Farm Visit

Another CSA share pickup today from New Town Farms. Note the two different varieties of okra in the plastic bag (green and purple):

The plants bearing the purple okra are six to eight feet tall, though you can't really tell in this picture:

Here's the same picture with me standing right next to some of the tallest plants; they were about eight feet tall. The picture is cockeyed because I had set the camera on a rock:

Here are the plants bearing the green okra -- about five feet tall. Quite a difference in the height of these two varieties:

I was struck by this beautiful, majestic, tall (over eight feet) stalk of amaranth growing up "wild" in the midst of the cherry tomato patch. Besides its beauty (and other practical uses in different cultures) Sammy had told me a couple years ago that amaranth is a good trap crop for Japanese beetles. (Wikipedia has a good article on amaranth.)

Before I left I took a little video of the chickens in the coop, primarily to record the noble crowing of the rooster as he watched over his harem, and the gentle clucking of the hens. Such lovely sounds. If I ever have the opportunity to have chickens, I will. Don't know what I'll do with the eggs, but I am drawn to the birds -- especially because of their ruthlessness in keeping the yards free of bugs, adding their natural fertilizer to the soil, and constantly turning up the top inch or so of the soil by their scratching.