A Helping Hoe

I'm so bad at updating and there's so very much to update about so I'll try my best to be brief.

My cousin got hitched a couple weekends ago and the whole Honest Farmer family was in town for it. My parents and sisters helped my in the field two afternoons and had a great time. While digging holes for tomato transplants one sister yelped at every new bug she encountered: grubs, caterpillars, worms, spiders. She was very brave and I was proud of her conquering her tiny many-limbed fears. We were all fortunate the gnats weren't out in swarms.

Speaking of swarms, I found one near my hives on a dead thorn bush as I was looking for shovels. I offered my mother a chance at helping me catch the bees but she said it was a man's job and volunteered hers. We geared up and gave it a go but the bush was at the top of a steep ditch slope and it wasn't easy. Somehow bees kept flying into my helmet and eventually the Big B (my assistant) was holding the hive and holding the back of my helmet closed while I shook thousands of bees off their prickly perch and onto the frames.

Normally swarming bees are docile; these were not. They took to the skies around us and I will admit now that I kept my cool despite bees in the helmet mostly to save face in front of the big guy helping me. It took two tries to get the queen in the box. Also, the swarm was huge: 30k strong probably. At least three times larger than any other swarm I've seen. Thanks B—we did good with those monsters.

The parents stayed an extra week to help on the farm and we got the brambles completely trellised (a huge and ancient box to check off on that to-do list) and also picked the first strawberries and sold at both the major markets I'm attending this year. Mom found a fantastic strawberry table cloth for the booth, and the Honest Farmette made two Berry Best Farm t-shirts and a cloth banner for the booth. Thanks to these ladies I look like I belong at these big-league markets.

The strawberries are coming on faster every day. Four flats have been picked so far this season but I'm picking tomorrow with the Farmette for Wednesday morning's market and I'm hoping for at least four, hopefully 6. Soon I won't have a choice but to open it up for U-pick. I'm playing it by ear and keeping closed lips right now. So many people have been asking already I have no worries about too little too late in terms of advertising. I imagine if I put a single sign just down the road that sees .5 cars per minute I'll be picked out by hour's end.

And because this is Spring, my favorite malady is back: hay fever. I now look like bandit at all times while outside. I don't think it's necessarily a bad look for me, and it certainly works to keep my allergies under control, but I realized as I pulled open the front doors at the bank today that there's a time and a place for everything.

The upcoming crops to be added to the list are: snow/snap peas, spinach, & lettuce. Also, the blackberries have flowers on them and I look forward to them producing for the first time.