Farmwife's Journal - July 1st

It was a hot "Friday on the Farm" today!  We were surprised at the people who were still willing to come out and endure the heat. :)  As soon as the market ended, we could see the storm clouds coming.  We quickly cleaned up the market and headed for the gravel pit.  (We had told the kids we would take them swimming after the market was over.)  As soon as they hit the water it started raining, but they had enough time to swim around and cool off before the lightning started.  By the time we got back home, the storm was heating up.  We stood on the porch and watched it until the hail started blowing onto the porch.  Then we stood in the kitchen watching the trees in the yard bending down from the wind, and wondering if we should head for the root cellar.  But Mike was as cool as a cucumber (as he always is :) ), and said we'd be fine. :)  So we watched the storm rage and prayed for protection over our property.
After it was over, we went out and looked for damage.  There were various limbs and brush on the ground, but the buildings and gardens were fine...a little stressed looking, but fine.  We did have one apricot tree go down in the orchard.  It was a sick tree, so it was probably weak anyway, but it did have fruit on it.  Dassel was in the center of the storm and we heard about a lot of damage in the area.


Apricot tree

We are still picking strawberries daily.  The harvest does seem to be coming to a close though, as the berries are getting smaller.  We may not have berries next Friday...we'll see.

The herb garden is growing like crazy and we have been trying to keep up with it.  Em and I just harvested the dill (should get one or two more cuttings) and more chamomile.  We just started cutting the lavender, and it looks like the cilantro is ready to be cut again.  I really should plan for another "Cooking With Herbs" class, since people have expressed interest in it...maybe when the soap class is over. :) 

A large basket full of dill

The soap class is July 16th.
http://housmanfarms.blogspot.com/2011/06/learn-more-about-our-soaps.html 
Email me if you are interested.  mindy@housmanfarms.com