love to have them as long-term residents of Blue Gate Farm.