Farm Friday, August 11th, 2023

The onions are in!

This week we hosted 11 Elementary-aged children for a “Farm Camp.” It has been a great week, but being around this group has definitely “turned life up to eleven.” They have high highs and low lows and feel everything. We have had a lot of drama around baby birds that are out of the nest and one child has picked up several snakes. We have taken epic hikes, done archery, painted gourds, and dyed wool.

After mostly teaching adolescents in the last six months, I was reminded this week of how important imaginative play is to the 9 to 12-year-old child. At one point they started dissecting milkweed pods and invented a whole mythology and imaginary business around the pods and their contents.

In the middle of all this fun, farm work still needs to be done. The onions, which were hit very hard by hail three weeks ago, were in danger of rotting in the field. The tops were dying back from the hail damage and one rainy day could have provided the moisture needed to facilitate rot. I have seen it before. Three years ago, our onions were AMAZING all season, but we missed the harvest window by one week and we lost over half the crop when a hot, rainy weather pattern hit at the wrong time.

Onions take A LOT of work. They are hand-seeded in March in trays, which we care for in the greenhouse for ten weeks. Then the seedlings are hand-transplanted into a field, where they require several passes of weeding with tractors and hoes and hand-and-knees. They are water hogs, and I spent much of our drought this summer with a timer on my phone telling me to move the sprinkler in the onion patch.

But, thanks to the help of the children, the onion harvest is safely in and drying in the greenhouse, and I can stop worrying about that.

Monarch caterpillar. I would not have noticed this except for one of the children seeing it.

The onions come in dirty, so after they dry, we have to brush the dirt off.

Spotted touch-me-not.

Zoom in to see the hummingbird moth — looks like a flying shrimp

Tuberous begonia

We hiked all the way to our hazelnut patch — not ready yet

On the hike, we saw the prickly-ash in full fruiting mode. The fruits smell of citrus, but if you try to eat them, your mouth will go numb. When dried, these make a peppery spice.

Summer broccoli

Swiss chard

Seeing double? We have Pip’s brother Kip for the week. Such a good boy!

The skies have been dramatic. The heat kicks up afternoon storms.

Before the storm! Photo credit to my partner, Jen. I was out in town when this storm hit.

Wall clouds

After the storm, in Menomonie.

In writing news, I continue to think about essays and not write them. I need to write a genealogy column this week, so something will come.