It has suddenly gotten a bit nippy around here, a bit too cool for early September but then we don’t have much say in the matter. We’ve enjoyed some rain(9 inches in two nights last week!) but the gray skies haven’t stopped some things from growing. Besides our lettuces in the garden, we’ve had some other good luck around Draco Hill.

Here’s our first oyster mushroom harvest coming in. We’re calling this ShroomHenge of course. What else could it be? And another use for those “useless” box elders we took out of the orchard site this spring. You can get this mushroom spawn from Field and Forest in Wisconsin – a great little mom and pop company and very generous with advice.

We were lucky enough to get some cover crops down on the berms before the heavy weather hit. Unfortunately, the velvet leaf already had a head start. It was trying to shade everything out.

But after taking off the tops with the weed whacker, we exposed the budding clover, as well as the annual ryegrass and some kale and tillage radish we’d planted, all.

It’s going to take more than one pass to try to keep down the weeds and give the good stuff a chance. Just hoping we get it all off to a good start before the snow comes. In the meantime, we’re in the final stages of ordering plants for the orchard.

Looks like the latest frontrunners are pawpaws, Asian pears, sweet gooseberries, ground cherries and maybe honeyberries now that we’ve learned they aren’t a member of the same family as honeysuckle.

Any opinions on the matter? Let us know.