Mid-summer monsoony dreams....

Our days have been filled with analyzing the weather patterns, obsessing over the barometric pressure and crossing our fingers for daily monsoons. When the sky darkens and the clouds open up we breath a sigh of relief that we do not have to water!

Luckily in Arizona we have two summer seasons which means we can have two plantings of summer crops. These last few weeks we got tons of new squash, beans, watermelons and flowers in the ground. We are kind of in between right now as our early summer crops fade out and our new plantings take hold. Right now its all about keeping the weeds at bay and making sure our babies get enough water. We expanded into our second field for our monsoon plantings and the soil over there is incredible. The previous owners had horses for many years so the land is well fertilized.

We have some early summer crops that are chugging along like the Long Island Cheese pumpkins. I love these fairytale style pumpkins and they are super delicious with a sweet light orange flesh. Plus they hail from our home, Long Island, so I love them even more. We have so many growing and the patch continues to expand out with new blossoms.

Boy are we having fun with the zinnias. Not only are they epic producers, lovers of the desert environment, but the bees and butterflies go crazy for them! We have a mellow natural bee hive in one of the cottonwood trees and its clear they are sticking around this summer because of the zinnias. Also Andrew planted some mammoth sunflowers by the mushroom greenhouse that they love. We are drying the heads to sell at market so keep your eyes out for them.

And no, we haven't forgot about mushrooms! This week we are cleaning out the greenhouse and getting ready to start making logs to be ready sometime in September. The next few weeks will bring us weeding, weeding and more weeding and hopefully many more sunsets like these.....

Thanks for reading and see you at the market! -Nicole, Andrew, Willy & Big Girl