Newbies on the Farm: a Bug, a Truck and a Cow!

Let's start with the “bad bug” news. The prolonged heat wave we experienced last week may have extended the harvest of dry-farmed tomatoes, green beans and peppers for a few more weeks but on the flipside it also attracted a new exotic heat loving insect pest, a stink bug called Bagrada.

With a preferential and voracious appetite for plants belonging to the mustard family it has recently arrived in the Central Coast. Warm, dry weather provides the perfect conditions for it to quickly multiply and spread.

We first spotted them on a broccoli plant in the Discovery Program garden. Without natural enemies and no effective organic control methods yet identified, we are facing a challenging situation.

On a more positive note, last week we welcomed the arrival of Bella, our first Milking Cow. Bella is owned by a group of members, and lives in the pastures together with our ponies.

My wife Constance is right when she questions my sanity of adding another project to an already filled-out life. I always dreamt of having a milking cow, and now that I have reached middle age I don't believe in driving a sports car, so why not let unfulfilled dreams come true.

Talking of dreams – here is another that came true last week. The farm at long last has its own refrigerated delivery truck.

This truck, a 2015 Mitsubishi, is brand new. It gives us better gas mileage, has no harmful emissions, and replaces our older trucks.

The new truck's refrigerator unit can be run separately, allowing the shares to be stored in it overnight so there is more room in our cooler and the delivery team can get on the road earlier.