IS IT SUMMER YET?

I believe we are now officially in Mud Season!!!

We are, as with all farmers right now, waiting for the ground to dry up! I promise, I will never take good weather or our (usually) balmy Virgina winters for granted again!!!!!

Currently we are waiting for a few consecutive sunny days to take down our old deer fencing (or what's left of it) and get a new and different deer fence up. We are switching it up, because quite honestly, if a deer wants to get into your vegetables, it will find a way. We've learned this the hard way, so we are putting in an electric fence specifically made to keep deer out.

Yeesh, I'm seeing a trend here in my posts. deer and weather - my two (not so)favorite topics! Let's hope for great weather throughout the season and no deer so you don't have to keep hearing about them! Then I'll be able to move onto my third favorite subject - BEES!! - oh and of course vegetables.
But let's get back to bees.

The hive sounds o.k. right now. It's too cold to take a peak, but by listening with an ear up to the hive body, one is able to hear the buzz of the bees fluttering their wings and keeping warm. We'll be getting a few new hives this spring and we're also getting one hive that will be a specific CSA hive. If there is honey at the end of the season, it will be divided among the CSA members. I'm really excited about this. My intention is to blog about the bees, take pictures and if CSA members want to come out to look at their bees, we will have a couple of beekeeping suits available. This way everyone can get involved if they wish to. The whole concept sort of reminds me of when grade schoolers get a bunch of eggs to incubate, and the whole class participates in hatching and raising those chickens. Or at least that's what I think happens. I recall as a first grader waiting for eggs that never hatched.

I am happy to report the CSA is filling up quickly. I attribute this to our delicious produce, wonderful returning members, adventurous new members and the fabulous folks who spread the word about how great the CSA's are in our area!