As July Comes to a Close....

...And the daily watering continues.  What a frustrating summer this has been.  The drought has become extreme in many areas of our state, our area included.  Finding the balance between wanting to keep the gardens alive and producing, but yet not wanting to "burn up" the well.  Decisions are made daily about what & how much to water.  The gardens have produced well this season all things considered, we've been able to take a lot of good produce to Market as well as putting up quite a bit for ourselves.  In some ways that in itself is amazing for the growing conditions this year, but with our hopes to do so much more this first year with the Market, I've noticed the frustration in our daily lives with "Mother Nature" not cooperating at all right now.  Some days we just want to shut off the water, let it go and take whatever little bit may be able to survive on its own.  We've made so many new friends with the Market - both customer & vendor so we hope to hold on for the 2nd half of the season, a feeling shared by many other vendors this year I'm sure.  We will hope and pray for a better growing season next year.  We're still getting tomatoes, peppers, okra, a few cucumbers are still left, along with eggplant.  We've re-seeded green beans, cucumbers, squash, zucchini and still hope to do fall plantings of lettuce, spinach & radishes.  We'll see if the temps cool & rains return to allow a fall garden.  I do have to admit if it doesn't, I may not be able to justify the watering to continue for a "fall crop".  We appreciate our customers' patience as they suffer right along with us during this tough growing season.  They get a very definite feel of what farmers go through when it affects all crops across the board as this season has done. 
Our pullets are starting to give us random starter eggs, we look forward to regular eggs from all our new hens.  We have several customers waiting patiently for the permanent laying to start, I'm not so sure the constant hot weather has delayed them a bit.  Just for a quick stat heard on the morning news.....In the 30 days we've had so far this month (July), 27 of them have been at 90 or above.  Normally in our part of Indiana, 15-18 days of 90+ are normal...so we have set another new record for the summer.  Sorry if I don't have enthusiasm for breaking this record, but this is one record I would happy not to have broken.  People in our area are starting to off-load some livestock, either due to burnt up pastures, not having the volume of hay to cut or just the price to be feeding hay already in July.  Luckily for us right now we don't have much livestock, so we are okay in this category, but my heart goes out to those farmers having to make livestock decisions right now. 
Let's hope by the time of my next post, we will have received a little rain (or even a lot of rain).  I can't remember when I've been so anxious for fall to get here, but this year I am at least hopeful that maybe our fall will finally bring us a weather pattern change.  Wishing all of you cooler weather, plenty of rain or the patience to wait for both. 

We'll Take Any Drops of Rain We Can Get

2/10ths of an inch of rain - that was our total for yesterday, and we'll take it!  The drought is very severe in our part of Indiana, the crops are suffering greatly and it feels like we are always watering.  2/10ths may not be much, but it will at least give us (and the well) a break from watering for today.  We thank all the market vendors and customers for braving the heat last Wednesday with us.  The temps were brutal, but at least with the occasional cloud overhead and slight breeze, we all survived.  Let's hope and pray for a break from the drought and heat soon. This has been a challenging first year for the Farmers Market for us.  Not that we wouldn't have been growing a garden anyway, but normally we are pulling plants and considering sections of the garden "done for the season", where this year we are re-seeding to get fall harvests of several items.  We are enjoying the challenge and with all things considered (with the weather), we still feel this summer has been a success and a good learning experience.  Thanks to all of you that have helped us along the way. 
I was able to pick up a 2nd Union Loom a couple weeks ago (Thank You Mary!).  I'm anxious to get it all warped and up and running, my hopes are to do that next month when I've got a good stretch of time off.  We hope to participate in a couple of the fall/winter craft shows, so I've got to get busy getting "stock" saved.  I have a couple rug orders to get completed and just not enough hours in the day.  I hope to get my Etsy seller's account up and running this fall too.   I'm anxious to see what kind of response I get.  I keep getting wonderful suggestions on crafts to add to our collection/sales.  Now it's just finding the time to get everything made. 
I've been enjoying taking the "leftovers" from the Market each week and finding recipes to use everything up.  This week was a wonderful creamy cucumber salad and stuffed peppers.  The peppers go in the freezer for use this winter.  Check out our website for the newly added recipes page, Double Bar G -click the "Recipes" tab.  I'm pulling the green bean plants (the chickens love picking thru the leftovers), and will be starting a new row of those this weekend.  Also hope to get some more zucchini, squash, and maybe even a little more sweet corn in the ground.  Spinach, radishes, lettuce will go in for fall harvest too.  We're busy picking cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet & hot peppers and okra too- we're picking it every couple days.  I've been pulling onions each week and am headed out shortly to see if potatoes are ready to dig.  My husband will have some tilling to do this weekend and then I'll get busy re-seeding. 

Farmers Market - July 4th

We will NOT be setting up for the July 4th Sagamore West Farmers Market.  We've decided to take that day, stay home and catch up in the gardens.  Since we are both home that day, it will give us a chance to get caught up with tilling, weeding and to do some planting (hoping to start more zucchini, spinach and possibly green beans to name a few).  We will still be picking veggies if anyone would like to stop by for fresh veggies to take home for the 4th.  Due to the heat we will not be leaving them outside.  Drive on up to the house and we'll be happy to sack some up for you.  We're picking the following this week:  Green beans, Kale, Swiss Chard, Kohlrabi, Carrots, Zucchini, Peppers, Red Onions (and starting to get some sweet corn and a few tomatoes).  We're still waiting "patiently" for the new pullets to start laying, then we should have plenty of fresh eggs for everyone.  Wishing everyone a fun & safe July 4th!  Thanks to all our service men & women who provide us the opportunity to celebrate this day.