Everbearing

The ever-bearing strawberries have already given us a couple bowls of strawberries. We are growing these on plastic to reduce weed problems. The ever-bearing strawberries produce fruit all summer.
The other type of strawberries (June-bearing) are grown without plastic, they send out many more runners that root and produce new plants. As the name implies, we will get one big flush of berries in June from these plants. Some people like the ease of picking all of the berries at once and they are usually bigger and sweeter than the ever-bearing varieties.
We planted both types of strawberries and we are learning the advantages of both types of plants and methods of growing them.

asparagus

This picture is from a few weeks ago. The asparagus is about 5 feet tall now and leafing out.

This is a day past harvest but I will leave it to mature and provide energy to the aspargus crown burried a foot or more below. I hope this pays dividends for a big harvest next spring. It was hard not to take more than a couple of spears this first year after planting.

Antique Case Tractor and Disc Harrow

A 1/2 acre plot in the bottom is plowed and this summer I will disc it each time the vegetation comes up a few inches. This is an attempt to kill most of the weeds and prepare for crops next year. I don't know the last time this part of the property was planted but most likely it was a corn field 20 or more years ago.
I planted a few fruit trees in the newly plowed field. There is a nursery about 300 yards away and it is lower in elevation by 10 or more feet. They seem to be doing fine so I feel safe planting in this part of the flood plain.

Bees!

The bees are here! Well, they've been here for about a month, but just haven't made it on the blog. We are excited about these newest residents on the farm.
Dave, a member of the Northwest District Beekeepers Association, is keeping bees on our property. He and his daughter have been coming each week to tend to the bees and they live here happily pollinating our garden. Dave has a blog to check out (davesbeeadventure.blogspot.com) with great pictures and stories. This is Dave's hobby, and we have worked out a sort of partnership. He has a place to keep some hives, and we have pollinators. If they produce honey, we may even get a share!
More bee information to come...