Broad Valley Orchard

Hello,

Well,

After 3 weeks without rain and 100F temperature (sorry metric fans, I am too heat-blasted to make the conversions), we got a lovely 1.3 inches of rain the other night that filled the rain barrels and soaked the garden.  I am trying not to gripe, because I remember the Four Year Drought of 1999-2003.  Although those were tough years to grow vegetables, our naturally grown orchard produced the best apples and berries  that we have ever grown = the low humidity retarded fungal growth.  and as for the gardens, we have a few tons of rotting hay saved up for mulch.

I just dug fingerling potatoes, and just like my earlier harvest of Norlands, this is being a banner year.  For each unit of potato starts I put in the ground, I have been digging up to  10X as much.  So, we are hanging in there, and keeping up our deliveries to CSA, but the older I get (60 now), the harder this gets.   Any of you younger folks looking for a chestnut log house, and a nice 2.58 Acre (about a Hectacre) micro-farm that has never been sprayed with ag chemicals?

thom marti