Kiwis and May madness

This week has been crazy, although every week seems crazy these days. I think May might be one of the toughest months for farming around here. We're still taking care of everything spring, including seeding spring veggies, while trying to get everything early summer into the ground. And harvest for CSA and two markets. And start more summer seed. And weed and water it all. We also have four weddings to do this month. One down, three to go. How do we stay sane? That is a very good question. Lots of dark brooding moments in the strawberry patch and a complacency with a messy house help. We should try and eat better but granola with yogurt and berries, smoothies, and grits and eggs are the foods of choice these days. I'm actually avoiding the kitchen right now so I don't have to make dinner. Its kind of sad with all this absolutely delicious produce we're growing. Just not enough time in the day.
These pictures are of a couple kiwi plants and their fruit setting that our friends Tim and Helga of Four Leaf Farm recently gave us. A wedding present we finally decided to go pick up from their house and boy am I glad we did. The plants (one male and one female in order to acheive proper pollination) are really cool looking and even cooler is the fact that they will eventually produce kiwis! Tim and Helga said they got 800 off of their pair (the female plant really, the male is just good for pollination) two years ago. It's going to be fun taking care of the plants; looks like they require some serious trellising so we'll have to get creative. So not only did we get some kiwi plants, we also got an excellent dinner of salmon they had caught themselves in Alaska and a grand tour of their beautiful farm. They bring some of the nicest produce the Durham Farmers Market has to offer and Stuart and I have always admired their skills so it was quite a pleasure to see where all the magic happens.
We had an awesome market last Saturday. It was pretty close to our all time record which was last July when our melons came in. All the flowers on saturday sold really well except for the foxglove.What was i thinking that it would steal the show? I was very wrong, even though I am still a big fan of the flower. Batchelor buttons of all the flowers seem to be vying for most popular flower. I guess it is the blue. I eagerly await this color all spring and miss it when it's gone. There aren't too many flowers that bloom a true blue. It's edible as well, although I doubt many people eat it. I'm just dumbfounded though to have people choose this flower of all the ones on the table. I guess it's the price as it is the cheapest option on the table. We are thinking this weekend is going to be pretty insane as well at market since it is mother's day and graduation weekend for UNC and Duke (I think). So don't forget your mother this weekend!