Missing Willow Farm

With the deck do-over this year we decided not to bring the 70 or so potted tomato plants to the back deck that we normally do.  Those are down by the raised beds.  We did, however, bring the cucumbers up.  I wish I’d planted more of them, dang it.

Broccoli!  We just harvested our first little bit.  We didn’t grow a lot this year but what we’ve got looks really good.

We keep the pond in our front yard stocked with fish.  My parents came for a visit and my dad (isn’t he handsome?) caught a mess of croppie.  I made fish tacos for dinner.  Fried croppie, shredded red cabbage, chipotle sour cream and monterey jack cheese in a soft flour taco.  Yum!

Summer has arrived and things are starting to ripen.  Multiple varieties of cucumbers, tomatoes (yay!), potatoes and garlic are on the dinner menu.

While working with our sheep, one of them knocked me on my rear into a pile of poop.  Thankfully, I own more than one pair of overalls.  Summer is in her usual spot.

Summer comes running when she sees me enter the pasture, then proceeds to chew on my clothes and get in front of me wherever I am trying to walk while chatting her goatspeak to me nonstop.  Goats are sweet but can be annoying when they do their best to prevent you from getting from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’.

It’s garlic harvest time.  Now they need to be dried outside in a shady spot.  In about a month, they’ll be ready to bring inside for storage.  And roasting.

This is the last of them.  They are crispy and sweet.  I’ve used them raw in salads as well as in veggie stir fry.  I’m going to miss them.

Every morning, Brian does the big pasture chores (feeding goats, sheep and guardian dog) while I do the little pasture chores (milking and feeding the chickens).   As soon as FiFi has finished her breakfast, she comes to the gate looking for a dog biscuit from me.  We buy them by the case.  I never disappoint.

I was surprised to find this beautiful foxglove growing out beside the pile of chicken poop that I clean out from the little barn every morning.   These biennials are not native so it was deposited here by some unknown means.