Missing Willow Farm

The pickling cucumber on the right is about three inches long.  The monster on the left was hiding very low in the garden.  Apparently, cucumbers turn bright orange when neglected.  The chickens loved it.

A dozen eggs, two quarts of goat milk and enough veggies to keep me busy in the kitchen for a bit.  Our new deer fence is the reason we have green beans for the first time ever.  Of course, the bunnies have been chewing at the fence.  At least they don’t like beans.

The garlic is harvested and pumpkin seeds have been planted in their bed.  Last year I planted them too early.  Maybe this year…

The pickling cucumbers are still going strong.  I think I’ll have 20 quarts of dill pickles by the time the season is over, plus lots of dill slices and relish.  The pimentos have gone from green to yellow.  Red and harvest is next.  Tomatoes are just starting to ripen and boy are they good!

I put a few sunflower seeds right at the rear of our garden on the edge of a raised bed.  They are seriously twice as tall as I am and are still growing.  They even dwarf our greenhouse. I hope we’re able to see the flowers when they bloom.

We spent the morning harvesting honey from our one remaining hive.  It’s doing so well, Brian split it into two as he was pulling frames.  It’s been just three months since we purchased our bees, they’ve been busy!  Our sourwood trees are just starting to bloom, we’re hoping for another harvest before the summer is over.

The dove eggs in our back deck eaves are hatching.

The first of our potatoes, the last of our carrots a lovely squash and gotta get cranking on making dill pickles!

It takes about 20 minutes to milk a goat, I’m getting about a half gallon every morning.  When we don’t need milk for the kitchen, it goes to Lizzy.  Let me tell you, I have a strong handshake!

Here’s what happens… Brian meets some work friends in Raleigh for lunch and brings back sourdough bread from the best bakery on the east coast.  I am gifted some fresh salad greens that morning at the farmer’s market.  A friend calls en route back from Atlanta with a cooler of gorgeous lobsters in his back seat and wants to know if he can bring them to our place for dinner. We have a lovely bottle of viognier in the fridge that we first discovered on the Queen Mary 2.  Life is good.