Mowing; Vegetable Report

For the past couple of weeks I've been spending a few hours every afternoon that weather and time have permitted in the fields with the sickle bar mower attached to the BCS walk-behind tractor, a jarring experience. Ordinarily I like to mow two of the fields in mid-June and again at this time of year, but they were too wet to mow in June, and so I skipped it. Except for mowing the orchard and scything on a steep bank behind the house I'm done as of today.

The chief reason to mow is to keep the fields as fields and prevent them from growing into spruce forest. Spruce seedlings dot the fields every year, it seems. There is also the occasional white pine seedling. The hay, such as it is, may be used for mulch, either right there or moved to surround apple trees as a fertilizer, or be composted, depending on how much time I have to spend on moving hay.

Blackberries are coming in, not nearly so much as last year, but still very good. Nearly finished eating one of the two rows of potatoes. Greens have all gone by and the later plantings were washed away, so it's back to store-bought. Cabbages are ready; beets and onions will be ready soon. Tomatoes plentiful on the vines but way behind on account of the cool, damp June and July; will they ripen? It's getting cool again, now, with temps going down tonight to the 40s, days in the 60s and 70s.