Box 4 out the door

Box 4: Beets with greens, green beans (VG and Malek in Nekoosa), carrots, rainbow chard, basil, cucumber, zucchini, VG garlic, sage and blueberries (Malek in Nekoosa)

  This box brings us just shy of half way through the central WI growing season...WHAT????  How can it be that after just 2 more boxes we are back to school?  Each box gets heavier and heavier and you can start to see some of the ol' standbys coming to play.  More beets and carrots but a dash of zucchini and cucumber reminds you of the taste of summer.  We picked our blueberries this year at Malek's farm in Nekoosa.  Our traditional Trachte's farm in Pittsville lost a substantial amount of their plants to the harsh winter but we hope to highlight their farm later this season as they catch up.  FYI Malek's has you-pick blueberries (2$/lb) and raspberries (3$/lb) for the next couple of weeks yet and also have potatoes.  They aren't organic so make sure to wash carefully just prior to eating.  

Judith and Craig sorting through the first picked garlic this year.  There is plenty more that is going to be cured and put into the late season boxes for winter storage.

  We seem to have moved on from our aerial predators the bald eagle(s) to a land predator that has proven much more deadly-raccoon.  This guy or family of guys has taken down at least a dozen of our precious hens which has made us step up our game on electrical fencing and live trapping.  It makes it interesting to find a balance between free range and totally out in the open to predation but we are finding our happy medium and will be raising some new gals to join the bunch soon.  Wisconsin Rapids just passed action to allow back yard hens in town which is GREAT but we encourage you all to do your research on pens and yards that will keep your birds safe and healthy.

Aida is quite the helper "pick one, eat one" is her motto and boy does she stick to it!

I can't stop staring at rainbow chard.  It grows a tad slower then a traditional green variety but it is worth the wait.  The variety of color assures you that you are receiving a hefty dose of antioxidants with your greens and this past week the deer have left it alone so we can have some too :)

Rolling right along with box 3

garlic scape and basil pesto-we wait all year for the scapes to make one of our favorite delicacy recipes

     We are just past the nostalgic celebration of the 4th of July.  It seems our kids just won't quite make it late enough to catch the city fireworks but they are in their best  memory making behavior to do our own show on the farm just as the lightening bugs come out and the sun sets just over the forest to the west of our farm.  Do fireworks add nitrogen to the air for our plants as lightening does???  I don't know the answer to that question, but everything seems to be growing amazingly (even the weeds).

Laura weighing sweet peas

 We have spied a glorious bald eagle on our land as well recently...then we discovered a dead hen who seemed to have become a meal for this beautiful creature.  It is hard to see a hen go and you feel sad about the attack that happened however, it seems like ideal timing being the 4th and all and there is nothing quite so American as seeing a Bald Eagle freely take his meal.

Farmer Craig harvesting toddler carrots

 
Craig's leg is healing so nicely and even his duct tape bandages don't seem to be doing any harm so I am letting him be his own nurse for the time being, until the next crisis.  Caleb spent a week fishing in Canada and had a nice taste of their medical system (barbed hook through his thumb) and that entire ER visit in and out with numbing medication etc...was less than $200...you can't even walk into an ER in our country without paying at least double that.
We are having another amazingly perfect box day, the weather is warm with a cool, dry breeze that makes for easy work.  We are so happy to have dedicated box workers that come religiously to help on these days. Here are some pictures that show what we are up to today!