Hello Monsoons!

The monsoon season came in late June to everyone's surprise. Usually it rolls in about the 4th of July but it came a bit early making for some very happy farmers. The smell of summer rain is intoxicating. The sunsets, clouds and lightening they bring is slowly making summer my favorite season.

Andrew was excited to get the tiller out once the ground softened up. We received our seeds right in time and have lots of beds planted with more squash, black eyed peas, basil, okra, cucumbers and zinnias among other things. Speaking of zinnias the ones we have planted have really begun to flourish. We started selling bouquets at the market and people have been loving them!

We also planted a few new rows of sunflowers. The branching sunflowers have been doing great, we are harvesting the heads to dry and sell as bird feeders. The butterflies, bees and hummingbirds have been busy pollinating the entire garden. The flowers have really helped to attract them.

Oh! And the crenshaw melons have ripened! These melons are INCREDIBLE! The flesh goes right up to the skin so you get so much sweet fruit from one melon. We may just end up eating them all ourselves. Our heirloom tomato crop has been producing like crazy. We love that our friend Charlie (of Aravaipa Heirlooms), down the canyon, grew all the seedlings. These are true Aravaipa Canyon tomatoes! We have been picking tons of them every two days and they have been selling great at the markets.

The next few weeks will bring more planting and LOTS of weeding and LOTs more harvesting from our early summer crops. Hopefully as it starts to cool off more we can get mushrooms going. I know many customers are missing them but with the new green house its just TOO hot in there. Thanks for reading :) -Nicole & Andrew