The predator came back this morning and found where mama and the dozen had bedded down near the bird feeders. The chicks escaped while mom sacrificed herself to save them. It was not a great way to start the day and it wasn’t until the end of harvest that I stopped feeling gloomy. Hmm, I tried glossing over the Part 2 of the Bad Morning Blues I see. Well I was raised catholic so let’s do confession; when I tried to herd the 10 baby chicks to safety at dawn this morning, I fatally injured one of the chicks. A metal wall I was using to corral them tipped over on him (I’m gonna pretend to know it was a rooster to take the edge off, ok? and I had to end his life by hand. You might not be a baby chicken massacrer but perhaps you have made poor decisions that you regretted vehemently and you understand how it goes. Ugh.

But then there were ten, and after harvest was done we had a comical time trying to corral them, finally succeeding in capturing half the Orphans (as that generation are now collectively known), enabling us to box them up and send them to their new home at CSA shareholder Cody’s house – where they will grow up adored by her two children and spoiled as the only poultry people present. So that was nice. The remaining five will be bravely facing life and the lurking predators and the dangerous Gabe Guy with the rest of the flock.

There is also a vegetable predator marauding in the greenhouse – a woodchuck, so with the aid of a motion sensor alarm I send him running with a warning shot from the .22, but if he returns and continues to evade the live trap while making an absolute hog of himself on our produce, we might get to find out how his species tastes.

The deer, however, are no problem at all this year and it’s relaxing not having to worry about them – especially since we finally finished the amazing new deer fence yesterday (that last part was unlikely to be breached, but the possibility of being proven wrong had kept your farmer up at night worrying about the tender little fall crop seedlings growing up just inside there).

Foraging continues: this time of year is all blackberries and wild mushrooms – this week we brought a load of chicken of the woods over to Neighbor Marcia’s to refrigerate for the market, and found a hoard of far superior quality and quantity when we were driving away up her driveway looking into her woods! All rejoiced, and the abundance helped make the farmer’s market our most successful ever!

And in happiest news, mighty enough to counterbalance the chicken problems; the cat has officially adopted us and its name is Ranger and the boys love it and it purrs when we pet and pick it up.

Farm Life taketh away but it also giveths … so, so much.

Inside Box 11

• Little Old School Pears – eat these fast or they will become mush. Ideally eat them at the exact moment the greenish tint turns yellowish. If you wait too many minutes longer the flesh softens and browns. But they’re pretty yummy so try your skills at timing their consumption. Put them all in a shallow bowl where you can see them all; the comparison allows you to see which are yellow. Yellow ones might last a few more minutes if refrigerated but why not just eat it now?
• Bok Choi bagged with Baby Broccoli
• Melon – note: melons don’t keep getting riper/sweeter while they sit, unlike tomatoes
• either Radishes or Tomatillos
• Eggplants
• Zucchinis
• a Cucumber
• Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Shallots
• Italian Frying Peppers and one ripe Bell Pepper – use them the same.
• Jalepeno
• Sweet Corn
• Lettuce Leaf Italian Basil
• Kale Microgreens