Week of 8/18/24

Another Summer week has slipped by, and what a contrast in weather; from a low of 49 degrees on Wednesday to a high of 92 this coming Sunday. It’s been a busy week with the harvesting of the garden. I dug the last of the potatoes on Wednesday. Every other day I pick the beans and cucumbers. Twice a week I pick the tomatoes plus the other veggies for the Saturday market in Spring Green.

This last Saturday we had a fabulous day at the market. We sold out of everything in the bakery and produce department. The Asian Beetles are back in droves, a bit later that usual. I had thought we might not have so many as we had hardly any potato bugs. But we had no such luck, and the beetles will eat the leaves off of the plum trees and the raspberry bushes in a few days.

I learned something new this week, never get too old for that. As I was coming out of the woods, destroying the poke week that’s moving in the woods, I saw four tom turkey, with two of them fighting and the other two watching. I drive within ten feet of them, before they broke the fight off and ran. I always thought the toms only fought in the spring during the mating season, where normally you can’t get within a couple hundred yards.

Before the turkeys take off they were out in the field eating the berries from the nightshade plant, which are poisonous. I began to wonder if that would have something to do with their behavior, does anyone know?

Meanwhile the book The Heart Remembers is selling well and you can order it at www.dorrancebookstore.com.

-Helmuth Krause