It’s been crazy busy around here as we prepare for this: http://www.chathamstartribune.com/news/article_a1a90ec2-fb1c-11e3-9aca-0019bb2963f4.html
And this: http://wildgoosefestival.org/speakers/bill-and-cherie-guerrant/
The gardens are cranking out goodness and counting on us to save them from deer, drought and weeds. We’re doing our best.
Some random shots from yesterday.
It’s a great time of year.
The “weeds” in our tomato garden are purslane, wild spinach and chickweed–all tasty and nutritious wild edibles.
Do you see an enemy hiding on a tomato plant?
A closer view of the well-camouflaged pest.
I’m loving the long days, which still don’t seem long enough.
Oh, yum! There’s blackberry cobbler on the dinner menu here tonight — but our blackberries are about gone.
I looked at looked at the first photo, but never saw the green marauder. It took the close-up for me to find him. Begone, wretch!
LikeLike
Yay blackberry cobbler! One of my favorites. I’ve picked a lot of them over the last 3 days. They’re in very good here this year.
Those devilish hornworms can be tough to spot. I became skilled at spotting them in my childhood on a tobacco farm, where they were known as tobacco worms. They camo well, but their droppings (and the damage they cause) give them away.
LikeLike
How exciting–except for the pest tomato pest. Hope you enjoy every second of it and store up as much of the energy and sunshine as possible for . . . you know (I’m loathe to mention the “w” word).
LikeLike
Thanks HC. I’m looking forward to a couple of days without chores. 🙂
LikeLike
He is well camouflaged … had to enlarge to see him. And a couple of blackberries nestled in a leaf …
LikeLike
Often it seems that the best blackberries are hiding behind leaves or canes. Getting them without getting stabbed can be a challenge. 🙂
LikeLike
We too eat the ‘weeds’ ….. Somebody once said a weed is just a plant that grows where you would rather something else grow.
Those tomato worms were a huge problem where I used to live – I recall walking out one morning to check on the tomatoes only to discover I no longer had any plants at all.
Thankfully I don’t have to deal with them where I live now.
LikeLike
I’ve heard that definition of weeds too. It’s a shame we’ve lost so much knowledge of wild edibles and medicinal herbs. They are abundant here.
LikeLike
Bill, boy, you are having a time with animal/pest devastation. My challenges this year have been totally weather related. Finally it looks like the weather is settling down but planting now is taking a chance on having enough frost free days left. I have 113 days left so maybe I could sneak in some late green beans or some zucchini squash. Maybe the late planting will avoid all the bug and borer problems. I can hope anyway.
I’m just back from another long short trip. It was long in that it was allot of miles and short in that I drove it in two days. The trip was to meet my grandson’s Dad half way between where I live and where he lives. The meeting place was Oklahoma City which is about an eight hour drive give or take depending on how much road work there is. There was some excitement along the way. Let’s just say that Kansas has one less deer to worry about. Cutting down the deer population with a vehicle is not a good way to do it. The deer punched out my grille and grille structure behind it but the amazing thing was it didn’t break any head lights or turn signals or radiator damage and no suspension damage. Pretty amazing actually. I am blessed.
Have a great busy in a good way day.
LikeLike
Dave I always love the way you end your comments 🙂
LikeLike
Ouch. Sorry to hear about your encounter with the deer. Glad the damage wasn’t too bad. They’re very dangerous here. Lots of accidents, some of them fatal to the humans too. As you may know, deer are responsible for far more deaths in the US than any other wildlife, because of them colliding with vehicles.
LikeLike
My brain is beginning to break or bend so frequently it morphs the syllables. Recently that meant turning “busy” into beez-y (although it is becoming harder and harder these days to “observe the bees.” Perhaps sixty years ago when we picked berries in June (with my paternal grandmother) we may have found the berries (ripe) but it was the chiggers that found me (most unpleasantly).
LikeLike
When I was a boy I got chiggers picking blackberries too. Nasty critters. These days here the problem isn’t chiggers but ticks. When we went out to pick Monday we ended up with more ticks than I think I’ve ever had on me at one time. But once summer comes around it’s a given that I’ll be itching until winter.
LikeLike
I’ve not seen that particular pest before, for which I am deeply grateful. I think/hope we don’t have it up here.
You’re hosting a bigwig feast tomorrow and you’re speaking at the Goose starting Thursday, continuing through the weekend. Wow. Puts some perspective on my definition of busy. Good luck with it all!
LikeLike
It’s a hornworm, which we called tobacco worms when I was growing up. They love tobacco, but there’s probably so much poison on it these days that they’re not a problem. They’re big, so they do a lot of damage, but they’re not numerous and they’re easy to eliminate with a little diligence.
We have essentially no social calendar and rarely leave the farm (except to deliver vegetables and go to market). So having two events like this in one week is way out of the ordinary for us. I think we have it all together and I’m expecting everything to go smoothly. Hoping so at least.
LikeLike
Jealous! We are still a couple weeks from the peak of blackberry pickin! We did pick a few today. 90% still red.
LikeLike
They seem to be peaking for us now. The ones that get a lot of direct sun are fat and black. We’ve been enjoying and freezing them. Looking forward to a cobbler soon. 🙂
I hope you end up with an abundant harvest!
LikeLike
Wonderful that you encourage-farm the blackberries. Here they are treated as a noxious plant so the joys of the past of walking and finding a patch in late summer are long gone sadly.
LikeLike
The grow wild here. We have lots of room and they like to grow along the edges of fields and untended areas. To get them you have to take on briers and ticks, but the reward is great!
LikeLike
Oh my! So much farther south than us–you’re way ahead. Our berries are still hard green buttons. I’m jealous, though our long days will have us catch up some.
LikeLike