More Farm Friends

A few newcomers to the farm...
Our Turkeys have arrived...
They are in the ell of the barn if you want to visit them.
And these interesting creatures: Weeder Geese. They are actually Toulouse Geese, but their purpose here on the farm is to weed the strawberries! Back in the old days it was quite common to use geese to keep weeds, especially grass out of berries, cotton, corn, or any other crop for which the geese themselves don't have a taste. They have sharp serated teeth to pull up various weeds, and the four of them seem up to the task, but like everything else that sounds too good to be true, it probably will have some drawbacks.
Like trying to follow us as we do our morning harvest...

Harvest:
Lettuce
Radishes (Spring/summer)
Diakon (also a radish)
Pac choi
Cabbage
Broccoli
Squash
Garlic
Basil

This week we are starting in on the summer squash. This includes zucchini, patty pan, and summer squash. We started harvesting a few last week and different plants joined in gradually. Therefore, this week (as an exception I hope) there is an odd variety of sizes. In the coming weeks we'll be harvesting from these plants three times a week at least to keep them in the smaller range.
On the subject of size, the daikon radish is lots of fun to grow and harvest. It grows downwards almost magically, and even though it is not the favorite vegetable in the kitchen I subconsciously want it to grow gigantic. You really don't know how big it will be until it is pulled up to reveal either a carrot sized root or one as big as a toddlers leg.

The garlic this year is not as prolific as we want it to be-- it really never is though! And we had some cloves with what might be white rot. Not a good thing if you're in the onion family. What we do have though is generally very nicely sized bulbs. We will buy more seed this year, despite the very expensive price of organic seed garlic.
Broccoli in mid-summer? We tried a sping planting of broccoli this year and it came out better than in previous years. However it really prefers to grow in the fall, so this Tuesday and Friday there are some heads that look a bit tired of the heat. Oh well, still delicious.
What undeniably grows great in mid summer...
Flowers! Tell your friends who just got engaged that if they want to have locally grown flowers for their wedding it is hard to beat mid-July!!!
Blessings on the meal,
John