The end of school/The start of summer

Whew!  With the ups and downs of our recent temperature swings, 

the garden is shaping up.  As we wind down the end of the schoolyear, the rainy days have been perfect for transplanting and cooking, too...

Students from Environmental Science at SMS came down to the farm to help transplant cucumbers and three types of summer squash.  Mollie and Ezra powered through the job, setting out 150 starts, laying drip tape irrigation, and covering them with Reemay in an hour.  Great work, team!

 Mollie driving the big rig back up the field.

Getting cleaned up to head back up the mountain to school, smiles all around.  Thanks, guys!

Waist-high peas, turnips/beets/cilantro, and the freshly transplanted cucurbits to the left under cover.

In Spanish class, we made sweet and savory tamales, platanos fritos, and guacamole to wind down class.

At school, classes ended Friday, and this week students are busy with exams.  We teachers are wrapping up with our final meetings, grades and comments-- the end is in sight!

And... in the few free moments of spare time, we've gotten in some good tastes of summer.  The fishing up the mountain has been off the hook (sorry, can't help myself) and I have easily fallen for the charms, sneaky holes, and runs of the West River...

Don't know who's more excited about this big 'bow, Burt or me!

  Gus casting into the reservoir above the falls in Weston-- gorgeous!

 

Beautiful, big brookie from the West.

Sunday I transplanted 300 brassicas out (broccoli, romanesco cauliflower, red, green and savoy/cone cabbage) plus some early flower starts, chard, cilantro and dill, and set up the drip irrigation.  The garden is in great shape and coming right along for this erratic, strange early summer.  I pulled about 120 garlic scapes already, much earlier than last year (they were in your first and second CSA shares last year.)  Mint and thyme are welcome additions to homemade hummus, and add a nice, fresh zing. 

Farm shares start a week from this Thursday on June 21st.  It looks like the scapes will have passed you by already, but expect the likes of green garlic, turnips, radish, lettuce, mint, thyme, sage, chamomile and cilantro.  Can't wait to start the farm shares up again, stay tuned for more details.

Hello, Summer!