As many of you know, David does various types of woodworking including Windsor chairs, decorative as well as utilitarian wood turnings, and his latest creations, hand carved cherry spreaders. David recently posted a blog detailing his hand carving of these spreaders. It is very informative as well as interesting. He has some great pictures with it as well. You can check it out on our blog here.

   The June 21st Broiler Processing date is now full and we are beginning today to take orders for the July 26th processing. These are the beautiful Poulet Rouge Freedom Ranger broilers raised on pasture with organic, non GMO, soy free feed. It doesn't get any better than this! If you haven't seen Susan's blog post video on how to make three minute chicken, check it out, it is fantastic! 

   The farm always has its ups & its downs and this year, strawberries were nearly a complete failure. We had two main problems, the individual that was furnishing us the plants last fall, was very late in getting them to us. The timing of fall planting of strawberries is crucial. Even a few days can mean that your plants do not reach a level of maturity before spring time fruit. We also experienced the coldest winter we have seen in a decade so the plants were even slower to mature.

   The strawberry plants are healthy now but strawberries do not tolerate hot weather as far as fruiting is concerned so they are pretty much done for the year. They will make great plants for next year but we do not winter them over. With 2,000 plants it is too difficult to keep them weeded all through the summer heat but for a family garden, keeping strawberries from year to year works great. While we have gotten a few berries this year, it has not been enough to package and sell. However, blackberries are looking to give us an enormous fruiting. God always seems to balance things out.

   Starting today, we will be selling these strawberry plants for $1.00 each. This price is for a "you dig" arrangement so bring your trash bags and come and dig some strawberry plants and make a nice bed for next spring! We also still have some cow manure for sale. We have gotten excellent feedback from the gardeners who have gotten manure from us this year. Of course, the Lord sending the abundant rain has put most everybody's garden over the top. Email us if you would like to get some plants or manure. Also, we would love to see some of your pictures of your gardens if you would be willing to email them to us!

   The June 14th Fermenting Class has one opening left, so if you would like to be the last one to secure a spot, email us and let us know. It is $45 per person.

   Susan just filled the refrigerator with some really nice parsley and thanks to Amy Linenberger, who gave us some volunteer work yesterday, we have some great Arugula along with the lettuce and squash.

   Also, it is time to plant sweet potatoes. You will need to purchase plants (called slips) to grow sweet potatoes. You cannot cut chunks of sweet potato and make potatoes like you do with Irish potatoes. 

   Happy Gardening! The Lord has really blessed us with a great combination of sunshine and showers every couple of days! Our 200 tomato plants are busting. They should be ripening around the first of July. 

We can't wait!

Daniel