The gardens and nature are really coming alive with all the good rain, sunshine and warmth. It seems that every day there's a new food in the garden or to be foraged somewhere on the farm.
This week we had our first good flush of shitake mushrooms! We started these last spring by inoculating white oak logs that we harvested from our woods. We've had a couple of mushrooms sprout here and there but this week we got over a pound and half at once! We're hopeful the timing will line up for a future flush that we'll be able to share with our CSA members.
Our newest flock of heritage hens are slowly starting to produce. We love finding the fun sizes and colors of eggs. First year pullets are inclined to lay the tiny pullet eggs for a bit but then they also commonly lay jumbo double yoke eggs.
Our sons have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of wild berries on the farm. Our youngest harvested a good-sized bowl of Mulberries today!
The gardens are bursting with new foods or foods that are nearly ready. The broccoli heads have started to form, the kohlrabi bulbs are getting close to harvest size, and we have multiple kinds of beats that we'll be harvesting soon.
We love this time of year. We can see that summer is coming and we are anticipating the increased pressures from weeds and bugs. So far though things are moving along nicely.