From Your Friendly Neighborhood Vegetable Monger

Hello, everyone-

All in all, this week has turned out all right!  After so much rainfall
last week, the garden is growing!  With the ground so wet, it was easy
to get a lot of weeding done.  It was dry enough today, though, for
Greg to disc the tomato patch and set the rows for me: four 95
footers, enough to hold all our tomato plants and basil, too.  We
broke up a setting hen, spent an afternoon transplanting greens (me),
picking up rocks (children) and hilling potatoes (Greg).  The squash,
fourth planting of lettuce, dill, and third planting of arugula have
all germinated, too!  I mulched the snap peas and spinach with straw,
thinned the beets, and covered the broccoli beds with row cover
because someone was eating them.

I guess that is as good a segue as any- we've had A LOT of garden
visitors this week.......those of you that got lettuce last week are
lucky, as we will not have that to offer again until it grows back.
Yesterday afternoon I noticed all 450 of my beautiful lettuces in the
field had been chomped!  There were plenty of signs of the (hoofed)
beast, so we know how to fix it, at any rate.  The hoophouse had a
least one visitor, also- the cilantro has been totally eaten- though
the greens and tomatoes were untouched.  The snap peas have also
mostly been decapitated, but by whom is still a mystery.

I've been dragging my feet about putting up an electric fence, but it
is officially on the list.

This week I'll be delivering as usual to the general Galax area, but
for you Grayson county people, I'll be at the Independence Farmers
Market on Saturday also.  It's from 8 until noon, and if you send me
your pre-order, I'll have it ready for you when you get there.

The list:
Arugula- last week for this planting, more on the way, $3/box

Spinach- first picking of this planted back in March, limited quantities, $3/box

Stir Fry Mix- senposai and yukina savoy mustard greens, mild, tender,
quick cooking $3/bag

Eggs- free range hens, most likely fertilized $3/dozen

Lovage- celery-like herb, stronger flavor than celery $1/bunch

I will scrounge as many radishes as possible and bring them to market
on Saturday.  I have a new package for some of the greens this week-
it's a clear plastic box that I hope will be reusable and last a long
time.  I looked into the corn-based compostable ones, but they are
only stable to 110 degrees, which means I would have to sanitize them
with bleach instead of hot water.  Anyway, if you return them to me I
will use them for as long as possible.  Order deadline for this week
is Thursday (5/14) at 9pm.  Please let me know if you'd like delivery
or if you'll pick up at the Independence market.

Thanks!
Sara