The farm in July

Larry the snakey snake

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOA. THIS fella - length: four & a half to five feet - was caught red-handed today robbing eggs. He just peeked up out of the nest box, so I had to wrangle 'im outta there. He's been rusticated, banished to Tannehill State Park, about a mile away. There to frolic and subsist on what mother nature provides in the form of voles and whatnot.

Actually, we've known this snake for a while, seeing him occasionally slinking round the front yard and hanging out in our shed. We'd even named him: Larry. We thought he was keeping the rats out of the feed, and maybe he was, but it was clear today that we were working at cross purposes on the chicken front.

Poor Larry, we'll miss you.

What hops shortage??

We're growing hops! This will be key to our all-Alabama beer effort this year. I've got 18 plants (6 different varieties) and they're growing like mad. Fun.

from around the farm...

I'm a fun guy

Mushrooms are wonderful. This is our first batch of logs for shiitakes; we put in 300 plugs and I've got 1000 more going in this week. This is really exciting.

Bachelor's buttons out in full force!

First Market

The season has begun with the Homegrown Alabama farmers' market at Canterbury Chapel in Tuscaloosa. We'll be there every Thursday from 3pm - 6:30pm through October 9th. This is a new market - we in New College have been working with Homegrown Alabama and others to get this off the ground for a very long time, and the first market was fabulous!

Yesterday we had spinach, loads of lettuce, cilantro, and baby plants for sale - we sold out of everything by about 4:30, so try to get there early next time!

See you at the market!