Week 8 on the Farm: More Potatoes, Bees, Transplanting, Weeding, More Bed-Making. Otherwise known as the week when everything happens all at once.

Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 50s on Tuesday; Low 60s on Wednesday.

This really is the time of year where we feel like everything needs to happen NOW. There are more seeds to start indoors and more beds to clear and direct-seed outdoors. At the same time, all of the seeds and plants already in the ground need to be watered, weeded and protected from insects.

Tuesday folks, since you didn't get in on the potato planting a couple of weeks ago, we're going to give you the opportunity to help us with our next potato planting: Adirondack Blue potatoes! If you haven't had a chance to look at the links I sent earlier on potatoes, check them out & we can talk about them on Tuesday:

100 Circle Farms, Washington State: http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/see_what_we_are_made_of/meet_our_suppliers/100_circle_farms.html

Potato Park, Peru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLI2KySC9-U

And here's the website for the Potato Park if you'd like to learn more: http://www.parquedelapapa.org/. 

We'd also like to give those of you who are interested the opportunity to look inside our beehives. We don't want to disturb them too much, so we'll only open them one day this week. Then we'll plan to give the other group the opportunity to check them out in a couple of weeks. IMPORTANT: You certainly aren't required to look in the hives if you are uncomfortable with bees. However, if you do want to get close to them, please come to the farm with long sleeved shirts and pants and close-toed shoes. (You can change on the farm if you need to.) Light colors are best, as are smooth and natural fabrics. Don't wear black fleece unless you want to test our bees' temperaments!

Here are a couple of videos that will give you a little background on Colony Collapse Disorder, which has been plaguing our honeybee populations for quite awhile now, including one on beekeeping in cities:

Marla Spivak on Colony Collapse Disorder: http://www.ted.com/talks/marla_spivak_why_bees_are_disappearing

Noah Wilson-Rich on Urban Beekeeping: http://www.ted.com/talks/noah_wilson_rich_every_city_needs_healthy_honey_bees

And from PBS's Nature, a clip on the "dance-language" of bees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE-8QuBDkkw