We've had a full weekend of fun on the farm. Today the garlic was weeded, a new herb garden was formed and the kids and I harvested 8 pints of tomatoes. We have matina and golden nugget - they are small but delicious. In terms of numbers, we harvested about 30 Matina ~ not many. They are coming. Yesterday I spent some time pruning the basil plants. For some reason I just love spending time with the basil. Tonight I processed a few cups of basil for easy pesto later this week.
This evening we all loaded up and went on tour of the fields. In Canard things are growing very fast. The zucchini were badly hit by cucumber beetle. Our squash here on the home farm have been badly damaged too. They will all survive - it just sets them back a bit.
The beneficials that we released for the aphids are doing their work quite well. The population seems to be reduced. But that leads me to our next dilemma....in Canard we have a 4 acre Honeycrisp orchard that we are putting into transition to organic. It is a young orchard, planted last year. There is a serious aphid infestation in the orchard. We are not wanting to spray with a conventional spray, but......aphids spread fire blight and fire blight wipes out orchards. It is really hard because we don't want to spray but risk losing the $40000.00 investment if we don't. My thinking is that the trees will be stronger in a year or two and will be able to fight against some of the pests and disease pressures. We will see. We work with professional crop specialists who advise on desease pressures, prevention and solutions. They work with organic producers too and will give good advice.
Have a wonderful Canada Day!
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