Brocco-lee, Brocco-li, Brocco-lum

Combine two college grads who are old enough to remember when Latin was taught in high school with heaping bins of a vegetable with a name like "broccoli" then throw in a little silliness on top and you get two farmers who walk around conjugating the verb "broccoli".  Brocco-lee.  Brocco-li.  Brocco-lum.  Easy.  Ok we really do know that broccoli isn't a verb, but that's the kind of thing that happens when you pick, sort, pack, eat and breathe vegetables all summer long.

This week another big (for us) order rolled on out of the farm.  450 heads of broccoli, 200 red cabbage and 30 1/2 bushel boxes of summer squash.  Mike and Ed were busy busy boys getting everything ready.  Plus of course they had to pick for the CSA's and the markets.  Mike said they picked close to 1000 squash during the week along with everything else they picked. 

I came home from work Wednesday evening to find three large bins of broccoli hanging out in the garage.  These are the same sized large cardboard bins filled with watermelon that you sometimes see sitting on the floor in the produce section of the grocery store.  That's a lot of broccoli!  It looked so good too.  Perfect maturity.  It took all my willpower not to snatch a few heads out of the bin and go make dinner.

I had a crazy week too at the clinic and this always makes it interesting when I have to come home and tend to the chickens.  The laying hens are no problem to feed, water and collect eggs in the dark if I get home late.  But I still have about 50 meat chickens out on the grass that are old enough (7 weeks) that they need their pens moved twice a day.  It's just that they are bigger now and they poop a lot more now.  If I don't move the pens twice a day when they are this age, the grass gets too messy and there is nothing that bothers me more than animals that don't have a clean place to lay down and sleep.  The pasture pens have no bottom so as I move the pens, the chickens must walk along inside the pen to keep up.  And chickens won't walk in the dark.  So that means rush home from the clinic, change clothes and get to work on the farm without a minute to sit and relax.  The next two weeks until butchering day are going to more of the same. 

Molly, our Brittany, loves to follow me out to do chores.  She is more than eager to look for a few fresh "snacks" when I move the pens.  What a farm dog she turned into.

I took a couple walks out to the garden this week too.  Not sure how I had time to do that, but there are pictures in my camera to prove I was there and I do remember being back there so I must have a moment or two. 

I believe these are black-eyed peas that are coming along quite nicely.  There are some shelling peas further to the left and lots of nice yellow wax and green beans out of the picture to the right.

And a view of some of the cauliflower that is looking really good.  There might be some cabbage in this picture too.  Can't quite remember.  But then it has been kind of a crazy week.