I harvested wheat the other day and it was incredibly fulfilling. To think that I will be able to grow wheatgrass from homegrown wheatberries is one of those "closing the circle" satisfactions that makes me feel good down to my toes.
Wheat, wheat, oh beautiful wheat!
What a treat, you make my heart sweet!
Wheat is a gift. It grows easily, not too many pest problems, I believe it can be used as a cover crop - enriching the soil, it will make chickens and ducks happy, AND it grows to waist level, so its easy on your back to hand harvest!!! My appreciation for whole cereal grains continues to grow.
Even though I love living on a farm and I feel really lucky to be here, there are some things I am having to get used to. Pulling ticks off of the dogs and pulling horn worm caterpillars off of the tomato plants are not my favorite things. Audry, be brave.
(ticks: yuck! I want to love the ticks, but its hard sometimes.)
I told Simon that I don't want to squish the caterpillars. He said that's ok. We can feed them to the chickens. Last summer, I would collect them in a cup and walk them down to the end of the road and relocate them. I never was sure what happened to them. I just figured it was better than squishing them. I am ok with giving them to the chickens because I know they are not starving to death and this way I feel that their life energy is not "wasted", for lack of a better way of putting it. It goes towards the greater good.
Here is an exoskeleton (I think thats right) that I found on a romaine leaf the other day:
Right now I am drinking lots of juice (1 - 2 quarts a day) and having some food, too. A modified juice feast, if you will. Its very comfortable. Actually its great because I have lots of energy to get work done and start new projects, much better than the miserable low energy I was feeling on 8 days of juice. And I don't have to do all the enemas. I want to see how this feels for a while and then decide if I'd like to try just juice again.
Here are some pictures of Bartlebee, she is a Sweetheart:
I watched one of the chickens die tonight. She was very sick. Maybe I don't have much to say about this. Just that I'm thinking of her tonight.
2 comments:
I'm glad you're posting again and I'm glad to know where you are and what you're up to!
How exciting to be living on a farm! We just joined (with Juli) a CSA and have gotten our first two deliveries. It's cool to read what it's like on the farm side of the operation.
I don't know if you ever read kittee's blog, but she writes about hornworms and other bugs in her garden too. Her neighbor across the street has chickens, so she frequently relocates her worms over there, much as you do.
Thanks again for the updates, I'm enjoying reading them.
DAVE!!! So good to hear from you! Thanks for dropping a few lines. I'm totally curious about the NOLA CSA. That's the one that Bridgett's stepdad is running out in Franklinton, I believe. If I were still in town, I would own a share. Don't CSAs rock???!? I read about the NOLA one in an email from the New Orleans Food Co-op, which by the way I am so proud of and rooting for from over here in Alabama.
Thanks for the link to Kittee's blog. I just checked it out again and its AWESOME! I love all the caterpillar pics. I miss the NOLA TVPS and TVPers. Please give Ana and Juli big hugs for me.
We don't have fields of garlic, but we had a row of it and just harvested it yesterday. Tis your season, my friend.
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