Every day is a little bit different, which is important for me. I tend to get bored of the "same 'ol same 'ol." The highlight of my day on Tuesday was finding two reptiles: a bright green Pacific Tree Frog, while I was weeding. He was adorable and even let us hold him. The other scared the crap outta me while I was walking down a path, a garter snake! Black, with a red stripe lengthwise on one side, yellow stripe on the other. Anna picked him up and showed me the belly. It was almost a sky blue, so pretty! I held him too, and was amazed at how strong he was. So cool. I think he is our resident snake. We've spotted him 3 days in a row now.
Yesterday was my first harvest. All four of us shared the duties, which included harvesting spinach, chard, turnips, radishes, lettuce varieties, mizuna, arugula, chive flowers, thyme flowers, mizuna flowers, and more. Funny thing is that the chef of the Inn likes tiny produce. He does a mini picnic basket with tiny veggies, as an appetizer, I think. So picture a radish the size of a pea or blueberry, with the greens attached. This is what we are harvesting. It's an interesting idea, and I bet the picnic baskets look awesome (and cute!). I went with Anna to deliver the harvest to the kitchen, and met Blaine for the second time (the head chef) and three other chefs. The dining room has 11 tables, there's no menu - it's a fixed price - but you get around 10 courses. I will hopefully get the chance to eat there at least once. The patio overlooks the ocean, and I've heard it's the best place on the island to see pods of orcas swimming by. Can't wait to see that! When we got back to the farm, I started a very tedious seeding job. I planted 1080 seeds of romaine lettuce. That's no typo. It took 3 trays worth of 72 "cells," 5 seeds per cell. Those seeds were very small & lightweight. Ugh, took me forever! I'll be happy to see those sprouting soon though :)
A funny thing happened after lunch yesterday. I was walking my normal path, past the young chicken coops, and saw a few of the "buffs" outside their coop (the golden colored chicks). I had to do a double-take, but sure enough, there were about 7 that had escaped. They were all close by just foraging for worms and grass, but some of them were looking at the coop, and appeared to be wondering "how the heck to I get back in there?" So, everyone was at lunch -it was just me - and I agreed with the chick, "How the heck will I get you back in there?" I grabbed my gloves, and luckily Anna was within earshot so I hollered for help. We got the chicks between us, and I was able to grab a couple. Anna grabbed a net to help capture the wily chicks, and within about 10 minutes we got them all back in the coop. I had no idea that I had chicken wrangling skills! They will come in handy in the future, I'm sure. Those buffs have already gotten out a second time in two days. Smarter than they look!
Today was a rough day of yanking stubborn grass outta the ground that surrounds the greenhouse. The grass starts to invade the greenhouse and provides ideal "highways" for the slugs, so it's got to go! After that though, all four of us took a trip to Three Pheasants Farm. They are allowing us to plant on their land (they have lots!) and even had a pristine plot of freshly tilled soil ready for us. The best part - you can see some of the ocean from their land. Amazing. So we planted lots of squash, kholrabi and kale plants that were started in the greenhouse. It was fun, and didn't take long with 4 of us working together. I'm interested to see how they do, since there is no watering system. The soil on top is dry, but just underneath it is moist...and the air is cool. If the soil gets too dry, we'll have to bring buckets to "fermigate" the beds. New term for me, but it is just a solution of fertilizer and water. The photo above is the area we planted, the tiny plants are in the back of the bed.
I'll be posting a video of chickens shortly. They were hilarious today as they enjoyed kitchen scraps from the Inn.
Until next time! :)
Garter snakes do seem to be a part of our gardens/property here too. It has taken me a while to get over the initial surprise, and fear, that growing up in AZ instilled in me with the prevalence of "rattlers". The color of your garter sounds very cool. The benefit of small scale farming, Micro-farming or Macro Gardening, is that those little seeds and all the trays are not so totally overwhelming. Another contributing factor to the amount of seeding is that it is dispersed over the early spring crop, summer crops, late summer, fall and late fall which will over winter. It is never so much at one time but rather an on going process. Fermigate, good term. A guy I know puts all his chicken droppings in a bucket, adds water, and eventually pours the mix on the plants. I use dehydrated cow manure in a water mix and pour the "tea" on the plants when mixing in the soil isn't appropriate because of intensive plantings. Chickens have teleportation skills!
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