OK, actually, the second market of the season, but the first for us. We didin’t have enough produce ready last week, which was kindof embarrassing. But you learn and move on, right? This week we should have radishes, some beets (maybe?), lettuce, and maybe some carrots. Still not a great showing, but last week the other vendors were pretty supportive of us coming even if we didn’t have a lot of stuff. It’s a very friendly atmosphere at the Manzanita Farmers’ Market.
We’ve had a few sunny days, so the bees are out in force. Yay! I hope they are bringing some tasty raspberry honey from Sturm’s fields. I was in the hives last weekend, and they all had a lot of brood ready to hatch, so I guess they are all doing well. I still haven’t been stung this year, even when weedwacking right in front of the hives with all the bees out, and when I took this picture they were EVERYWHERE. Maybe they are getting used to me. Last week, we had some friends out to visit and they both got stung (I did not), and all we were doing was watching bees from 20 feet away. This made me feel pretty bad, and I will more carefully consider who I allow near the bees in the future, for their sake.
Brian mentioned earlier that he wanted to see the orchard, so here’s a 360 panorama of that. It makes the trees look awfully puny, and it doesn’t really show the CLOUD of bees around each hive, but it gives you a good feeling for the surroundings. If you click on the picture, it takes you to a full 360° panorama you can navigate in yourweb browser. But as I discovered while playing with Emily’s new iPad, if you are using an iPad to view it, it does something incredibly cool: using the internal gyroscope and compass, it pans as you move the iPad, giving you a pretty good virtual reality experience of the farm. Try it!
And in other news, the electric fence is back up. Sometime soon, the elk and deer will be returning from their time in the highlands, bringing garden destruction with them. Luckily, my dad bought us a great expandable electric fence, and I just had to get some more fence poles to cover our enlarged garden area. ZZZZZAP!
