The Newfarm Forums

[Bea Kunz]

Hi everyone,

Working at catching up here~~~~~~~time is still the biggest issue
with me. I now understand one of the reasons for family's from the
era of my parents and grandparents having so many children.

To work the farm!! I guess today someone would call that child labor.
Actually that was an issue even then....well, that's for another time.

We have been up to our eyeballs in herbs, fresh, dried, wholesale, retail,
mail-order, farm pick-up, deliveries, you name it !

I keep thinking they will slow down soon, but honestly the hotter the weather the better they grow. And of course the more you cut the more they grow, the more you have to cut, and so it goes~~~~~~~~~

We at long last have seen the last of the Japanese Beetles, well for this year anyway. I did some research and found what is supposed to be a good treatment for the soil to help in controling them. As you may already know they are a grub over-wintering in the soil.

Now we are having leaf-hoppers, which is a small grass-hopper looking bug. Very quick, I have managed to keep them at bay somewhat with
sheer physcial swatting them to the ground and killing them.
I don't really know if they are considered a good bug or a bad bug, they are eating on all my herbs, so as far as I'm concerned they are in my bad bug book.
Also starting to see the Parsleyworms on what else, my parsley. I don't mind picking them off and moving them to another location. They are the
larvae of the beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly, I have already seen a few in the gardens. I just pull up a clump of parsley and put it down by the back of the yard and by the time they eat it all, some of them have
become Swallowtails. Very interesting to watch them as they get fatter and fatter.

We have our field work done for the planting of Blueberrie's for next year.

Now we must start looking at building or buying a greenhouse to overwinter some things. Mike is very good at building but once again the time factor is there. Have to make a decision soon.

Our September getaway is looking more and more like a greenhouse!!

I have to tell you I am very tired, just bone tired. I have not worked this hard in so many years at a constant pace. I need the getaway, but I have to have the greenhouse. Mike is very good at making things work out that seem impossible if money is the common denominator. So I'm just
waiting to see, do we go or not?

The herbs have not suffered at all from the extreme heat, they thrive
on it actually. I know that's not the case with so many crops, so I'm praying those of you who are growing vegetables have not had too much loss.

Be Well,
Bea & Mike Kunz
SageHillFarms
http://www.sagehillfarmsandvintagestore.com

[CP Knerr]

Bea:

Just curious... I'm growing cut herbs (sweet basil, lemon basil, lime basil, chives, summer savory, oregano, parsley, lemon thyme, winter thyme, etc. etc.) and am currently bunching them with rubber bands. This works OK but I get that rubber band smell which kind of ruins the herb smell... What would you suggest as far as something to hold the bunches together goes?

Thanks,
CP

[Bea Kunz]

Hi CP,

Boy I have dealt with that issue time and again. I don't like the rubber-band solution either. Not only do you get the smell, the rubber-band usually tightens up too much and cuts the air off from the stem, causing
the stem to rot before it dries.

I have pretty good luck with raffia, you can adjust it to the desired
tightness as the herb dries.

I don't dry a lot by hanging, just a few for my own personal use.

Most of ours is dried in the dehydrator because of the quanities we have to have for making our herb blends.

I didn't think I would like it, but I do. the flavor and the visual look is very good and strong.

Good luck, hope this works for you.

Bea Kunz/SageHillFarms.