Things are a little mixed down on the farm, but looking good overall

Went to the farm yesterday to see how things were going. My farm partner, who owns the land, has been largely absent lately, clearly has not been tending things. Of course, with me working like a dog, I haven't been much help. There were a lot of weed-choked beds. Left me worried about the potatoes. It didn't hurt production much, near as I could tell. Lots of beans, squash and onions. I would imagine tomatoes are a few weeks away, but here's what I brought in yesterday:

I'm sure we'll see more soon.

Reaping the bounty of the Earth or some such crap

As I have mentioned before, I have a friend with a few acres that I do a kind of gardening co-op with. I have more experience growing shit, he has more money and land, so we get together and grow stuff. Mostly the usual -- this year, onions, carrots, peas, green beans, asparagus, lettuce, spinach, bell peppers, hot peppers, strawberries and tomatoes. We also go a little farther afield -- garlic, potatoes. Not much luck with garlic yet, truthfully, but good work on the more traditional stuff, as well as the spuds. With a very small bed this year, we got a pretty good summer harvest, and we should get a second harvest in the late fall.

Naturally, at this time of year, the bean crop is going gangbusters. Here, you can see the plants have climbed the string trellis like frat boys trying to peak into a sorority house window, only more useful:

Jeb the Wonder Dog patrols:

 Beans on the vine:

 Beans off the vine:

 An enormous zucchini:

 This will be made into zucchini bread later that will be the subject of a food porn post, but I digress. And here we have even more beans (in addition to those pictured above) peeking out of their bag:

Got some good cucumbers coming in now, primarily intended to make dill pickles:

And the onions, red and white: Small this year, but getting established. Good numbers, and high hopes for next year's crop to produce larger onions.

All in all, The Farm is putting out a good crop. Upcoming posts will feature food porn including produce from The Farm, so stay tuned.

Jeb the Wonder Dog

I like to name my dogs after Confederate generals. My current model is a collie named Jeb, after Jeb Stuart, the second-finest cavalry commander ever to take saddle. (Nathan Bedford Forrest was the best cavalry commander ever. George Patton was the best modern cavalry (armor -- that's tanks for you civilians) commander.

But I digress. Jeb, the current model, goes with me when I go to the farm. I have a friend who has a few acres, and we grow some vegetables there. He also has a golden lab about Jeb's age, and they play while I garden. Jeb, of course, likes to hang his head out the window while we drive over.

Yes, these are all rear-view mirror pictures taken at great risk, at least as far as oncoming traffic was concerned.  Anyway, Jeb was happy, and there was no collision.

When we got to the farm, Jeb and his buddy, Willie, did what they do, which is this:

So there you have Day One of my Memorial Day weekend. More coming.