It’s not often that I write the newsletter but here I sit thinking, it’s a good thing so much happens around here it makes it easy to have plenty to say. While we still tend to many summer veggies we have been busy planting a lot of different fall crops in the field and the greenhouse is full of starts. We are even experimenting with some new varieties for the fall.
Okra has shown why it is the star of late summer. This time of the year Josephine has to pick it three times a week just to keep up. The tasty surprise learned this year was that okra and sweet potato leaves are not just edible but tasty too! Having tasty greens in the summer, fantastic.
We did have a bit of extra excitement this week. One evening Jo went out to shut the chicken coop and came back quicker than usual. She looked worried and then proceeded to tell me there was a large snake inside the coop hanging out in one of the laying boxes. It was already dark out and not knowing what type of snake was in there we decided the safest thing was to just shut the coop and leave it there until morning.
Come on out of there snake.So just before daybreak the next morning we went to take a look. Yeah it was pretty big about four feet long. Thankfully it was not a venomous snake but rather a Black Rat Snake. Jo held a light and with a rake a carefully hooked the critter, pulled it out of the coop and dropped it to the ground. Right next to my wheelchair, oops! It quickly sought shelter under my chair. While I watched it slither under one side I yelled to Jo, “Make sure it comes out the other side!” The last thing I needed was for a snake to hang out inside my wheelchair.
After all the excitement was done and over it was just light enough to see. Which meant it was time to get the day going. So I took out my adrenaline on some unsuspecting weeds. They had it coming anyway.
After a cooler than normal July and early August this week is supposed to be hot! Once the weather cools off again I’m looking forward to coming to the market. It has been a while since I have been there. I look forward to seeing you all soon.
Good Eating,
Randy
Chickens, Snakes and Okra, Oh My!
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