A break from the heat and some rain for the garden. But THANKFULLY NO HAIL!! We have seen pictures from the Taber area and are so thankful that all we had was a little bit of rain. It takes only a few minutes to totally wipe out a whole summers worth of work.
Thankfully our gardens are still growing. This week was the cauliflower over load!! The entire crop (actually 2 seedings) all came ready at the same time. And we could hardly get it off fast enough. The heads are quite varied in size - but when they are ripe they need to come off immediately.
The broccoli, beans, peas and zucchini have also been loving the warm days. It is getting to the time of year that we could harvest all day (if it doesn't get too hot) and still feel like we never get done. And it comes with a HUGE THANKYOU to Chantal, Heather and Reuben for all their hard work. They are putting in many hours in the gardens - but they always come in with a smile so I think they are doing ok. Of course, a icecream sandwich helps when it's hot out too!!
Unfortunately the weeds also enjoy the heat - and we hardly have time to deal with them. But we are doing our best to keep them at bay while we pull off the crops. The biggest weed problem right now is in the onion patch - which was the cleanest part of the whole garden before the June rains started. We are hoping that the onions will be able to continue to size up and get past the weeds - but this year the onions do have a risk of not being as large as other years. The weeds are just one of the realities of vegetable farming without chemicals!
It looks like we are heading into a cooler week - that will be good to give the brassicas a chance to grow a bit before they ripen. It will also give us longer days that we can work (without getting heat stroke). The rain last night was a beautiful sound to wake up to...and I will even forgive all the mud it seems to bring in my house!! It's the life of a farm wife!!!!
