April 23rd

It's April 23rd the weather has turned cool and breezy. Two weeks ago it felt like spring was in full force, and that gave us an opportunity to get some work done at the farm. I planted the bounty of fruit trees purchased a few weeks ago, two more blueberry bushes and a fig tree.

I also finished planting the main garden- peas, beans, corn, okra and potatoes. I set out two dozen tomato plants and about that many pepper plants that I potted up from seedlings. Chris gave me some Peaches and Cream corn and I planted 10 sixty-five foot rows of it. This year I planted the potatoes in blocks instead of rows, thinking that I may have to build a barrier against the potato beetles.

On Sunday, I turned and worked two more patches alongside the main garden. The larger one, about half the rows of the main garden, will be for peanuts. I've never grown peanuts so I don't know what kind of experience this will be. The motivation for trying is my unconditional love of roasted peanuts. Boiled peanuts too, for that matter.

The second plot is for some wheat and my cowpea trials. I have about 20 varieties of heirloom cowpeas that I am going to run and see which one is the best in flavor and vigor.

After this exercise I came to the conclusion that the new barn will have a wide but shallow overhang that I can park my implements side-by-side. The current setup is stacked in one behind the other in a narrow deep overhang, open only on one side. This means I have to spend a lot of time hooking up and moving around plows and tools to get everything out.