Rainbows, Parsnips, & Weeds, oh my!

The week has flown by! The veggies are happily growing day by day. The peas are covered in flowers, so pea pods will be ready soon — hooray!

Here are some photos from last weekend, June 27, 28, and 29. It was a really lovely weekend and Monday harvest. We are very thankful for the inch of rain last Saturday, and it was a nice change to need long sleeves to keep warm while harvesting on Monday. Our beekeeper Thea stopped by and because the hives are doing so well she added another super (box) on each hive so they will have plenty of room to expand while Thea, Jim, and Thea’s son Tristan tour Latvia and France with their clogging group, “The Wild Goose Chase Cloggers.” We wish them safe journeys and that they meet many new friends along the way!

: On Saturday evening a rain storm blew through with blue sky following behind. The rainbow was HUGE and showed strong color from end to end. There was even a double rainbow for a little while!

: We leave our parsnips in the ground for the winter to sweeten them further. This spring we left some of them to grow and go to seed. Like carrots, they are bienniels, making their flowers and seeds their second year. Maybe we will end up breeding a farm specific variety of parsnip!

: After the rain passed the sky cleared in time for sunset. The still wet plants sparkled in the setting sun.

: Parsnip flowers tend to attract wasps and flies, omnivores who are supplementing their diet with nectar. Some wasps are highly beneficial, laying their eggs inside of garden pests (parasitizing them).