A Gentle Lady Bug &A Sassy Lady Cat

The impending crunch of fall is in the air with a hefty frost last week. Luckily all my observations over the past years let me know that it was likely and I actually closed all the low tunnels and draped the frost fabric over the squash as best as possible (the warm nights had made me a little complacent the last few weeks). 

Everything survived just fine and the lettuces especially appreciated the cool down.

The field and plots are now teeming with jumping, flying, or crawling insects! Some do a little damage. Some eat others. And some get eaten by the hens or guineas. I wonder if the grasshoppers will eventually learn to stay inside the fences as the hens can't catch them in there. Until then the hens chase the grasshopper chaos with erratic movements in their attempts to catch the tasty morsels.

There'll be some new veg (including tomatoes) available at market this week and the flowers keep blooming so I'll keep cutting and bouquet-making until the heavy frosts of fall shut the flowers down. 

Some beneficial insects are cute (super cute in the case of Lady Bugs!) and some are less cute, but one side effect of growing many flowers is having many beneficial insects. And the presence of these polka-dotted bright beauties means their young, which kinda have polka dots too and look like a short, flat, hard shell 'caterpillar' eat the most aphids so keep an eye out for them and let them do the work for you! Also I can definitely see why it is considered good luck to have one land on you besides that it might mean they like you and wanna say hi but that they, and their young, are keeping you plants safe! Lucky you!

A new veggie this week is the Dragon Tongue beans! They are used like a green bean and have purple stripes, which fade if they are cooked.

The tomatoes are ripening fast enough to bring some to Libby and will be available online today! Each box can include: Napa Chardonnay, Napa Blush, Yellow Pear, Black Vernissage, Violet Jasper, Sunset Bumblebee, Atomic Grape and/or Purple Russian.

It's been hard, but I've been holding off from picking the Sweet Peas so they can set seeds! I'll have a seed mix available next spring before the markets start so you can get them in the ground as soon as possible. Don't worry, I'll let you know when they are finally available! Nature moves at it's own pace.

Enter Hella, the hella sassy cat. Especially when I interrupt her serious gopher hole watching and she retaliates by showing me just how much of a huntress she can be! (don't worry, no blood was drawn as she also knows whose hands feed her when she doesn't catch the gopher)

What's available this week?

• Eggs!
  • dozen pasture-raised, rainbow chicken eggs 
  • half dozen pasture-raised duck eggs 
  • half dozen pasture-raised guinea hen eggs
• Flowers!
  • Market Bouquets
    • with Dahlias
    • with Sunflowers
  • Lily Bouquets
  • $5 bunches
  • Posies
• Veggies!
  • Microgreens
    • Spicy Mix
    • Mild Mix
    • Cinnamon Basil
  • Salad Mix
  • Butterhead Lettuce
    • Red
    • Green
  • Romaine Hearts
  • Red Leaf Lettuce
  • Rainbow Swiss Chard
  • Dragon Tongue Beans
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Basil Sampler
  • Summer Squash / Zucchini
  • Petal Power Edible Flowers

Where to find it all?
I'll be at the Farmers Market at Libby, this Thursday from 3-7pm!

I'll be at the Troy Farmers Market, this Friday from 330-630pm!