Everyone asks about what we will do in retirement. It’s not really retirement for us but a career change to full time farmers and building the Five Feline Farm business.
Our first major task is to build a fence to keep the groundhogs out of the garden. Pesky little creatures.
Keep coming back…it’s going to get interesting.
Every garden has its pest and ours at this moment is groundhogs. If you don’t know what a groundhog is, think beaver with a short stubby furry tail. Groundhogs are a member of the rodent family.
They get the hog part of their name honestly. They are hogs when it comes to munching on tender garden plants. Imagine how disheartening it is to go to the garden early in the morning and find the sweet potato leaves gnawed to the stem. Or bean plants nibbled down to the ground.
We put up a very temporary and lightweight fencing to slow down entrance to the garden. That got us through about a month. Now the varmints are plowing right through that fence and it is time to get serious.
Many recommend shooting or trapping and relocating, but we are choosing other methods.
Our first line of attack is a healthy dose of cayenne pepper around their favorite munchies.
Next we have installed whirly gigs and scarecrows to scare them away.
But the big guns is a wire mesh fence with solid wood frames all the way around the garden. Of course they may tunnel under, but they will find their holes full of cayenne.
2019 Battle of the Groundhogs is on!
There are times in this business that we have to make decisions about the business based on the weather. How much to take to market when the forecast is rain? Do we cancel entirely? On this episode we discuss how we make those decisions. On occasion, we wish we had chosen differently, but we always make the best of it.
Until next time…
What will you do with that first ripe tomato?
You know the one. The warm, juicy, full of tomato goodness one fresh from the garden. The one that holds all the promise of the season’s bounty just by changing from green to red or gold or purple or striped.
Will it be a large slicing tomato with red juice dripping down your arm from your bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich? Or maybe a medium yellow slice with the slightest dusting of sea salt nestled next to a mound of cottage cheese?
My favorite is a large plate of alternating red and yellow slices, mingled with wedges of fresh mozzarella cheese and topped with shredded fresh basil leaves. Drizzle the whole thing with a peppery olive oil, balsamic glaze, a quick twist from the pepper mill and a sprinkle of salt.
There is nothing else to say but “Yum”.
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