Hi,

It is now summer vacation, so I have three new full-time employees that are diligent helpers. Actually, they are not really new. That is the good news. The bad news is that our Eli is soon beginning more intensive studies and is leaving us. Accordingly, I'm looking for someone to replace him to do the deliveries one day or two days a week, and for long term! If you know someone who could be good or is interested, please introduce us.

There is so much that I want to write about -- mites in tomatoes, the different species of pumpkins that grow in the garden and how they differ in shape, color and size (which are still being sown continuously), cucumber problems, and the expected shortage of leafy greens during the summer (keep in mind that we have lots in the winter!) -- but it's the summer vacation, and as I mentioned above, my 3 kids, the not so new workers because they chip in all year round, are participating more with unique employment conditions that include lots of feedback, fun times and many many popsicles.

Hi friends,

June 21 was the summer solstice - the day with the longest period of daylight of the year. Why is this so? Two factors come into play. First, the earth's axis is not perpendicular to its orbit. Rather, it is slanted relative to its orbit around the sun and, in the month of June, the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the sun.

Accordingly, the northern hemisphere is exposed to sunlight for more hours a day than in any other day of the year. In the southern hemisphere, which is slanted away from the sun in June, the opposite is true - this is their shortest day.

That's it! There are almost no winter crops in the garden!
The leafy plants that are being sown can handle the heat and the majority of the rest are actually fruit. I wrote about "fruit or vegetable" in the past here. These crops will remain all season and fruit will be continuously picked from them, which is contrary to winter veggies which requires harvesting or removing the entire plant, like the wintery roots.
All the weeds that try so hard to dwell in our warm and damp patches become an essential ground cover in the summer.

Hi,

The garden is all summer !! There is one last cycle of root celery, that will be given out this week. I was hoping it would grow bigger, but it has it's own opinion... My apologies (great opportunity for chicken soup with celery - the last until next winter).

I'm attaching the water-conserving bottle-in-in-toilet-tank trick, for those who didn't understand what I was talking about.

This week I sowed more in trays: tomatoes - cherry-Perry - small & pear shaped; chard - a bit too late; and Squash - large, small, round, flowery, green, orange, yellow, spaghetti.

Hello Friends,

The heat causes everything to move faster. I hope that there will not be changes in the contents of the boxes from today until distribution day. It is very difficult to plan under these conditions.

Just as it is pleasurable and enjoyable to us in the warm weather, plants also "blossom" from this enjoyment. They grow faster, and "run" to their finish line - to flower and produce seeds. You can see development from day to day.