After days of hot, humid weather with temperatures in the 90s, we're finally getting a brief respite here at my Bedford, New York farm - temperatures this week are in the 80s with a little less humidity, but unfortunately, still no significant rain.
Supporting a working farm is a lot of work. In order for it to thrive, the animals, gardens, pastures, and my home need constant tender loving care. We also keep a running list of all the chores that need to be done at any given time, so everything always looks and functions at its best.
Here are some photos, enjoy…
This is my allée of pin oaks. Quercus palustris, the pin oak or swamp Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section of the genus Quercus. This is the first allée one sees upon entering the farm. They have grown and developed so majestically over the years with good pruning, watering, and feeding.
Across the carriage road is my large Equipment Barn, where we keep all the farm equipment and vehicles when not in use. We try to keep it as organized and as clean as possible to save time hunting for tools and supplies later. Here is Fernando blowing all the debris out of the equipment shed. He does this in the morning when it is empty.
We’ve been using STIHL’s backpack blowers for years here at my farm. These blowers are powerful and fuel-efficient. The gasoline-powered engines provide enough rugged power to tackle heavy debris while delivering low emissions.
Nearby is my pool. During the summer, my daughter and grandchildren love to use it whenever they visit. The surrounding hedges and lush green lawns are regularly manicured to keep them looking their best.
Here is my outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring, mowing the lawn around the pool. He is on our Kubota SZ22NC-48 stand-on mower. We use this to mow areas where the riding mower cannot go.
My new yew table in the pavilion outside my pool is wiped down and the chairs are all dusted clean. The yew table was made from a tree I cut down at my former East Hampton home. It was repurposed and made into this long table earlier this year.
It’s all in the details when it comes to many of the chores we do around the farm. At my Winter House, this was one of the brass weatherstripping saddles earlier this week. They all needed a good polishing.
Enma uses a very soft sponge and metal cleaner to gently wipe the dirt from in between the grooves of this saddle.
And then wipes the entire saddle down with a clean rag.
It looks much better after some time and elbow grease.
Here is Chhiring watering some of the boxwood shrubs. We haven’t had any significant rain here since late June. It’s been a very dry, dry summer. Every day, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew make sure every garden, grove, and allée gets some water.
Over in the goose yard, my geese love to watch all the activity around the farm. I have 16 geese here at Cantitoe Corners – Sebastopol geese, Toulouse geese, African geese, Chinese geese, and of course my Pomeranian guard geese.
The geese are watching Fernando as he mows their pen. He is using my Kubota ZD1211-60 zero turn riding mower. It has a 24.8 horsepower diesel engine and a wide mower deck. On the right is one of several pools I provide for the geese to keep them cool during these hot summers.
Fernando also trims the grasses around the tree pits outside the goose yard where the mower cannot reach.
The “soccer field” lawn is also looking very clean and freshly mowed. At one edge of the lawn are six weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘pendula.’ The weeping hornbeam is deciduous and has a tight, dense growth pattern.
We work very hard to keep my gardens looking well-manicured. This is what I call my Stewartia garden, where I have several Stewartia trees and many other shade loving plants. It’s been freshly weeded and looks great. I don’t use any chemicals in my gardens, so I do tend to get a lot of weeds during this time. And, if left alone, so many of them quickly overtake healthy flowers, plants, and vegetables, stealing their sunlight, water, and soil nutrients. It’s important to weed, weed, weed.
Down at the chicken coops, Dawa checks for eggs twice a day. Chickens reach the peak of their egg-laying schedule when there’s the most daylight, so summer is naturally their best season. As winter approaches and hours of daylight diminish, so do the number of eggs the hens lay.
On this afternoon, Dawa collected more than 30-eggs.
Here, my beautiful Friesian, Geert, is getting cooled off with a little water after being out in the paddock. All the equines are also groomed every day – their hooves are picked of any mud, stones and debris, and their coats are cleaned, and brushed. It’s a time consuming task, but it keeps my stable residents healthy, happy and comfortable.
And back at my Winter House, more watering with our Gilmour Adjustable Circular Tripod Sprinkler. I’ve been using Gilmour hoses and sprinklers for some time. This one is watering the plantings on my terrace parterre. In the center of the garden bed is one of two hand-casted antique fountains I purchased many year ago and finally installed in 2018. They look so nice on this terrace and all the visiting birds love to bathe in them.
