Agropraxis Farm

Nice working weather during the past week. Warm days in the 70’s with cool mornings. Low humidity and light breezes. Makes getting the field work done a real pleasure. I’ve been concentrating on getting work done that overcomes the slow start to the year we’ve had. The cool and changeable start made food production in the early season tough. The outlook remains optimistic as we near the solstice and the hot weather that forecasters say will be with us soon.

Each day I walk the potato rows and collect all of the Colorado Potato Beetles(CPB) that appear. They are so easy to spot on the green foliage. The striped adults with their oversized wing cases and eye catching colors.  Or the orange larva that seem to waddle their gluttonous way around the plants. When time allows I work through the plants crushing the egg smears on the leaf undersides. The beetles have a passive opossum way of going “dead” when they are accidentally bumped off a plant. They may roll to the ground and remain motionless for a long spell. Only to become vigorous in returning to their habitat. This regular measure helps to keep the losses to the beetles acceptable and avoid extreme measures like spraying broad spectrum pesticides that kill all insects, good and bad.

Like the CPB’s other insects are in points of their lifecycles that makes them more evident. The field hosts a squadron of Barn Swallows that do aerial duty much of the day. What fun to be a swallow for a short flying spell…. They seem to love the pastures and fields that Tillers cultivates. Eating on the wing and chattering up a storm.  They sometimes seem to squabble at each other or complain about someone getting more than their share. Sometimes a Kingbird or Phoebe will be with them in the field. Though they like to hunt from a perch on a wire or sapling and leaving the mass of small insects to catch the big juicy ones. Their all welcome on our wonderfully diverse farm!!!

Farmer Pete