Lida Farm

July was a bear. August is looking more promising, but we have to first strike back at the overall shagginess of the farm and bring back some order.

Whenever you go out with the mower and start to run over items that you had long forgotten were there, you know you have a problem. We use a 6-foot wide flail mower that runs off the PTO on our diesel to mow around the farm. Last week I saw the flail mower shoot up pieces of an onion tray – oops – and only 3 feet later heard the metallic grind of the flails hitting a pile of rocks I had gathered near the cabbage. Small piles of seedling trays are tucked in the weeds all over the place together with buckets, cultivating shovels, watering wands, and more buckets, all of which had a purpose for being there at some point, but that reason is long gone.

My typical routine is to keep moving and consolidating these piles of things. Sound familiar? Maybe you have a ‘piler’ in your household. I do this in the house too. By stacking all the mail about 8 inches high instead of spread out on the counter, I feel like I’ve brought order, but it’s really triage until I actually go through bills. Same thing on the farm. At some point it gets bad enough that you have to just pound through things to really clean up the place and yesterday was apparently that day. I put away tools, threw rocks out of the field into the trees before donning the International 674 to bring order through mowing. It’s better. It’ll never be perfect.

In the box:

• Sweet Corn: This is a variety called Allure from certified organic seed that we only tested for the first time last year and have now adopted as a main crop.
• Peppers: A green and a purple.
• Fresh Fennel: This one can throw people for a loop. I wish these heads sized up more, so I suggesting using the fronds (the frilly parts) in with the salad mix and add the bulb to a favorite sauce or throw in a crock pot with any meat. See video below on cucumber salad with fennel.
• Tomatoes: Boy, these have really started to come in. I might have to double-dose you next week.
• Sweet Onions
• Green Beans 
• Fresh Thyme: The little bunch with a red band
• Garlic: This is fresh garlic, so not cured yet, but that’s OK. Most would agree that it has a bit stronger a flavor. Use however you would used garlic. Leave it out in a dry sunny location to cure.
• Cucumbers
• Fresh Fennel
• Potatoes: A mix of yellow and Red Adirondack potatoes.
• Salad Mix