Here’s another sprinkler in one of my pastures. Despite the lack of rain, everything looks great. What are some of your most important summer chores?
This time of year is always fun at my farm because there’s so much to harvest in the vegetable garden.
It's important to check the garden frequently - one never knows what will be ready for picking. Our most recent harvest included carrots, peppers, lettuce, beans, cabbage, and trays of delicious, juicy, ripe tomatoes. Tomatoes have a long growing season - 60 days to more than 100 days to harvest. And finally they're ready!
Enjoy these photos.
At long last, our tomatoes are ripe for picking. We grow about 100 tomato plants every year.
We start preparing the garden for planting in late May. For tomatoes, we first roll out thick weed cloth over the designated raised beds. We do this to make them neat, tidy, and free from weeds. Tomatoes should be planted in an area with full sun and well-drained soil.
All our tomato plants are started from seed in my greenhouse and then transplanted into the ground when they are several inches to a foot tall.
By the end of May, all the tomatoes are planted. Most tomato plant varieties need about 100-days to mature, but there are some that only need 50-60 days. And it’s a good idea to always practice crop rotation – planting vegetables in a different location each growing season to help prevent soil diseases, insect pests, weeds, and to reduce reliance on one set of nutrients.
By the middle of June, smaller two to three foot stakes are replaced with taller bamboo poles to help support the growing tomato plants.
The plants are still pretty small, but the time goes quickly. I am always trying new methods for staking our tomato plants. Every year we try something new and better. I like using bamboo canes. They are easy to buy in bulk, and can be found in a variety of sizes. These canes are about eight to nine feet tall. This year, I came up with the idea to make straight supports down each aisle – with no netting, just bamboo.
Horizontal bamboo pieces are secured across all the bamboo stakes – four rows about a foot apart going up the bamboo. All of the canes are secured with natural jute twine.
Here are the plants in early July – taller than knee high.
Tomato leaves have serrated, or wavy and pointed, edging along the entire perimeter. Tomato leaves are compound with multiple leaflets growing along a common stem, called a rachis. These leaves are also slightly fuzzy to the touch, which is caused by the trichomes, or multi-cellular hairs, on the plant. Never use chemically treated wood or other material for staking climbers, as the chemicals would likely run off and go into the soil.
Remember, it’s the yellow flowers produced by tomato plants that must be fertilized before fruit can form. Once fertilized, the flowers develop into tomatoes – small green globes that become visible at the base of the blossoms and then eventually become mature fruits.
By the third week of July, many fruits are already growing so well. Tomatoes grow best when the daytime temperature is between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. This summer has been particularly warm and dry with many days in the 90s, which slows down development.
These plants are drooping because of the weight of the vines.
When the vines are weighed down, it is important to support them, so they do not hit the ground. Here, the twine is looped gently around the vine.
And then tied to the crossbars. With the crossbars, there is plenty of space to tie and support every tomato vine. This is the best method we have used yet.
A couple weeks later, some of the tomatoes are already beautiful and red. It’s a good idea to grow several varieties, including at least one or two disease-resistant types, since, of all veggies, tomatoes tend to be the most susceptible to disease.
There are several types of tomatoes available, including globe tomatoes used in processing, and for fresh eating. Beefsteak are large, often used for sandwiches. Oxheart tomatoes vary in size and are shaped like large strawberries. Plum tomatoes are usually oblong, and used in tomato sauces. Campari tomatoes are sweet and juicy and of small to medium size. And cherries – which are so good eaten whole and fresh off the vine. Many of our tomatoes are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds – a source I’ve been using for many years for both seeds and supplies.
Planting can also be staggered to produce early, mid, and late-season tomato harvests.
These plants look so much better when kept upright and neat. The tomato plants have a lot of room to climb, keeping delicious fruits looking their best.
Just a few rows down, the kale is still looking so great this year.
And so is the lettuce. We have lots of lettuce heads for our summer salads and sandwiches.
This past weekend, we harvested many bright orange carrots.
And more than three boxes of our beautiful, ripe red tomatoes. This was our first picking. We’ll be harvesting tomatoes for a couple of weeks – a little bit every few days.
