In the last blog post Jessie was talking about the harvests increasing in the fields. Well, we definitely have reached the peak! It is a pleasure to harvest our tomatoes, they are doing great. The cherries are always a bit earlier than the slicers that have just been starting this week. Our eggplants are also on the go, producing big shiny fruits and we feel this is going to be a good year for our hot crops. Our tunnel of peppers is full too, but they haven’t started to turn red or yellow yet. We have taken time to trellis them this year for the harvest is going to be more efficient and the plants won’t be breaking under the weight of the peppers.
A picture of last Monday, during the harvest party! Not only we harvested all the garlic, but we also got help with the beans :)
Being a farmer is not only about growing tasty vegetables. You also want to be able to harvest them...before someone else eat it ! At the moment, we spend a fair amount of time trying to deal with our little furry intruders. Despite our deer fence, creatures still manage to enter our fields. You have heard earlier in the season about us spotting porcupine damages that had been snacking on (a lot) of our zucchinis and ending up capturing a groundhog that had feast on many head lettuces. This week we have found some new damage on our carrots (the tops got eaten!) and our squash patch. These crops are doing so well, it is stressful for us to think that they could get decimated. We have to do a bit of mowing around and check the fence for some obvious breakage. Then, we will set our live traps with some fresh bait and hope we catch the offender…
This is a good reminder, if we needed one, that there is so much we can control. On this beautiful farm, wildlife is all around us and we have to share the land with it. Of course our delicious organic vegetables are going to attract them ! We don’t forget a lot of insects and birds also help us grow food.
Speaking of insects, we were lucky to witness another nature marvel this week when checking on the beehives. One of the hives is doing really great and we were able to set aside a box of frames full of capped honey ! We have started to extract it. The two other hives, after a little low, seem to be active and will hopefully produce some honey soon too.
As we enter tomato season, I wanted to share with you a fun recipe of a cherry tomato tarte tatin from my mom. Cut your cherry tomatoes in halves, and put them sliced side up in an oven dish previously buttered or oiled. Cook for half an hour in the oven at 360F. Take them out, sprinkle some goat cheese or parmesan, some pepper. Prepare your crust by spreading some Dijon on one side and put it on the tomatoes (Dijon inside). Cook again for 30 minutes in the oven. Remove from the oven when cooked and flip the pie. You can add basil on top. Enjoy !
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