Quick quick.

The pace has picked up. Substantially. It seems everything needs to be done, right now. It’s all very exhilarating. Pulse quickening. And nerve wracking. Maintaining the successional planting schedule. Planting in the beds outside.Transplanting tomatoes and eggplants into larger pots. Trellising the peas. Figuring out an irrigation system. Purchasing and installing the irrigation system. Hose watering in the mean time. Watering. More watering. Weeding. Still working on the hop trellis poles. And the greenhouse.

And then there is a growing list of things that we want to do, and should do now – but maybe are less of a priority. For instance, getting a batch of dandelion wine going, mulching the monster pile of tree pruning debris, mowing the croquet court, playing croquet.

We have already started in on the harvest. Very exciting. Meals these days have been including early French Breakfast radishes, sauteed hop shoots, garlic greens, arugula and radish greens. We even foraged a healthy bunch of asparagus from the wild patches along the irrigation ditch last week. A sack full of Grandma Ginny’s rhubarb went into ginger rhubarb jam, Cycle Farm’s first preserves.

The farm bike is being put to good use, running errands to town and hauling loads back and forth down the field. Flats of plants, boxes of potatoes, and tools. I was able to catch a couple shots (below), the glory of human powered machinery.

More on smart tools: Jeremy designed and built a tool to help in planting rows of onions at smart 4″ spacing. It’s brilliant, I’m calling it an onion fiddle, see below. The fiddle neck supports strings set at 4″ spacing, and frets on the neck are Sharpied with marks at 4″ as well. Looking for someone to play washtub bass, and a grass-leaf whistle. We can start a band.

We’ve had a few CSA members come out to tour the farm, meet the bees, help plant peas, taste radishes, check in and ask questions. Thank you all for your interest and enthusiasm! SO GOOD. We are excited to get to know our community better and equally stoked to share the farm with everyone.

And finally, things we’ve learned recently: It turns out irrigation equipment is very spendy. Cross-combing on topbars in Lolita’s hive is a mess, straightening those comb out isn’t as easy as it would seem. The honey mess that results in the comb-straightening is absolutely as sweet as it would seem. Hop shoots are delicious. I can play a mean onion fiddle. And above all else, having friends come visit and help – is the most wonderful thing. It gets me all warm and wiggly, misty-eyed, knowing there are other people as excited about this as we are.