There are many, many more! Many of the tomatoes are eaten fresh, but every summer, I also save lots of tomatoes to make homemade juice and sauce. Not only are they delicious and nutritious, but they can be stored in containers in the freezer for any time the craving hits. How did your tomatoes do this year?
So many of you love the updates on the babies at the farm - currently, the youngest are five young Guinea fowl and a peachick incubated and hatched right here. They’re doing very well eating, drinking, and enjoying all the sights and sounds of their surroundings.
If you're not familiar with Guinea fowl, they are members of the Numididae family. These birds originated in Africa, but are now found all over the world. I’ve raised Guinea fowl for years. They are ground-nesting, seed- and-insect-eating birds that love ticks, locusts, flies, maggots, snails, and other pesky bugs. They are also wonderful at patrolling the chicken yard - sounding off loud alarms whenever something unusual enters the enclosure.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
I am so happy I am able to properly incubate and hatch healthy fowl right here at the farm. The eggs are kept in optimal hatching temperatures and are safe from any pecking hens in the coop. Here is my incubator in my kitchen. The incubation period for Guinea eggs is 26 to 28 days, similar to the incubation period for turkeys.
Last month, we hatched five beautiful baby Guinea fowl or keets and a peachick. Once hatched, they are kept in a bin, also in my kitchen, for about a week.
Then they’re brought down to our bird “nursery” which is located in the feed room of my stable.
We house them in one of my large indoor bird cages. As each one is put in, it is introduced to the waterer and feeder, so it knows exactly where to eat and drink. They are all familiar with waterers and feeders, but it is still a good practice to show them. They have a suspended feeder filled with medicated turkey starter or wild game bird starter. At six weeks of age, they are switched to turkey or game bird grower.
Here is the peachick. We are not yet sure if it is a male or a female, but it is very healthy and doesn’t mind being the only peachick in the group of Guinea keets.
And here is one of the Guinea keets being put in the cage. This youngster is very alert and curious.
Keets are Guinea fowl offspring that are younger than 12 weeks old.
Guinea fowl are native to Africa, and as such, are very susceptible to dampness during the first two weeks after hatching. After the initial two weeks, Guinea keets are widely considered the hardiest of all domestic fowl.
Here is the peachick in front of the keets. Keets are mostly brown with black stripes and markings with tan underbellies. The head has a wide black stripe down the center with two narrow black stripes on each side, with narrow orange stripes between the black. The beak, legs, and feet are a light orange.
Mature Guinea fowl colors are mostly shades of blue, brown, and white or combinations thereof. In this group we have three traditional colored Guinea fowl and two lighter ones.
These keets have a lot of growing to do – just look how big their feet are.
Here is a lighter colored keet with some tan and dark brown markings.
Here, the same keets are about five weeks of age. The peachick in the lower left may even think it’s also a keet right now. Guinea fowl enjoy being with their own kind and will always maintain their own social groups even when integrated into the coop with the chickens.
And if well cared for, these babies can live up to 15-years.
With all this energy, these keets are already starting to perch and spread their wings. The The one in the back is perched on a stuffed toy we placed into the cage.
It is very difficult to sex Guinea fowl. The best way to tell males from females is by their cry. When they’re older, the female Guineas will make a two-syllable call that sounds something like “buckwheat, buckwheat”. Males can only make a one-syllable sound similar to “kickkkkk kickkkkk”. The males also have larger gills or wattles. And do you know what a group of Guinea fowl is called? The collective noun for guinea fowl is “confusion” or “rasp.”
When they are adults, they look like these Guinea fowl in my chicken yard. One Guinea fowl is the size of a large chicken and weighs about four-pounds fully grown.
Notice, the head and neck area of a Guinea is bare, which helps to regulate temperature. These birds are not too fond of the cold weather, but they are very hardy and can live well in nearly every climate.
With short, rounded wings and short tails, these birds look oval-shaped. Their beaks are short but curved and very stout.
Where one goes, they all go. If one gets lost it will call out until the flock comes to find it. And Guinea fowl are very noisy. I can often hear them all the way from my Winter House.
These birds keep my chickens safe – sounding alarms whenever intruders are near. I am so glad they thrive here at Cantitoe Corners.
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