Summertime

Summer is a busy time for Mike and me as we own and operate a small organic produce operation and I head to Farmer's Markets every couple of days to sell the produce plus my homemade breads and baked goods.  Mike grows a wide variety of produce and we enjoy providing healthy, organic foods to families in our area.  Of course, we get to eat it daily ourselves, too!

Countless hours go into the produce: prepping, planting, watering, weeding, and picking. The growing season starts early here in Kansas with potatoes and onions.  This is one of the early season gardens just getting planted on March 7th.

                   

Strawberries in May/June are our biggest crop.  They are a sweet reward for all of the hard work it takes to keep the plants productive and to get the berries out to families fast and fresh.

This year a good quantity of our berries were purchased by a microbrewery, Kansas Territory Brewing Co., in Washington, KS.   They were pleased to find our locally grown, organic fruit and used the berries to make an outstanding strawberry-rhubarb beer .   We imbibed in some of the end product - quality control and being friendly, you know - and these folks make great beer.  Delicious!

At the end of June the puppies from Dixie's litter all went to their hunting-companion homes. It is always such a pleasure to see the care and enthusiasm of the new owners and I love the many photos and notes I get on their progress afterward.  Many of these pups go on to travel and have adventurous lives that many people can only wish for.

  







During July Mike and I had the rare treat of taking off for a few days together and we headed to northern Minnesota with the dogs and the OR in tow.  We enjoyed the cool temps and scenery but especially the opportunity to run the dogs in the shaded coolness of the grouse woods.   They loved ending the runs in beautiful lakes.  We made new acquaintances who live up that way and I'm thinking that we will be back again for sure.

For now it is back to work with the produce and baking.  But we are counting down the weeks until the day in September when we load everyone up and head to Montana.  That's the real payoff for us.

Cheers

Lynn Dee