This morning I walked the farm to check out the fields and I was really happy to see everything is doing quite well. The spring rains have made moisture abundant and the 80 degree + days have given the needed heat. The next crop field to be harvested will be the oats. There are a couple signs we look for to tell us when to start the oat binding. At the top of the oat plant are the seed pods. If you squeeze these pods right now you get a milky looking substance from inside. This will change as the plant matures and the inner part of the seed will become more solid and yield what is called dough when it is squeezed. Once the seed is in the dough stage we start looking at the color of the stock. When it is not quite all gold we will start the harvest. Binding oats is one of those tricky things where timing is everything. You have to wait long enough so the seed has plenty of time to reach maximum density but not so long that the plant stock drops the seed when the binder goes through the field. Jeff and I think that we should be able to start work at the end of next week.
I've also include a picture of the heirloom garden plots. Most of the work right now is weeding and the staking of the tomato plants.
