Pictures: tomatoes, pigs, and the house

The quickest way to a person's heart is through their stomach

Another gorgeous day on the farm:

- When planting anything of the broccoli family, the soil should be pushed down firmly and tightly around the stem up to about the first leaf.

- I can never look at pork the same way again after looking in a pig's eyes.

- Spider eggs look like a cluster of little pearls.

- Ladybirds (ladybugs) eat pesky plant pests. Instead of using insecticide, you can capture ladybirds and encourage them to make the problematic plant their new home.

Baked my first batch of cookies in a commercial kitchen! They were acceptable, which is good considering the oven was crazy fancy and I measured everything with my eyes.

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. - Maya Angelou

I say tom-AY-to, they say tom-AH-to

South Farm is not your typical farm. South Farm is a wedding venue. It's a "farm" that Martha Stewart would feel comfortable visiting.

That being said, I will luckily be working behind-the-scenes in the vegetable gardens and will not have anything to do with ceremonies, cocktails, and crowds. As a bit of background, South Farm includes a "pretty" garden (well-trimmed beds overflowing with a rainbow of flowers with a water lily-covered pond and romantic gazebo thrown in), vegetable farm, and animals (pigs, fowl, pygmy goats). There is also a commercial kitchen, guest rooms, reception hall, etc.

- Birds that are typically called "peacocks" are actually peafowl. The males - with the photogenic fan of feathers - are peacocks, while the females are peahens. When I first heard this, I thought my informant was lying and called his bluff. Oops. Incidentally, they make the most annoying squeals and seem to be scared of thunder.

- When vegetables are well cared for, they can become massive beasts. I think in all my experience, I considered it a good thing if the plant stayed alive for a season. Here, plants have to be dug up for growing too much.

- Tomatoes: To enhance the productivity of tomato plants, there are several tricks that concentrate the plant's resources on the fruit. As the plant grows, the "shoots" should be removed since these will not develop flowers. As I was informed today, these are branches formed at the "elbows" of the plant. Going up the main stalk, there should be only single branches diverging from the stem. If there are multiple branches diverging from the same point, then the ones in the middle should be removed. When the plant matures, the bottommost leaves can be removed every few weeks or so. These are shaded by the upper leaves and will not get sufficient sunlight to be effective sources of photosynthetic energy. The undersides of these leaves also give a good indication of the types of bug inhabiting the plant. Each of our tomato plants is grown vertically along a cord, which is similar to using a wooden support. The main stem is twisted about the rope quite tightly to support the plant.

- Harvesting potatoes is like looking for lost treasure. After ripping out the plant, the soil is dug up and turned over with potatoes occasionally surfacing. This becomes exceedingly difficult for purple potatoes, which look nearly identical to clumps of mud and mud-covered stones.

- Pigs chew with their mouths open. While grunting. So much cuter than humans who behave likewise.

- Compost: Ours is a mixture of ash, sawdust, manure, and compost waste (dead plants). Any plant that might contain fertile seeds should be burnt instead of composted directly so the seeds don't sprout.

The winds, the sea, and the moving tides are what they are. If there is wonder and beauty and majesty in them, science will discover these qualities. If they are not there, science cannot create them. - Rachel Carson

Plant notes

Don't be alarmed - this is not a blog.

This summer, I am trading safety specs for big ol' wellies and my precious laser for a watering hose and wheelbarrow. The view is better than any office window and my colleagues are mostly covered in feathers. I am looking forward to the next five weeks and all of the hands-on vegetable gardening expertise I will gain. These posts are merely a way to record all the tips and secrets that I learn from talented English farmers. I don't expect anyone else to find them particularly fascinating, but I am sharing them just in case they may be of some use to another aspiring gardener.

I apologise in advance for making anyone jealous. I will inevitably be pointing out the refreshing smell just after a rainstorm, the amusing grunting of hungry piglets, the absurd strutting of a chicken on the lam, the deliciously pure air, the perpetual red carpet of rose petals leading up to my door......

And in closing, a few words about nature by those more eloquent than I:

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. - E.B. White