This week on the farm, ending 7/15/18

What a beautiful yet busy weekend! This week on the farm we focused on encouraging (urging) our lovely plants to grow, grow, grow! I think they are starting to listen. Here are some great update photos of our plants, just for fun. I apologize for the blurry photos, as these were taken around 9:00 PM and I couldn't hold the camera still long enough.

Garlic scapes are ready and soon we will be harvesting garlic!

Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers and borage. I started weeding from the tomatoes to the fence. It's a big job!

The green beans are growing right along. I hope we see blossoms in the next week or so.

We spent some time weeding the rutabaga and two kinds of beets. The plants seem much happier.

And for a segue to a new event - wrestling, courtesy of Rusty and Rueben.

We also checked on the bees this week, to see how the walkaway split was faring and also to see if our bees were filling honey supers. Thankfully, the split hives seemed to be doing well, although there isn't much honey production happening. The hive we did not split is doing very well and is capping the honey in the bottom super. We added a third box to this hive with the anticipation that the bees would work on the second and third boxes as soon as they were finished with the bottom honey super. Watching the bees cap honey is a beautiful sight.

A honeybee is working hard to cap liquid gold.

The bees' eastern view from their hives. Isn't it lovely?

We had the fortune to pick an hour's worth of raspberries. We worked very hard and picked two stainless steel mixing bowls full. The raspberry smell was intoxicating as we made our way through the patch. We managed to pick berries without too many scratches or bug bites. We each wore wide-brimmed hats and hat mosquito netting, which helped tremendously. The berries will be eaten fresh and frozen for winter treats.

Fresh-picked raspberries. Yum!

Raspberries washed and ready for the freezer. We will love our summer selves when we enjoy these treats when the snow flies!

Due to some fun events this week and weekend, we didn't get as much garden work done as planned. That's okay, because the weeds will still be around tomorrow, waiting to be pulled. We wish you a farmiful week! See ya around the bend.